After preparing for the re-opening of my outdoor business in late May, things have now started to settle in again so I’ll be able to focus more on Gina’s page here. Lots of interesting music has been released in the past six weeks and there will be reviews of new and reissued albums by The…
Legendary keyboardist and pianist and NEA Jazz Master Ramsey Lewis has just announced the second season of his online performance series called “Saturday Salon” on StageIt. The “Saturday Salon”, sponsored by Ariel Investments, will run on the last Saturday of each month and features a 60-minute performance at 1:00pm Central Time. A portion of the…
Another great re-issue from the guys at Mad About Records in Portugal. Singer Renata Lu remains a mystery to this day. She released three LPs in the 70s: her self-titled debut in 1971, now out on Mad About, “Sandália De Prata” in 1976, and “Tô Voltando” in 1979. Renata continued to sing backup vocals for…
Pascal Rioux a/k/a Charles Maurice did it again. Assembling incredibly hard-to-find soul gems from the glorious days of the past, 1977 to 1984. Running the fantastic Favorite Recordings out of Paris, this fifth volume in this wonderful series starts off with a track by the group Rhapsody, who released just one LP back in 1981,…
It is always interesting to know where and when a recording career actually started. Singer Roseanna Vitro‘s first album was recorded in 1982 and is now available on CD for the first time (but who listens to CDs anymore when vinyl is still available and striving?). Roseanna has recorded several artist-based albums over the years,…
What a nice surprise! Singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli has come up with solo takes on more than a dozen Pat Metheny compositions. As they both show deep respect for each other in a recent JazzTimes interview where John was asked to talk to Pat about his new “Road To The Sun” album, recorded by…
For this year’s Montreux Jazz Festival, the organisers came up with a competition for the design of the 55th edition. The project named “Restart” has drawn 1.935 artists from 54 countries and there are some pretty unique, quiet interesting and very imaginative designs among the winners. The ten best posters have been selected by a…
It got to the point in the 80s and 90s when a look at the credits list of each new LP was not only meant to check the musicians, producers, and arrangers, but also the name of the engineer. If it was Al Schmitt, it had to be good and there was no reason not…
Born out of the dire situation of not being able to perform or make music per se during last year’s lockdown, Swedish singer, songwriter, and pianist Ida Sand has come up with a stylish pop/soul album called “Do You Hear Me?”, to be released on the German ACT Music label this Friday. And on vinyl…
Every few years, there is a guitarist popping up which garners more attention than your regular player. Dan Wilson, who started out as a guest on organist Joey DeFancesco‘s group, later joined Christian McBride‘s trio and has now released his debut on Christian’s Brother Mister label, called “Vessels Of Wood And Earth”. The bass man…