It was just a matter of time before this was about to take shape: Stacey Kent recording with a full orchestra. The arrangements are by Tommy Laurence, the sessions took place in London up until May of this year and Jim Tomlinson produced the album which really suits her fine. There are a lot of…
I have good news from Detroit-based singer Kathy Kosins today. Her new album “Uncovered Soul”, a brilliant mixture of soul, jazz, and some hints at r&b, with a strong focus on actual songs, will finally be released on February 9th. Even though I have lived with the finished product for some time now, it still…
The 19th Cape Town International Jazz Festival, produced by espafrika, will be held on March 23rd and 24th in this beautiful capital of the Western Cape of South Africa. The International Convention Centre will once again be the host venue and now, the first artists for 2018 have been announced, with the second half to…
The beauty of this music is its sweet melancholy and gloomy atmosphere that is able to lure you deeper into the mix. Scottish pianist and producer Ricky Reid has assembled jazz and classical musicians in a remote place in the Scottish highlands and came up with this über-cinematic collection of songs. The vibrant drums on…
Singer Sheila Jordan posted a comment on Facebook after the death of the legendary Jon Hendricks, saying that “Jon was the first rapper on the scene.” And of course he was one of the very few who could set lyrics to difficult melodies (and it always matched) and he could perform them so gracefully and…
Those were his words describing his band and what was going on on stage. “insane, out there, weird, spacy”. Indeed, the opening number was an atmospheric track right out of space, with a heavy and thick keyboard curtain from his Korg Kronos. It was the first time that I saw the keyboard maestro with his…
It’s Thanksgiving week and we were supposed to be in New York right now. But Airberlin unfortunately had other plans. So we’re going to prepare a turkey ourselves here. And it is also the start of the holiday music season. This year again, a few interesting Christmas albums have been released. Smokey Robinson has come…
Run N’ Fly is a new music collective under the direction of guitarist Sandro Albert. Helping out with the lyrics is Brazilian artist Manu Lafer and for all those out there studying the liner notes and personnel on all of your records, the group consists of session musicians and singers who have appeared on thousands…
It was an interesting coincidence to open her act with “Got To Love”, a song about gentrification and about her old Brooklyn neighborhood being transformed over the years, in a new boutique hotel right in the middle of Kreuzberg’s Oranienstrasse (yes, the same street where we ended up partying all night long in the early…
I bought Will Downing‘s first LP in May, 1988. His version of “A Love Supreme” with Stanley Turrentine on sax still resonates. Other cuts like “In My Dreams” or the cover of the Deniece Williams classic “Free” have become soul standards. 20 albums and almost 30 years later, you really can call him a soul…