South London-born pianist, composer, and producer Ashley Henry is another great add to the current wave of British jazz artists which have spawned new interest in that particular scene over the last couple of years or so. His debut on Sony, “Beautiful Vinyl Hunter” (what a great title) offers a pretty diverse picture of his…
I have always wondered why there is such a big gap between the quality of music of so-called smooth jazz or contemporary jazz artists on record and on stage. Probably old-school, almost dead radio issues are the answer. But it’s still there: I have witnessed a lot of those artists in concert, usually pretty amazing…
“Are you ready or not, it’s only up the street, everybody’s dancin’, and everybody’s on the beat”. The famous and most popular song by The B.B.& Q. Band from their 1981 debut album, produced by Jacques Fred Petrus, still ranks high among my all-time favorite soul/funk tunes. And with “Time For Love” and “Starlette”, there…
The ever-reliable folks at Expansion Records have come up with another cool compilation, put together by DJ Tony Monson. Released between 1973 and 2019, the double-disc starts off with the 1980 disco funk of “Dance Freak” by Chain Reaction, an 11-piece band which never released a proper LP, but singles only. A lost groove indeed….
For the third edition of Jazz Across Borders (JAB), the president of the forum and festival, jazz musician Igor Butman has divided the event into five parts: the JAB conference which will include panels, workshops, discussions, and meetings with industry professionals. The JAB showcases will present Russian and foreign musicians and bands to promoters, labels,…
It is hard to believe that 20 years have gone by since the release of “Soul Organic”, the debut of London-based duo Hil St. Soul featuring singer Hilary Mwelwa (originally from Zambia) and producer, songwriter, and musician Victor Redwood-Sawyerr. The 20th anniversary edition of the album is now out on Dome Records, released in a…
Apologies from our end here for not posting regularly over the past few months. We’ve successfully ended our open-air concert season with a packed terrace witnessing the great singer Siri Svegler on September 15th, celebrating the release of her new album “Awake”. It was the sixth and final concert of the 2019 season and we…
Our first Fete de la Musique in Gina’s beer garden Alte Baumschule was a big success. We started out early afternoon with smooth grooves from singer Siri Svegler and guitarist Thomas Guitar Walter, then onward with singer Dana Shanti, duo gig from singer Maiko Andreo and Joel Holmes, solo performance by violinist and singer Roland…
So it’s been a while since my last post here, but I had to get started for the 2019 open air season at our cozy little beer garden in Berlin-Pankow. We opened the “Live On Terrace” season on Easter Sunday with a magnificent concert by the great Desney Bailey and her trio and last Sunday,…
Berlin’s new Jazz Festival, Berlin Jazz Experiment, has announced more acts yesterday. In addition to the already confirmed artists which have been announced in late January, the Festival will now also host Mokete Mokete, Y-Otis, Katharina Ernst, Glass Museum, Anna VR, Aron Ottignon + Special Guest “Cutie Pie”, Allysha Joy, Nardeydey, and the Etuk Ubong…