The long-awaited Blue Note debut by drummer, composer, vocalist, and producer Chris Dave sounds like a planetary invasion. In the liner notes, he thanks a bunch of people with the introductory line: “this mission from earth to the abyss wouldn’t be complete without giving appreciation”. And so, the album begins with a sort of Parliament/Funkadelic…
Three CDs, 35 tracks – the 2018 edition of the Luxury Soul compilation is among us and it is full of fantastic soul grooves again, like its predecessors reviewed here in 2017, 2016, and 2015. From the very cool cover version of Keni Burke’s classic “Risin’ To The Top” by Tristan featuring Heston right on…
My first encounter with the music of saxophonist and clarinetist John Surman was in 1985 when I bought his ECM LP “Withholding Pattern”. Its deep lyrical passages, very intense soprano and baritone sax and bass clarinet playing was extremely fascinating and fulfilling. Still is! John was mostly recording on his own at the time with…
We have published our reviews of the first Ethereal Magic compilation on November 16th, 2015 and of the second installment on December 2nd, 2016 and have eagerly awaited the third edition. Well, here it is. And it starts off with the most sensitive and the sexiest cut The Jones Girls ever recorded. “Children Of The…
Pianist Nils Frahm releases his seventh album “All Melody”, which he recorded (mainly) in a new studio that he built himself at the historic Funkhaus Berlin, developed in the 50s. He installed a mixing console and an organ at the venue’s Saal 3 and is currently performing there. His fourth and final show is going…
It’s the fifth release for Augusta, Georgia-born trombonist Michael Dease for the Posi-Tone label and as much as I like the current mash-up of all kinds of styles in Jazz, it is always good to hear the straight-up, traditional, swingin’ old school type, hand-crafted and honed over the years by this brilliant musician who started…
Camille Bertault comes flying in like a breath of fresh air. She doesn’t seem to want to sound like any other artist and clearly has her own sound. Plus, she sings in French. And she has put words to John Coltrane‘s “Giant Steps” – almost three years ago she came up with a video on…
The songs of Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim are the topic of singer Cheryl Bentyne‘s latest album. Almost 40 years with The Manhattan Transfer, she always found the time to release several solo albums in between touring and recording. You can find my review of her “Lost Love Songs” album on these pages. The disc features…
Almost. I almost overlooked part four of this incredible look into remix legend John Morales‘ work. Edition four again has previously unreleased remixes and a total of 40 tracks, spread over four CDs. It’s a trip down memory lane, especially for someone who grew up in the 80s and started to DJ later that decade….
He is one of the very few organists who doesn’t need to show off what he is able to accomplish with that monster instrument. I have listened to too many organ records in the past couple of years or so where the leader was simply playing too many notes and didn’t really care about the…