This year’s EFG London Jazz Festival is my first. I always wanted to go since there is so much to be liked about this festival. First of all, obviously, the programming. This year is another one with an extremely diverse, versatile and eclectic array of artists too numerous to mention here. But what is also…
The sixth edition of this year’s Rockit Festival, located at Groningen’s SPOT, ended on Saturday night with a rousing, highly entertaining, and crazy set by MonoNeon. The bassist, whose real name is Dywane Thomas Jr. and who is known for his hilariously extravagant costumes, also released a pretty spacy Moog EP earlier this year called…
There are only a handful of pianists with such a virtuosic approach and diverse dynamics like Fred Hersch. Which he proved again last night at Spot in Groningen, the vibrant live venue in the heart of this equally bubbling city which doesn’t showcase its virtues on or above the surface, but rather more slightly under…
Robert Glasper‘s “In December” originally came out last year exclusively on Apple Music. It is one of the must-have Christmas albums, not only because of Robert’s excellent playing and production work, but also because of the very special vocalists he enlisted to guest on his holiday album. A mini-medley of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman”…
Here are two must-haves on the German ACT Music label: “Arcs & Rivers”, an album by Swedish award-winning pianist and composer Joel Lyssarides and Greek bouzouki player Georgios Prokopiou, based in Sweden, came out in late September. And today sees the release of the second duo album by Bill Laurance and Michael League. Both albums…
I’ve seen drummer/percussionist Abraham Rounds several times this year during Meshell Ndegeocello‘s residency at the North Sea Jazz Festival. He is not only a pretty energetic and emotional percussionist, but a great singer too. Which he proved on several occasions, like the night Meshell was celebrating the music of Gary Bartz and Eugene McDaniels. I…
Slowly but surely, Michael Mayo has built up his reputation as one of the most thrilling male voices around. I saw him back in 2022 at North Sea Jazz, then he could be heard on the brilliant Terri Lyne Carrington album “New Standards – Vol. 1” where he came up with a stunning version of…
We just want to let you know which album is currently in heavy rotation here in the Gina household: The Free Label, six multi-instrumentalists and vocalists from Toronto, will release their second album “Songs For Sienna” this Friday. It’s sort of a mixture between The Jack Moves and Mamas Gun, with a dose of Tom…
It’s his twenty-third album. The 81-year old Marcos Valle just completed another European tour. And he’s currently on tour in the US throughout mid October. He sounds as good as ever and his new album is once again produced by Daniel Maunick. It’s another impressive, stunning LP (yes it’s out on vinyl too), with a…
Brazilian singer, songwriter, guitarist, and arranger Joyce Moreno was in town yesterday. The legendary artist, whose first album “Joyce” from 1968 was recently re-released, and who is clearly one of the most important figures in the Bossa Nova, Samba, and MPB scenes of the last 50+ years, performed parts of her lengthy repertoire last night…