Singer Erin Bode first came to my attention through a couple of brilliant albums on the equally brilliant, now defunct, MaxJazz label: “Don’t Take Your Time” (2004) and “Over And Over” (2006). The former featured the hard-to-categorize jazz/pop/folk singer on more than a dozen tracks, ranging from fascinating originals (like the title track) to pieces…
One of the newer contemporary jazz festivals in Berlin in recent years is called Serious Series. Contemporary jazz as in modern, avantgarde, and experimental. This year’s line-up features musicians from Germany, the UK, Sweden, and Finland. The festival starts with a duo concert of two of Germany’s most promising, interesting, and imaginative performers: Christopher Dell on…
I remember a concert at Cologne’s Subway club back in 1990 with an elegantly dressed Bobby Hutcherson who seemed to echo his taste in clothes with what he was playing. Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to dwell in a lot more concerts by this master musician. I first came across his music on…
Little Jacob Collier spent a lot of time in the music room of his family’s home and after years of spending thousands of hours there and filling the room with an abundance of sounds, he has now ended up on Quincy Jones‘ label. I saw him back in January during the annual APAP convention and…
There is a very long string and backing vocal intro on “Cold Little Heart”, the opening track of Michael Kiwanuka‘s long-awaited second album, produced by Danger Mouse, Inflo, and Paul Butler. After the haunting overture, Michael’s signature warm voice cushions a midtempo soul groove which ends up in an ambitious 10-minute little hymn. Michael’s serious…
Gina and I have been listening to a lot of new and recent releases in the last couple of weeks so we wanted to give you a quick rundown on a few of those: Singer Kat Parra has come up with a collection of eleven songs showcasing everything Latin from mambo to bossa nova, from…
He should have gained much more attention, but for some reason, always stayed somewhat under the radar inspite of a recording career that spanned almost sixty years and a plethora of fantastic recordings. My favorite is his solo recording released for the Maybeck Recital Hall Series. The 1993 disc features Don Friedman on numerous standards and…
It is a collection of songs that popular Brazilian singer Marisa Monte has released under the title “Colecao”. Songs that were recorded between her 1989 debut (the phenomenal “MM”) and today, sometimes with added vocals, sometimes with a new mix, always with heart and soul. That’s the core element here: the heart and soul of…
Vibraphonist Warren Wolf opens his third album with “Soul Sister”, one of six original compositions that shows his versatility and progress in writing his own songs: the track oozes class, spirit and yes, soul and features some bright and brimming playing by John Scofield, who, together with Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Jeff “Tain” Watts,…
If there is any singer which is able to sing the Great American Songbook without any hint of boredom or nuisance, it is Jane Monheit. She sings the Ella Fitzgerald songbook on her new Songbook Sessions album (hopefully there are more to come in this series) and loosely collected songs Ella sang (and then didn’t…