It was just last week at an industry convention BBQ when I was spinning a couple of tunes from the great Ramsey Lewis. Those two songs in question are timeless tracks from his productive 70s period: the Maurice White-produced “Sun Goddess” from the album of the same name (1974) and the equally legendary “Brazilica” from…
He worked with Donald Byrd and the Mel Lewis Orchestra and as an artist, was influenced by the great Gil Evans. The saxophonist and arranger was artistic director for Blue Note Records and has rearranged the music of Prince, Carole King, the Beatles, and others for a Jazz orchestra. I had the privilege and honor…
“Playing By Ear” is the name of Bruce Lundvall‘s biography which came out last year, written by Dan Ouellette. And that’s what Bruce did when he started a marketing job at Columbia Records back in 1960. He was later responsible for signing acts like Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, and Wynton Marsalis and in…
Gina took a couple of days off and visited her friend Baldur, an Irish Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier. She is now back in Berlin and ready for the next adventures. Coming up here on these pages: reviews of new records by Ben Williams, Julia Hülsmann, Celia Berk, Shelby Lynne, Victor Fields, Perry Beekman, Bugge Wesseltoft,…
This year’s ECHO Jazz Award celebration will be held in Hamburg on May 28th. The two hosts for the event will be Gregory Porter and Roger Cicero. And there will be a lot of live music on stage: Stacey Kent, Michael Wollny & Vincent Peirani, Gregory Porter, Branford Marsalis, Klaus Doldinger’s Passport, Nils Wülker and…
The album “Songs In The Key Of Life” shaped and formed my taste in music. The songs on the album were unlike anything I had heard before and ever since. It was on my wish list for Christmas 1980. I was fourteen years old. The album was already out for four years and it was…
The Enjoy Jazz Festival celebrates its 17th edition this year and is the most important in the metropolitan area of Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and Heidelberg. Just a couple of days ago, the first artists were announced for this year’s programme: among them are David Murray and Saul Williams, Snarky Puppy, Vincent Peirani & Émile Parisien, Nils…
It was the final night of this year’s highly entertaining XJAZZ Festival – the area in Friedrichshain was run over by people visiting the Village Market, a weekly streetfood festival catering to all kinds of foodies, food junkies, and everyone else in between. But on the night before, artistic director Sebastian Studnitzky played his latest…
One of the nice things about the XJAZZ Festival is the fact that almost all participating clubs are in walking distance to each other and that most of the shows actually start on time (is that really a German habit?). The cozy FluxBau with direct access to the Spree was hosting young singer, pianist, and…
Sun slowly setting, trains of the U1 subway constantly moving into the Kottbusser Tor station, cold beer flowing, and some warm electronic, housey Jazz tracks coming from the stage of Kreuzberg’s Monarch club early Thursday evening where Samuel Rouanet opened his 50-minute set together with Anthony Malka. XJAZZ 2015 has arrived. Sam’s latest project is…