It’s a drummer’s record. What Questlove, James Gadson and Chris Dave do with their instruments pushes the music on the long-awaited (14 years) album in all kinds of directions. Together with a sophisticated and cool drum programming, they create some amazingly funky, soulful, shuffling and jazzy tunes here. For me, the album starts to really…
She is not copying the great Miss Nancy Wilson nor does she want to follow in Wilson’s footsteps: for her fourth CD, singer Cynthia Felton, who is also the founder of the Ethnomusicology Library of American Heritage, pays tribute to one of the best storytellers in music her way. And trying to choose 11 songs…
And just when you thought that everyone has recorded a Xmas album by now, here come Earth, Wind & Fire with their “Holiday” CD which is a nod to their 70s heyday disco/soul sound. You can hear “Happy Feelin’s” again as “Happy Seasons”. One of their biggest hits, “September”, becomes “December”. Yes you might want…
The guys from Outta Sight Ltd. have come up with another great compilation of soul-inflected jazz tunes. The CD is called “On A Cool Day. The Soulful Side of Cool Jazz”. And although there has never been an accurate definition of Cool Jazz, it is widely known as coming onto the scene in post-Bebop 50s…
It has now become an annual tradition, and a nice and lovely one indeed, to check in at Kreuzberg’s Passionskirche shortly before Christmas when Nils Landgren and his friends take the stage to celebrate the season. Four Christmas albums have now been released, the latest came out this year and features exactly the same personnel…
Iiro Rantala, the brilliant pianist from Helsinki who is equally at home in Jazz, Classical, and Film score composing, brought his new project to Berlin’s A-Trane last night. His album “Anyone With A Heart”, released earlier this year on ACT, features the croatian cellist Asja Valcic and the polish violinist Adam Baldych. During his first…
Stephen Holden of the New York Times writes today in his review of the Wednesday evening show at Birdland: “Singing “The Face I Love,” “My Nightingale,” “Look Who’s Mine” and “If You Went Away,” Ms. Kent embodied the essence of saudade as persuasively as any of her Brazilian idols.” You can read more about Stacey’s…
Many things have been said about John Coltrane‘s “A Love Supreme”, the landmark album which has sold 500.000 copies and which consists of a four-piece suite. The spiritual, enlightening, meditative masterpiece was recorded on December 9th, 1964 and features McCoy Tyner on piano (who turns 76 today), Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on…
I think it is the perfect time now to think about June and July. That’s when one of the most popular Jazz festivals on the planet is taking place in Montreal. The Festival International De Jazz De Montreal runs from June 26th to July 5th. And the first artists have just been announced. Also, tickets…
I never quiet understood why Donald Byrd was criticized when he recorded his infamous albums in 1981 and 1982 which were produced by Isaac Hayes. Sell-out was the quote of the day and yet, his 1981 album “Love Byrd” for me belongs to my all-time favorite top ten albums. The album starts with an eight-minute…