Scope is a new festival presenting Finnish musicians in various, hip Berlin-Kreuzberg venues. The people responsible for the extremely successful XJazz Festival, now in its fourth year and scheduled for May 3-7, 2017, have chosen a lot of future and some established Finnish musicians to perform. Together with We Jazz Helsinki, an event first held…
The German label Pirouet Records will release two more albums before it will take a break after 13 years. Ralph Bürklin, the label founder and manager, said in a statement that the label started out by releasing great pianists and that he wants to wrap it up with a piano-led album, too. Frank Kimbrough‘s “Solstice”…
Here is a great reissue – an album recorded in 1979 by vibraphonist, pianist, and singer Ted Coleman. The whole sound here is a brilliant mix where Roy Ayers meets Lonnie Liston Smith. And there is a heavy dose of Cal Tjader, too, with a lot of Latin influences throughout. The opening cut “Can You Feel It”…
German singer Synje Norland writes and produces her own music, writes film scores, and directs her own videos. And now comes up with her new album “Who Says I Can’t?”, somehow describing her own situation since she is trying to do most of her artistic work on her own and doesn’t necessarily accepts any outside…
The Soul Togetherness crew has come up with the fourth Philadelphia sound collection and with 17 more cuts that were recorded outside of the famous Philadelphia International Records. The amount of obscure, rare, and hard-to-find cuts on this volume is astonishing. Even if you’ve been an avid collector for over 35 years, a lot of…
In its fourth year now, the JazzKorea Festival edition 2016 will bring four Korean jazz bands to Europe, with the opening concerts scheduled in Berlin on November, 17th. Asian Scholars is a young group of Korean musicians under the leadership of Yechan Kim who is using traditional, Korean instruments like the piri (woodwind) in his…
Here is an album that can only be enjoyed in its entirety – it is a suite-like set of tunes with lyrics and wordless vocals by singer Sabeth Pérez and also includes several little interludes to loosen it all up. Its atmospheric stance is what makes it a worthwhile listen. Saxophonist Marc Doffey and his…
Matthew Kaminski, Hammond organist from Atlanta, opens his new live set with a Brian Wilson tune: “Sail On Sailor” is a solid, soulful, blues-inflected showcase of his forceful and sometimes exuberant style and has an effective tenor sax solo by Will Scruggs, too. Lou Donaldson‘s “Hot Dog”, originally from Lou’s 1969 Blue Note LP of…
Just a few months after the release of their 17th album “In Search Of Better Days”, three albums by UK jazz/funk troupe Incognito have now been reissued with a few additional cuts: the 2002 album “Who Needs Love”, 2004’s “Adventures in Black Sunshine” and “Eleven” from 2005. And to hear those three albums again back…
French-born synth and keyboard ace Wally Badarou recorded with the group Level 42 between 1980 and 1994 and also graced albums by Gwen Guthrie, Grace Jones, Black Uhuru, Robert Palmer, Herbie Hancock, and many more. His most well-known solo recording, at least to these ears, is the 1983 instrumental “Chief Inspector” from his album “Echoes”….