What a blessing and a relaxation this album is. Trumpet meister Jeremy Pelt, one of the most prolific artists on his instrument, has come up with a collection of ballads that is food for the soul. The modern jazz and bop intonation on his almost dozen albums on the HighNote and Savant labels makes way…
Norwegian-Bazilian singer Charlotte Dos Santos is going to release her new 5-track EP “Harvest Time” on March 13th. After her 2017 album “Cleo”, Charlotte, who has attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music for a Performance and Arranging Major, sounds a lot more self-contained and unique on her new songs. She is currently touring with…
“Some cats swing and some cats groove” – those are the words by Marcellus “Bassman” Shepard on vibraphonist Warren Wolf‘s new album on Mack Avenue, “Reincarnation”. The wonderful warm Rhodes sounds of Brett Williams on the “Smooth Intro” and “Smooth Outro” pieces are honey for the soul. It’s pretty obvious that Warren and his cohorts…
Electronic ambient sounds were part of the influence of Portuguese pianist and composer Rodrigo Leão for his new album “O Método”, which was released late last month. As was the music of Nils Frahm whose work ethos and moods sometimes pop up here as well. But this is no copy, no cheap cover of anything,…
The Rhodes on Stevie Wonder’s “Superwoman” at the beginning of pianist/keyboardist Theo Hill‘s interpretation of the Wonder classic is worth the trip alone. He also makes use of the piano and some synth touches, echoing the original, somewhat mystical composition. “Reality Check” is the third release for Theo on the LA-based Posi-Tone label and features…
There is this special beauty, the Scandinavian mythic touch on “Kristallen”, the new duo disc by Swedish trombonist and singer Nils Landgren and pianist Jan Lundgren, also from Sweden. “It’s very much a matter of leaving notes out, of making space”, Nils told me recently during an interview at his label’s offices. ACT Music is…
Happy New Year from Gina and her crew. Gina has spent the holidays way out west in the middle of nowhere on the Dutch countryside with almost no silly, stupid fireworks. Just in time to cure the cold grey Berlin January, here comes the ninth edition of this epic Modern Soul meets Northern Soul series…
German singer Max Mutzke has come up with a pretty ambitious project: On his latest album “Colors”, he covers hip-hop tunes and turns them all into veritable soul stompers. And it works for most of the tracks. Take for example the Grandmaster Flash classic “White Lines (Don’t Do It)”, with its irresistible 60s soul approach…
Now that it’s getting colder, we often think about last summer which seemed to be endless with Gina being outside all day and living a happy dog’s life. One of the albums I completely overlooked during the busy summer months is the latest by singer Karrin Allyson, “Some Of That Sunshine”, with the title track…
She has worked with Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Donna Summer, P.Diddy, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Michael Jackson, Cher, and many others and released the album “Sunny One Day” in 2007. Now she comes up with “Life”, an album of standards old and new plus original compositions – just about the perfect repertoire for an admirable album. The…