Legendary singer Sarah Vaughan‘s image will grace postcards and envelopes in the form of a “Commemorative Forever Stamp” beginning March 29th, two days after what would have been her 92nd birthday. Thus, the U.S. Postal Service honors the famous singer with an unveiling ceremony at the Sarah Vaughan Concert Hall at Newark Symphony Hall in…
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…
Now that spring has finally arrived, at least on our calendars, live concert season picks up again as well with a lot of must-see acts coming to town (Berlin that is) this week. Not that there is nothing going on here during the winter, but it seems as if more and more people are willing…
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,…
Her godmother Dema Aikens entered young Ernestine in a talent contest at the age of 12 in Houston, Texas. And she won. Soon she started to play with Quincy Jones and Ray Charles before she was 18. She continued to work with Lionel Hampton, Gigi Gryce, and Johnny Otis. After her debut “It’s Time For…
We just wanted to take this opportunity and wish Quincy Jones the happiest of birthdays. The last time I saw him was during an APAP showcase in New York back in January where he presented a few of the acts of Quincy Jones Productions at Subrosa. Artists like Jacob Collier, Alfredo Rodriguez, or Justin Kauflin…
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…
At last month’s Berlin Film Festival, the new Don Cheadle movie “Miles Ahead” where he plays the legendary trumpeter and tells the story about a few days of his life in the early 80s with a lot of flashbacks, had its world premiere (see review on these pages by using the search function). As you…
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….