She has worked with Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Donna Summer, P.Diddy, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Michael Jackson, Cher, and many others and released the album “Sunny One Day” in 2007. Now she comes up with “Life”, an album of standards old and new plus original compositions – just about the perfect repertoire for an admirable album. The…
What a relief. And a joy. Dee Bell starts off her new album “Lins, Lennox & Life” with the wonderful Ivan Lins composition “By Chance (Acaso)”, a hopeful, soothing tune which is perfectly sung by the unobtrusive and calming voice of the Indiana-born singer. She easily won me over by the way she phrases the…
It’s the time of year when the light changes. And the temperature. October is also Soul Togetherness month. This fine compilation series, put together by Richard Searling and Ralph Tee, is always a welcome light during the fall and winter months. I find myself regularly going back to the earlier releases and as far back…
Marvin Gaye – What’s Goin’ On The Temptations – Papa Was A Rolling Stone Marvin Gaye – Let’s Get It On Quincy Jones – Body Heat Herbie Hancock – Man-Child Bill Withers – Making Music Labelle – Chameleon The Whispers – Open Up Your Love Donald Byrd – Thank You…For F.U.M.L. Carrie Lucas – Street…
29-year old pianist Christian Sands was part of one of bassist Christian McBride‘s groups, has played on Gregory Porter’s Nat King Cole tribute album recently, and also has recorded a couple of EP albums for the Mack Avenue label, where his new CD has now been released. All of the nine tracks except one Beatles…
Canadian singer Holly Cole has always featured songs from the Great American Songbook in her repertoire, both in her charismatic live shows and on her albums. She has now come up with a collection of eleven songs which are mostly from that particular genre. I think these days that it’s immensely necessary to either come…
Musical director for Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” in the US, pianist and singer Jon Batiste plays an exclusive show tonight at Berlin’s Silent Green in Wedding. His debut album, the solo piece “Hollywood Africans” (or primarily a solo one), came out last month and it’s a celebration of the African-American heritage and culture with a…
Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Aline Frazao grew up in Luanda, Angola, and came to Portugal when she was 15. She soon started to write songs, endorsed both Fado and Bossa Nova and the music of Cape Verde. Her third album “Dentro Da Chuva” came out last month. The eleven very minimalistic tracks on offer are…
I still vividly remember those glorious crate digging days in record stores in Cologne, Dusseldorf, and Amsterdam. There was one store in Amsterdam in the late 80s which had almost every Polydor Records album of Roy Ayers as an import from the US and I also found an album on his own record label, Uno…
The first year for new artistic director Nadin Deventer shows a lot of new features for one of the oldest German jazz festivals. Day 1 (November 1st) will have 10 acts on five stages – all in the main building, the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. Highlighted as the “Haus Of Jazz”, the first day will…