Pianist and keyboardist Kenny Cox founded the Strata label in Detroit in 1969. He also had a recording studio and adjacent concert gallery. Strata released several albums until it folded in 1975. Two years after Kenny, Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell created Strata-East in New York, which lasted longer and which happens to be in…
This came out already last September, but somehow got lost in the shuffle. But I always came back to Shedrick’s latest album because it has so many different aspects to offer. In the past, Shedrick has performed and recorded with Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Maxwell, Roberta Flack, Dianne Reeves, Christian McBride, Kenny Garrett,…
After two years of cancelling due to the Corona pandemic, the North Sea Jazz Festival announced its first batch of artists earlier today. We can’t wait to be back in Rotterdam after the great 2019 edition and here’s an overview of some of the confirmed artists for this year. There will be more names to…
The Berlin Jazz scene is constantly looking for new ways to get the music across and to spur interest in this expanding music niche that seems to be growing with each day. Here is a new festival with a pretty interesting theme: four musicians, which have chosen Berlin as their main driving force and which…
Jan Kincaid and Dawn Joseph met during their work with The Brand New Heavies. Jan, founder of TBNH, also their producer, singer, drummer, and songwriter, met Dawn when she started to work with the group in 2013. They both clicked from the start and wrote so many songs that they finally left the group and…
Gina regularly visits one of Berlin’s most prominent fish and seafood restaurants, Der Fischladen, in the centre of Prenzlauer Berg. She is usually greeted with a sprat or two and even has her own reservation tag. She was also recently pictured in an article about our open-air business in Pankow. Talk about a celebrity dog…
One of the hottest European labels, UK-based Edition Records, is starting a new video series. The label, which has brought us some brilliant vinyl in the last couple of years, from Kurt Elling to Nate Smith, from Gretchen Parlato to Sachal Vasandani, from Dave Holland to Mário Laginha, is introducing “The Vinyl Room”. Filmed at…
The Queen of Samba, one of the most important Brazilian singers, the voice of the millenium, and countless other superlatives described Elza Gomes da Conceição, or Elza Soares, who died yesterday in Rio de Janeiro at age 91. Ismael Corrêa, the producer of her second LP “A Bossa Negra”, released in 1962, wanted to tag…
Stacey’s new album finally arrived on vinyl after its initial release last fall. It’s an album which was recorded with pianist Art Hirahara and occasional flute by husband Jim Tomlinson, who also produced the album. Some of the songs have been released as singles since last summer and were recorded during lockdown. So it is…
One of the records that got lost in the pre-Xmas shuffle was this debut EP by 24-year old Chicago-based Silas Short. His brilliant lo-fi indie album “Drawing” came out on the equally fancy Stones Throw label (Kiefer, Peyton, John Carroll Kirby, etc) and features seven invigoratingly subdued, sometimes tender neo-soul pieces, all pretty unique and…