Kashif, responsible for dozens of timeless soul songs of the 80s (Evelyn “Champagne” King, Melba Moore, Dionne Warwick, George Benson, Howard Johnson, Meli’sa Morgan, Whitney Houston) releases an expanded version of his “Who Loves You” CD which originally came out in 1998. The new disc comes with five bonus tracks, three of which had been…
Gina thinks that the posters for next year’s Berlinale are especially beautiful. And it promises to be another exciting affair, with “Hail, Caesar!”, the new Ethan and Joel Cohen movie opening the festival. It features a stellar cast, with Ralph Fiennes, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, and Scarlett Johannsen, among others. Jury president Meryl Streep won’t have an…
Are you listening to the same old Christmas songs again? Even though I have to admit that I return to the tried and tested Xmas records year after year (Herb Alpert, Bert Kaempfert, Erin Bode, Rosemary Clooney, June Christy, Peggy Lee, George Shearing, etc), it is always refreshing and highly appreciated to receive original songs which have…
Philadelphia-based singer M’Balia Singley opens her debut album “Halfway There” with a witty, at times sarcastic story about financial struggles, backed by the sometimes bluesy, sometimes free-flowing piano by producer Orrin Evans. You wouldn’t guess that the song turns out like this after hearing the opening, pretty free improvisational moments. M’Balia’s thick, strong voice with…
Even though she was clearly beyond her peak at nearly 57, when Peggy Lee recorded her album “Peggy” in 1977, there are some moments that were intensely accurate and convincing, as author James Gavin also states in his biography “Is That All There Is? The Strange Life Of Peggy Lee” when he says: “Lee sounded appropriately heavy…
She is an expert of brutally slowing down well-known songs and standards which can be a drag, but never in her case. Solveig Slettahjell‘s voice has simply too much to offer, like the sympathetic crack in her voice on “Borrowed Time”, the opening track of her new album “Trail Of Souls”, recorded with the trio…
One of my favorite singers is Carol Sloane. She recorded a Frank Sinatra tribute album in 1996 called “The Songs Sinatra Sang” and in the liner notes to the album, we learn that she was an avid radio listener while growing up in Providence, Rhode Island. “Every one of his albums was something to look…
One of the earliest, and certainly one of the best, festivals of the year is the Winter Jazzfest in New York. Manhattan’s Greenwich Village will once again be the heart and soul of live jazz on 12 different stages. I remember last year when I attended the festival that it was necessary to decide to either just…
Jean-Claude Thompson is one half of famed duo The Amalgamation Of Soundz and has now come up with a nine-track exotic jazz compilation which includes some obscure, yet pretty accessible stuff. Well, not in all cases. The album opens with the Jazz percussion ensemble M’Boom and a track from their 1984 LP “Collage”. M’Boom was…
Polish guitarist Maciek Pysz started to write the material for his sophomore album in Italy and imagined the music “more as a soundtrack for a journey…”. He teamed up with bandoneon player Daniele di Bonaventura and the mix of classical guitar and the bandoneon is indeed magical. As can be heard on the beautiful opening track…