There is a new Jazz Festival coming up next month in Tucson. Festival Director Yvonne Ervin said: “There will be a little bit of something for everyone and January in Tucson is the perfect time of year to enjoy and celebrate jazz music!” Why? Because the average daytime high temperature during that same time in…
…Gina. And congratulations to all the Grammy nominees: In the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Category: Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, Annie Lennox, Barry Manilow, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand. (To me, both the Bennett & Gaga and Lennox albums were a total disappointment, so my favorite is Barbra Streisand.) Best Contemporary Instrumental Album: Mindy Abair,…
Congratulations Cassandra Wilson on her 59th birthday. She is in the midst of her German tour playing Baden-Baden tomorrow, Munich on Saturday, St. Polten in Austria on Sunday and Frankfurt next Tuesday before winding it up in Bratislava on December 11th and Verona on the 13th. Cassandra is currently preparing the release of her next…
“I don’t listen to my music but I would put this on”, said a good-humored Joni Mitchell in an interview last week with talk show host Tavis Smiley. She was referring to her monumental 4-CD Box set “Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting To Be Danced”. It took her two years to…
For many years, Rodney Kendrick was the musical director and pianist for Abbey Lincoln. The 54 year old pianist and keyboarder wanted to express, as he states in the liner notes of his new trio album “The Colors Of Rhythm” (Impulse), “the sweet and the sour, the dark and the light, the bad and the…
At this year’s JazzConnect Conference in New York, I was asked to participate on a panel which was supposed to put a spotlight on Jazz in Germany. When the question came which artists I thought are the most important musicians deserving wider attention, my immediate response was Michael Wollny. The critics of the British Jazzwise…
The 71 year old released his first album back in 1964: “Samba Demais”. And it was as early as the mid 60s that he had his first hits like “Samba De Verao”, also known as “Summer Samba”. His international career in the ensuing decades incorporated Jazz, Pop, Electronic, Soul and Reggae and his songs were…
While Gina is watching over the turkey for our annual Thanksgiving dinner, we are listening to newly released Christmas records from Michael Feinstein, Anthony Hamilton, Maysa, Earth, Wind & Fire, a Mack Avenue compilation, Shakatak, Nils Landgren, and Dave Koz and also putting on our favorite holiday music. Happy Thanksgiving weekend!
This year, the number of releases of biographical or autobiographical books is pretty strong. I only want to focus on four of them which more or less came out in the last couple of months and which I’m planning to read during the winter season. “Is That All There Is? The Strange Life Of Peggy…
She just started her European tour which will also bring her to various German cities (see also my Events Calendar). Now, Legacy Recordings just announced that they’ve signed a new deal with Cassandra Wilson. “Coming Forthy By Day” is going to be a musical homage to Billie Holiday whose 100th birthday would be on April…