As part of a 2-month residency at the Blue Note, Chick Corea and Gary Burton opened last night’s set with a couple of tracks from their “Hot House” album which they recorded back in 2007. You could immediately feel from the start that both artists have been playing together for a long time (since 1971, said…
It was during Antonio Carlos Jobim‘s “Vivo Sonhando” where the full palette of Roz Corral‘s artistry came full circle: hers is a wonderfully vibrant and warm alto voice, her diction comes across as something pure and natural and her choice of repertoire is always a joy to experience. During her Sunday Brunch set at North…
Daryl Sherman had the crowd at Pangea in her hands during yesterday’s Jazz Brunch performance at this lovely East Village club. She interacted in her typically cheerful, satirical manners with her audience, which she charmingly called her boite. As usual, her repertoire consisted of standards and songs from the Great American songbook, but of the…
With his new album “I Thought About You”, released in September, Alexander Stewart from Manchester is now on a short tour through Germany. I know that comparisons with Michael Bublé are often made, but with Michael’s focus on more pop-oriented fare on his latest “Nobody But Me”, the swinging and crooning is now left to…
The Splitter Music Festival is a new festival in Berlin for contemporary orchestral music. I’ve seen the Splitter Orchester with George Lewis at last year’s Berlin Jazzfest and the group will present the release “Creative Construction Set” during the festival, which will run from November 24th to 27th. The opening concert at Berlin’s Wabe will…
What’s coming out of Detroit these days is certainly something to check out. It is surely worth digging deeper into the local scene which is about to step out globally with the release of this excellent new single by jazz singer Kathy Kosins and singer, producer, bassist, and composer Paul Randolph. From the golden Motown…
My first encounter with a Leon Russell song was on George Benson’s “Breezin’” LP. The 8-minute “This Masquerade” was, and still is, one of Benson’s most fulfilling and satisfying recordings. Chances are that you have more than one album in your record collection with a Leon Russell song on it, since he also wrote the…
We missed a lot of shows in Berlin this week fighting a cold. First, there was saxophonist Donny McCaslin whose latest album, “Beyond Now”, will be reviewed here as soon as possible. Michael Kiwanuka also presented his new album “Love + Hate” (how appropriate a title at this time) and Terrace Martin & The Polly…
They did it again. Another brilliant collection of modern soul meets house meets funk meets groove from Reel People Records. Gospel queen Kim Burrell opens this superb compilation with a housey track from her 2015 album “A Different Place” to be followed by one of my personal highlights of the set: “Something”, a relaxing, fantastically…
DePhazz are back with an album that features five different vocalists, with Pat Appleton, longtime lead singer for the group, contributing five pieces, the cool and relaxed opening track “Used” among them. Other vocalists on the album are Barbara Lahr (also a longtime contributor), Angel J., Jutta Glaser, and Cherry Sanders. Barbara’s distorted vocal on…