The man who got me started into music turns 70 today. Happy birthday Stevie Wonder! Another essential artist for this writer is Roy Ayers. A new track has been found while digging through his older material for the re-release of the 2003 album “Virgin Ubiquity”, which featured unreleased material from his amazingly fruitful period 1976-1981…
We’ve already reported on the deaths of Manu Dibango, Sandy Anderson, and Wallace Roney, all due of complications from the corona virus. But the list goes on: Ellis Marsalis, Bucky Pizzarelli, Mike Longo, Vaughan Mason, Onaje Allan Gumbs, Hal Willner. May they all rest in peace. We have moved out to our garden house last…
Hello like beforeI’d never come hereIf I’d known that you were hereI must admit thoughThat’s it’s nice to see you, dearYou look like you’ve been doing well Hello like beforeI hope we’ve grown‘Cause we were only children thenFor laughs I guess we both can say‘I knew You when’But then again, that’s kiss and tell Hello…
Ever wondered at that miraculous bass on Odyssey’s “Inside Out” from 1982? Sandy Anderson, member of the New York based post disco group Unlimited Touch, succumbed to the Corona virus. Unlimited Touch, formed by Raymond Reid and William Anderson of Crown Heights Affair, recorded only two LPs: “Unlimited Touch” in 1980 and “Yes, We’re Ready”…
It has become both pretty popular and very needed: Live-streaming events of artists performing in their living rooms, in a studio or elsewhere so that people can still enjoy something like a mini-concert. “Live From Our Living Rooms” is an online music festival and fundraiser with all proceeds being provided for emergency relief to New…
Dire times indeed. Jazzahead in Bremen, due April 23rd to 26th, has been postponed to April 29th to May 2nd, 2021. The wonderful XJazz Festival in Berlin, May 6th to 10th, has been cancelled. The 21st Capetown International Jazz Festival, which was scheduled to run this upcoming weekend and usually draws over 40.000 attendees, will…
So many concerts, shows, and festivals have been cancelled or at least postponed these days (that’s why we’re currently not updating our events calendar), but nevertheless, the Detroit Jazz Festival has announced the line-up for the 41st edition. And yes, maybe the timing for the announcement does look strange (yesterday) in these troubled times, but…
Manu Dibango, saxophonist from Cameroon, best known for his 1972 worldwide hit “Soul Makossa”, has died from complications of Covid-19, aged 86. After forming his own band in Cameroon in 1963, he moved to Paris a couple of years later before he finally made his breakthrough. Manu released his first album “Saxy-Party” in 1969. Three…
In these uncertain times, it’s always a good thing to fall back on household names, to old habits, to vinyl, to Stephanie Mills who turns 63 today. Happy birthday! And I wanted to take this opportunity and remind you of another album in our new category of LPs you won’t find on Spotify. Stephanie recorded…
As nobody knows where exactly the current corona crisis will lead us and since official warnings change every day, I just wanted to copy the latest info from two of New York’s West Village clubs, the Blue Note and Le Poisson Rouge, about their precaution measures etc. I went to see Baby Rose in concert…