At yesterday’s press conference to Berlin’s next XJazz Festival in early May, artistic director Sebastian Studnitzky (pictured at right) introduced some of the bands and the clubs and this year’s focus country which happens to be Israel, partly because there seem to be so many musicians from Israel playing the Berlin clubs and off scene….
Vincent Peirani‘s new album “Living Being”, to be released this Friday, starts with a mystique accordion and Fender Rhodes motif segueing into the hymn-like “Suite En V” and featuring an intense soprano saxophone by new band member Emile Parisien. Five artists from different musical perspectives have found each other, or rather Vincent has found them,…
Singer, keyboardist, composer and producer Jarrod Lawson, who gave us the best soul album of 2014, adds three stops to his European tour schedule for April/May. Jarrod’s album is clearly the most soulful album of the past year with stunning vocals, a superb production, deep lyrics, and crisp background vocal arrangements. I first heard him…
I know he has been dissed and bashed over the years like almost no other musician but what is the real essence of saxophonist Kenny G‘s new album “Brazilian Nights” please? There are some enjoyable moments on his 1982 debut LP and the follow-up a year later when artists like Jeff Lorber or Kashif had…
“The Movie Album” was released last September and features the German Symphonic Orchestra and more backing the German trumpet maestro on more than a dozen movie theme classics and songs from movies. Supporting him on the record are vocalists Gregory Porter, Joy Denalane, and Lizzy Cuesta and other artists like fellow trumpet virtuoso Arturo Sandoval…
Premier bassist Marcus Miller is preparing the release of his next album “Afrodeezia” which should see the light of day in early March on Blue Note Records. Meanwhile, he is constantly on tour playing several Jazz cruises this month, the next and early March. In between, he will play several record release concerts in Japan…
It is very difficult to follow up an album that had 14 timeless tracks on it and which ranked among the best of the year. The songs of her 2012 album “Way Down Low”, her second one after the 2009 debut “Take To The Sky”, still haven’t lost momentum and so here comes album number…
Gina is currently losing her winter coat which is much earlier than usual so we are almost sure that winter is almost over. At least we hope so. Meanwhile, we are listening to a lot of new music and Gina is especially fond of the accordion played by Vincent Peirani (and me too). We also…
Happy Birthday José James! Returning from his indie-rock infused fifth album “While You Were Sleeping” to Jazz for his next Blue Note album, the singer with the sexy baritone pays tribute to the legendary Billie Holiday on his “Yesterday I Had The Blues” project coming out next month. In a trailer for the album, José…
“Imaginary Cities” is the first release of Chris Potter‘s Underground Orchestra, a new project taking his Undergound Quartet a step further. It starts with a haunting melody by violinists Mark Feldman and Joyce Hammann, viola player Lois Martin, and cellist David Eggar before the tenor saxophone of Potter comes in slowly and erupting in something…