The 31st season of the 92Y Jazz in July Festival will run from July 21st to July 30th in the 92nd Street Y. The nonprofit cultural and community center on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan offers a wide range of cultural events the year round and has about 300.000 visitors each year. Artistic director, pianist Bill…
For almost two hours, the 65 year old Lionel Richie entertained the almost sold-out O2 World in Berlin last night with all of his hits. At one point, he divided the audience into three groups: those who have been with him since his days with The Commodores, those who came on board when he went…
Waiting for 45 minutes for the show to start at Berlins Columbiahalle is really nothing compared to the 14 years we all waited until his third album was released late last year. What D’Angelo came up with on stage was pretty impressive: a nine-piece band, among them Pino Palladino on bass, Kendra Foster on vocals…
Like Siggi Loch said in his opening remarks to the 8th Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic concert last night, the accordion was never really taken seriously until Astor Piazzolla came around in the early 70s. And he showed us in a two-hour show, how different and versatile this instrument can sound like in a jazz setting….
It is one of the better documentaries about a celebrated figure with a more than difficult life. Nina Simone, who started out wanting to be the first black female classical pianist to play at New York’s Carnegie Hall and who became one of the leading forces of the civil rights movement, is the topic of…
So Sam Smith is the big winner at this year’s Grammy Awards. Congratulations go out to all the winners, especially those who were not seen in the big telecast. I have collected the more important categories here. And didn’t Gloria Gaynor look amazing? The Jazz announcements were preceded by a top performance of Joe Lovano,…
The 65th Berlin Film Festival is in full gear and offers over 400 movies over a period of 11 days. One of the movies which runs in the Panorama documentary section, is a recapture of Nina Simone‘s life called “What Happened, Miss Simone?” The film, directed by Liz Garbus, will have its Berlin premiere tonight….
Stevie Wonder is a big fan of Tony’s. He especially likes his version of “Golden Lady”. No wonder that it was one of the real showstoppers last night during Tony’s two brilliant sets at Berlin’s A-Trane. He also squeezed in a little bit of “Isn’t She Lovely”. Tony Momrelle is the lead singer of British…
It’s Natalie Cole‘s birthday today. The nine-time Grammy Award winner was also nominated three times for her current CD, “Natalie Cole En Espanol”. Natalie has several performances coming up and she also has an exclusive gig in Germany in April which seems to be her only appearance in Europe so far this year. Natalie plays…
The incomparable Randy Crawford is back on the road for seven stops in Germany this spring. The singer was last heard and seen with the late great Joe Sample who died last year. She will have a new trio backing her for her shows which start on April 28th at the Jazzfest Gronau. Crawford, who…