Making a stop at Amsterdam’s Paradiso on his European tour, José James more or less had a homerun here. His live album which he released last year, was recorded right here at this wonderful venue. The packed crowd cheered the band up, sang along, and simply just had a good time. With band members BIGYUKI…
For the final day of this year’s festival, I was in for a few surprises. After a beer with my friend and colleague Serge, I went to see South London based singer Odeal who was born in Germany and raised in Spain, the UK, and Nigeria. And this nomadic life probably has more than an…
One of the highlights of this year’s festival so far was the performance of South African pianist Nduduzu Makhathini and his trio who played at the Madeira hall on Saturday afternoon. Together with bassist Dalisu Ndlazi and Cuban drummer Lukmil Pérez Herrera, this 75-minute set was deeply spiritual, soulful, and full of sweet surprises. Mostly…
So here we are again at this monster festival. This is the 49th edition of North Sea Jazz, with more than 150 acts on 13 stages and around 70.000 annual visitors. I started out with Jamila Woods, a singer, songwriter and poet from Chicago whose album “Water Made Us” (2023) made some noise when it…
The Dutch jazz scene has always been a pretty vibrant one, as documented over the past decades at the North Sea Jazz Festival, which begins next week Friday. So it is only reasonable to also have a festival which exclusively dedicates its programme to jazz artists from the Netherlands. The Orange Jazz Days, staged at…
It’s been four long years since the release of “Private Space”, the brilliant, five-paw rated LP by Durand Jones & The Indications. Singer and drummer Aaron Frazer also released his second solo album during this period, the wonderful “Into The Blue”, in 2024. And so here are the “Flowers”, ten new tracks plus a short…
Concert and Festival season is in full swing. Here is an update of shows where you can say hello to the Gina crew. Check back later for additional dates. aron! – 6/23 @ Universal HQ, BerlinLedisi – 7/09 @ Gretchen, BerlinNorth Sea Jazz Festival – 7/11-13 @ Ahoy, RotterdamJosé James – 7/14 @ Paradiso, AmsterdamDana…
It’s been 35 years since “There’s Nothing Like This”, Omar’s groundbreaking debut which still keeps on spinning in our Barbalala playlist of alltime favorite tracks. And 8 years after “Love In Beats”, his last album for Freestyle Records, Omar returns with his first album for BBE, the double LP “Brighter The Days” with 16 new…
The iconic S.O.S. Band, one of the most important Soul, R&B, electro Funk band of the 80s, will come to Paradiso in Amsterdam on August 6th. I first heard them back in 1982 when their third LP “S.O.S. III” came out. It included two timeless masterpieces which I still spin up to this day: the…
Durand Jones & The Indications, who received a five-paw review from Gina back in 2021 for their still highly resonating album “Private Space” and who topped our list of best live shows for their brilliant stop at Berlin’s Hole44 in September, 2022, are back with a new album called “Flowers”, to be released on June…