What a relief. And a joy. Dee Bell starts off her new album “Lins, Lennox & Life” with the wonderful Ivan Lins composition “By Chance (Acaso)”, a hopeful, soothing tune which is perfectly sung by the unobtrusive and calming voice of the Indiana-born singer. She easily won me over by the way she phrases the…
It’s the time of year when the light changes. And the temperature. October is also Soul Togetherness month. This fine compilation series, put together by Richard Searling and Ralph Tee, is always a welcome light during the fall and winter months. I find myself regularly going back to the earlier releases and as far back…
29-year old pianist Christian Sands was part of one of bassist Christian McBride‘s groups, has played on Gregory Porter’s Nat King Cole tribute album recently, and also has recorded a couple of EP albums for the Mack Avenue label, where his new CD has now been released. All of the nine tracks except one Beatles…
Canadian singer Holly Cole has always featured songs from the Great American Songbook in her repertoire, both in her charismatic live shows and on her albums. She has now come up with a collection of eleven songs which are mostly from that particular genre. I think these days that it’s immensely necessary to either come…
Musical director for Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” in the US, pianist and singer Jon Batiste plays an exclusive show tonight at Berlin’s Silent Green in Wedding. His debut album, the solo piece “Hollywood Africans” (or primarily a solo one), came out last month and it’s a celebration of the African-American heritage and culture with a…
Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Aline Frazao grew up in Luanda, Angola, and came to Portugal when she was 15. She soon started to write songs, endorsed both Fado and Bossa Nova and the music of Cape Verde. Her third album “Dentro Da Chuva” came out last month. The eleven very minimalistic tracks on offer are…
I still vividly remember those glorious crate digging days in record stores in Cologne, Dusseldorf, and Amsterdam. There was one store in Amsterdam in the late 80s which had almost every Polydor Records album of Roy Ayers as an import from the US and I also found an album on his own record label, Uno…
The first Herbie Hancock LPs I got my hands on in the early 80s were “Secrets” (1976) and “Sunlight” (1978). I know, not your typical entry into the Herbie universe, but there you go. I just wanted to check out as many artists as possible who were playing on Stevie Wonder‘s “Songs In The Key…
Five years after “West Coast Cool”, singers Cheryl Bentyne and Mark Winkler released “Eastern Standard Time” earlier this summer. From the West Coast Cool songs of the 50s which were the emphasis of their earlier effort, they both now focus on the Eastern coast with tunes associated with Blossom Dearie, Bob Dorough, or Peggy Lee….
One of the reasons why I haven’t posted that much during the past months is the simple fact that this summer has been going incredibly well for my outdoor business, including my first terrace concert in late August. Starting in the next season, we are going to feature a live concert each month between April…