As a songwriter and producer, Leon Ware has worked with Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Marvin Gaye, Jeffrey Osborne, the Temptations, the Average White Band, Nancy Wilson, the Righteous Brothers, Stanley Turrentine, James Ingram, Ike and Tina Turner, the Miracles, Bobby Womack, and the list goes on. His schoolmates in Detroit were Aretha Franklin, Lamont Dozier…
José James has gone back to “contemporary R&B” on his new, appropriately titled album “Love In A Time Of Madness”. He says that “there’s a resurgence of something I haven’t seen since the ’90s or ’00s, when hip-hop, R&B, and pop were converging in really thrilling ways through folks like Tribe, Erykah Badu, or D’Angelo. There’s…
Guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel has recorded his new album “Caipi” in Berlin’s Heartcore Studios and has named his own, new label Heartcore Records. The first release on his new imprint is his own album where he not only plays acoustic and electric guitars, but electric bass, piano, drums, percussion, synth, and casio, and where he sings….
Never a vocalist to focus solely on the Great American Songbook, but rather focussing on what’s going on around us by writing her own lyrics, singer Carmen Lundy has come up with twelve new songs for her “Code Noir” album. Her plea to “wait awhile” until things will maybe get better on the mystical opening…
The start of a new year isn’t complete without the annual 3-CD box “Luxury Soul”, once again compiled by Ralph Tee and opening with a super-sexy, light house/soul club tune, “Don’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover” by SouLutions, produced by Steve Lee and Louise Mehan. A superb, ultra soulful opening cut. The 12 tracks from…
French pianist Baptiste Trotignon and Argentinian percussionist Minino Garay (who has lived in Paris for over two decades now) have come up with a lively and fresh take on songs by Leonard Bernstein, Paul McCartney, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker, among others. They both met for the firrst time in South America in 2011 and have…
Another sad reminder that everything can be over and gone any day now: the great Larry Coryell has passed – I just talked to him four weeks ago in Berlin at the office opening of ACT Music. We chatted about his new “Barefoot Man: Sanpaku” album. He was true Larry: making jokes, flirting with the…
The Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale goes to “On Body And Soul” by Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi. Finally, a winner movie that I’ve actually seen during the last 10 days and one which would have been lost in other editions of the festival. But does this really mean that the 67th Berlinale was weaker…
So far, there are three movies that to me were clearly far above average and worth to see several times: “Final Portrait” by Stanley Tucci, “The Party” by Sally Potter, and “God’s Own Country” by Francis Lee. In “Final Portrait”, Geoffrey Rush plays Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti who wants to portray American art writer James…
Strong documentaries have always been the forte at Berlinale’s Panorama section and Jochen Hick is back with a look on 40+ years of queer culture in what was formerly known as West Berlin (“My Wonderful West Berlin“). And it’s great to see so many of the legendary or nearly-legendary venues and clubs (I moved to…