That the words and lyrics of legendary poet Gil Scott-Heron are still valid today, not only speak for his artistry as one of the most socially conscious commentator of his time, but also show us that unfortunately, much of what he was criticizing in the late 60s and 70s, is still true today. Mark Ruffin…
Trombonist Steve Davis dedicates his new album to the great hardbop trombone giant J.J. Johnson, who not only was a master on his instrument, but wrote a lot of timeless pieces as well. Steve plays with a band he’s been playing with over the years at Manhattan’s Smoke club and in the group One For…
Pianist, composer and producer David Benoit started his career as musical director for singer Lainie Kazan in 1976. Over the years, he has worked with a lot of vocalists, like Patti Austin, Kenny Loggins, Kenny Rankin, Brian McKnight, or Connie Stevens. So when the time came to make a new album, he suggested to do…
The Kansas City-born singer with the strong baritone voice and versatile scat singing style is performing in Munich this week. Kevin will perform tracks from his brand-new album “The Vienna Affair”, which includes eight songs written by himself and the Hoagy Carmichael/Ned Washington standard “The Nearness Of You” plus a Joe Williams-penned blues number based…
The grooving, much faster than usual version of “My Funny Valentine” very well describes singer Chris Bennett‘s artistry: she is not settling for the tried and tested American Songbook and change, like she said, is the only constant in life. After a pretty quick, Las Vegas-style “All Of You” as the opener to her first…
This year’s concert of the BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin focuses on George Gershwin. “Summertime – The Fadcinating George Gershwin” is the title of the programme for this upcoming Monday, June 22nd. Since nine years now, the musicians of Berlin’s Deutsche Oper have taken breaks from playing Verdi, Wagner, Mozart, or Puccini to dig…
In 1981, Leon Ware had of course already made a name for himself as one of Motown’s hit songwriters for Michael Jackson (“I Wanna Be Where You Are”), Marvin Gaye (“I Want You”), or post-Motown for Quincy Jones (“If I Ever Lose This Heaven”). He also collaborated with dozens of others and started his own…
I couldn’t wait to hear the wondrous tone of Joe Temperley on the baritone saxophone, that’s why I started to listen to this CD with the second track, “The Steadfast Titan”, on which Joe imbues his playing with a lot of dark colors and a beefy tone. It is a pure joy to listen to…
The third album by tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis explores the hip-hop period of the late 80s/early 90s when bands like A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, or Pete Rock & CL Smooth were big. What he tries here is to emulate the style and technique of the rappers of that time and translate it…
Ever since her Grammy-winning album “I Am Shelby Lynne” (1999), I’ve been following her career right on to her latest “I Can’t Imagine” which came out last month. “But Blue Is How I Paint Myself Today” she sings in the opening track “Paper Van Gogh” and even though most of her songs actually tend to…