Gina and Gustel favorites Mamas Gun, the UK soul-pop band founded by Andy Platts in London in 2007, just released the second single off their next album, due April 10th on Légère Recordings. On “DIG!”, the title track from the new album, the group is joined by living legend Brian Jackson who contributes vocals, keys,…
German jazz pianist Julia Hülsmann just released her 10th album for the prestigious ECM label. Called “While I Was Away”, she more or less returns to earlier works on ACT Music where she recorded several albums with vocalists. On her most recent effort, there are three very distinct vocalists, each representing a certain mood and…
We’ve been following Jarrod Lawson and his incredible career ever since his very first album was declared our soul album of the year back in 2014. We covered his excellent shows in Paris and Berlin in 2015, his “Be The Change” album was our record of the year in 2020 and we last saw him…
On July 16th, 1976, the first North Sea Jazz Festival opened its doors at The Hague. It had six halls, 300 musicians, and an audience of about 9.000 visitors. Today, with the festival now based in Rotterdam, the 3-day event draws a crowd of about 90.000 visitors who can witness around 1.300 artists on 17…
Guitarist Julian Lage releases his fifth album for Blue Note Records, “Scenes From Above”, on January 23rd. After “Squint” (2021) with Jorge Roeder and Dave King, “Room With A View” (2022) with additional guitar from Bill Frisell, his solo album “The Layers” (2023), and “Speak To Me” (2024) with an extended band that featured Kris…
Flashback to 1982. When producers, writers, arrangers, and multi-instrumentalists Robson Jorge and Lincoln Olivetti started their solid partnership, writing songs for dozens of MPB artists during that era, they also received pretty critical reviews accusing them of turning the classic MPB sounds into lame and boring pop. Fast forward over 40 years, and all of…
Trumpeter Milena Casado, who released her debut album “Reflection Of Another Self” on Candid Records last May, is embarking on a tour through Europe this month. Milena, part of Terri Lyne Carrington’s group (Terri also produced her album), was playing her first headlining set a couple of years ago at the North Sea Jazz Festival,…
Two years after his acclaimed solo guitar album “Moondial”, Pat Metheny returns on February 27th with his new album “Side-Eye III+”, a new project with new, young band members Chris Fishman on keys and Joe Dyson on drums. At the same time, Pat also announces the launch of his new record label called Uniquity Music,…
We’ve always been a fan of British independent music label Far Out Recordings, set up in 1994 by Brazilian music enthusiast Joe Davis. The label specializes in quality Brazilian music and has released albums by Marcos Valle, Sabrina Malheiros, Bruno Berle, Joyce Moreno, Azymuth, Arthur Verocai, and so many more. In recent years, Far Out…
Happy new year everybody. We’re back after our holiday hiatus and just learned that several interesting projects are slated for release in the next few weeks. Blue Note recording artist, vibraphonist Joel Ross, returns on January 16th with “Gospel Music”, his fifth record for the label which also includes Josh Johnson on alto sax, Maria…