Cheryl Bentyne has recorded a lot of solo albums over the years, in addition to her work with the Manhattan Transfer. Most notably among those, a superb duo recording with the equally impressive Mark Winkler (“West Coast Cool”, 2013). This new compilation with hand-picked songs include tracks that have only been released in Japan. It…
The Spinners were an R&B vocal group from the Detroit area and were first known as the Domingoes. Discovered by producer and singer Harvey Fuqua, they started to record and perform as the Spinners (later they called themselves simply Spinners) in 1961 with their first charted single being “That’s What Girls Are Made For” which reached Number 27…
Tenor saxophonist, composer, and educator Tom Tallitsch who has been around performing and recording for about 25 years now, puts a lot of personal grief and joy into his latest recording “Gratitude”. During the process of recording and writing this album, his father died from a brief illness and Tom himself became a father at…
One of my favorite pianists, Kenny Barron, now 72, has finally recorded his own trio with Kiyoshi Kitagawa, with whom he has worked for the past 20 years, and drummer Jonathan Blake, in his trio since about 10 years. And “Book Of Intuition” starts off with a piece from his ever-evolving list of original compositions,…
Two years after her beautiful Shirley Horn tribute album, singer/pianist/teacher Dena DeRose releases “United”, a 9-song selection that teams her up again with longtime partners Martin Wind on bass and Matt Wilson on drums plus a couple of special guests. One of those is trumpeter Ingrid Jensen who blossoms on the opening title track, a…
When singer, bassist and composer Esperanza Spalding brought her latest project to the stage last fall, I wrote about choreographed weirdness after seeing the Berlin concert (October 31st, UdK Hall). Esperanza has now followed her tour with the respective album, a 12-tracker just released on Concord Records. And it sounds like a Joni Mitchell record….
German saxophonist Peter Lehel has teamed up with Hungarian pianist Kálmán Oláh and bassist Mini Schulz for his “Lyrical Album”, a trio project where both Lehel and Oláh wrote and arranged all the pieces, from the chambermusic-like, almost 15 minutes long opening piece “Bartok Impressions” to the two-part “Hungarian Research” with its eerie, nocturnal sojourn….
Guitarist Ed Cherry, who played in Dizzy Gillespie‘s band for 15 years and also worked with Dakota Staton, Kenny Burrell, Roy Hargrove, Ruth Brown, and Steve Coleman, among many others, has released a funky and grooving new album called “Soul Tree” with Kyle Koehler on organ and Anwar Marshall on drums. Ed starts his 10-song collection with…
“When I listened to the finished master, I knew it had to do with the movement of birds, and with watching, listening, waiting”, says Israeli pianist Anat Fort about the title of her new album “Birdwatching”, which she recorded with her trio that is Gary Wang (bass) and Roland Schneider (drums). She also added Italian…
Alto saxophonist, composer, and producer Logan Richardson has just released his Blue Note debut album called “SHIFT”. Logan played on the Next Collective’s album “Cover Art” in 2013 and also played and recorded with numerous others, like Billy Hart, Jason Moran, Joe Chambers, and Nasheet Waits. Heavily featured on the album is guitarist Pat Metheny…