Omara Portuondo begins this album away from Cuba, saluting a genuine crooner avant la lettre, the Frenchman Henri Salvador, with “Yo vi”. Swami Jr’s subtle string arrangements bestow this delicate version with a metaphorical hint of what the singer has witnessed over the years, as indeed the title points out, and of the declaration stating that this album forms merely another rung in the ladder of her career. “O qué será” is clearly a song Omara has long wished to record. For this song the Cuban singer has joined forces with another genuine Brazilian music maestro, Chico Buarque, for a version that conveys an interplay between the languages of both singers, and indeed of all the musical traditions of everyone contributing.For this album Omara also resurrects a song she recorded in 1974: “Vuela pena” by Amaury Pérez. As heart-warming as it was when she performed it for the first time, the lyrics seem to take on a new form here: now it’s time to dispel the pain of passing time and the loss of certain dear friends along the way, like Ibrahim Ferrer. “Cuento para un niño”, by Rojas Torrente, which is strategically placed at the midway point on the album, is unquestionably one of its climaxes. After a career spanning so many years, Omara is still moved by a story so close to her heart that she is unable to hold back the tears for some final verses in an emotion that is calm, though implied throughout the tune.
The title track from the album, “Gracias”, which was composed especially with Omara in mind, begins with a clear taste of Brazil, one of the Cuban singer’s favourite music styles and a manifest influence in Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler’s productions. Omara is an admirer of the singer-songwriter’s work and has long wanted to sing one of his tunes. Omara’s ability to transform an apparent farewell message into a call of hope re- emerges in “Lo que me queda por vivir”. However, despite the song’s title – the life I have left – one only needs to listen to the first line of the song: “the life I have left will be spent smiling”, to realise that there is no place for sadness in this tune.
Indeed, the album kicked off with a French feel of chansonnier, and for the ending the album goes in search of a part of the Caribbean island’s musical roots. “Drume negrita” takes a salute to African music in the company of the Cameroonian Richard Bona, whose vocal skills and virtuoso talent once again demonstrate on this album that good music knows no limit in terms of ages, but rather is marked by shared sensitivities.
“When you go to see Livingston Taylor perform on stage, he transforms love, joy and spirituality into something so tangible, that you can carry it home with you when the concert is over.”
The people who heard Steve Lacy’s final solo performance in 2003 at the “Unerhört” Festival in Zurich will not have forgotten the experience. This rollercoaster of emotions. It didn’t just go under the skin; it went straight to the heart. It was so moving to see and hear the love, serenity, trust and sense of adventure that the totally weak Lacy displayed for his music. This is what was so wonderful and magic about that grey, cold November afternoon: we all witnessed what it is like when a master of improvisation gets carried away by the power of music. He became one with the music, drawn to it like a magnet. How beautiful: sadness found joy. Coldness found warmth.
Michael Jaeger keeps looking in the quartet KEROUAC with the pianist Vincent Membrez, the bassist Luca Sisera and the drummer Norbert Pfammatter since 2005 persistently and with more and more success for the labile balance between selffulfillment and control. Between freedom and structure. Between individualism and the collective. Today KEROUAC is on such an advanced level of the collective consciousness, that the four can launch each other almost telepathically into creative spaces. More than that: the collective understanding generates such a pull that even the guests Greg Osby and Philipp Schaufelberger are integrated almost on the spot, almost as if they were members of the band for years.
“A blues hero goes country....the country of the seventies, before the homogenization of the Garth ages, the sound owes as much to Lynyrd Skynyrd as to Merle, Hank, and Waylon.”
Marco Detto was born in Milan in 1962. At first he studied cello, then he totally devoted himself, as a self taught musician, to the study of the pianoforte. He began his professional career in 1982, collaborating as a sideman in many different jazz bands. In 1987 he "gives birth" to his own first jazz group, carrying his name, favouring the trio, and he performs in many jazz clubs, In 1992 he recorded his first work of standard songs“Falling in jazz with love” , with Marco Ricci and Giorgio Di Tullio and with this ensemble the same year he recorded an original piece of work “I sogni di Dick”. In 1994 Marco Detto begins to collaborate with Palle Danielsson and Peter Erskine, with whom he recorded the “La Danza dei ricordi”. In 1998 with Marco Ricci and Stefano Bagnoli, he recorded “Altrove”, a piece of work consisting mainly of very original compositions. In 1999 he recorded with the same group “In The Air”. In 2000 Marco Detto receives an invitation by Eddie Gomez in person to perform three concerts with his band featuring L.White and J.Steig, as a replacement for McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea at the IV . International Festival of classical and jazz music (IV. Festival internazionale di musica classica e jazz) on Elba island. From this very lucky meeting a new Cd took life in 2001 entitled “What a Wonderful World” which was recorded in New York with E.Gomez and L.White and presented in Italy through a concert tour. In 2003 he recorded the Cd “Django”, excellently reviewed by japanese jazz magazine Sunny Side, remained in their charts for 2 months on second position. In 2004 he recorded “Da Lontano” (Massimo Manzi drums, Marco Ricci bass). In 2005 the japanese label Sound Hills reprinted “ What a Wonderful World”. In 2006 he recorded BlueStones (Mauro Beggio drums, Stefano Profeta bass, Kyle Gregory trumpet, Antonello Monni tenor sax, Guido Bombardieri clarinet). "Lasciarsi andare” one song of this album, has won Honorable Mention in the Jazz category in the 2006 International Songwriting Competition (ISC). In 2006 he also published “ Ripples”, a piano solo album. He took part in many different radio broadcasts on Rai Radio Tre. He also took part in one theatrical project of a cultural association “NOEHMA Servi di Scena” directed by professor Teresa Pomodoro in the prisons of Opera and San Vittore, in theatre Strelher and at University La Statale of Milano. In parallel to such activities, that keep him busy as a leader, Marco Detto collaborates with historical guitarist Franco Cerri, with whome is recorded “Ieri e Oggi”, with singer Lorena Fontana, with whom he recorded “Guccini in jazz” and continues a collaboration with the saxophonist Antonello Monni, with whom he recorded “Friends”.
A Patch of Blue Sky, Kevin's newest CD is his first solo record since 2001's Millionaire. The album features 10 new songs, all written or co-written by Kevin. It is an ultimately hopeful journey from darkness to dawn.
Patchwork can refer to a collection of incongruous pieces, parts not necessarily united into a whole. But sometimes, in the hands of great craftsmen and women, those parts merge into a thing of beauty and warmth. Patchwork River weaves together the lyrical mastery of Robert Hunter and the songcraft of Grammy Award-winning artist Jim Lauderdale into something greater than the sum of its considerable parts.
Da Casa Bonsai Music un nome che forse dira' poco al pubblico italiano se non ci fossero dei ma.... Il primo ma è che la Bonsai Music è la stessa etichetta che produce Musica Nuda, ossia il duo Spinetti - Magoni.... Il secondo Ma è che Ferruccio Spinetti è presente in quasi tutti i pezzi del cd.... e il terzo ma, il piu' importante... come lo stesso titolo suggerisce è un cd Frizzante nel senso bello del termine. Come nel vino il fatto di essere frizzante consente anche ai palati meno preparati di poter gustare vini ben strutturati, anche in questo cd il ritmo, la bellissima voce e l'impianto del suono consento anche ai piu' neofiti di poter esplorare l'anima piu' jazz e blues dell'autore. Non lasciatevi dunque ingannare, siamo di fronte ad un cd che merita tutta la vostra attenzione. Parola di Moonlight.
The time has come for Thorbjorn Risager’s fifth CD. Ever since the debut, this great Danish vocalist and his equally outstanding band is delivering new albums with about a year’s interval, full of new compositions. How they find time for this – especially the composing – in spite of their intense touring, is a bit of a mystery. But life on the road is definitely a source of inspiration, which some of the songs, and even the cover photos, are reflecting – even though they don’t do so much of their travelling by train…
Magic Slim is the greatest living proponent of the intense, electrified, Mississippi-to-Chicago blues style that spawned much of the music played by modern blues artists and rockers. It’s no wonder that Magic Slim and the Teardrops, considered by many "the last real Chicago blues band," have become one of the busiest and best-loved blues bands around. As Blues Revue wrote, "Whoever the house band in blues heaven may be, even money says they’re wearing out Magic Slim albums trying to get that Teardrops sound down cold."
Billy Price was the featured vocalist with the Roy Buchanan band for many years, winning over audiences everywhere with his soul-drenched blues tenor. A studio album recently chronicled his encounter with Fred Chapellier, one of the top French guitarists today. Their music has now been captured live on this high-octane energy set. For the same price, you also get to see them in action on the free DVD!
Jobim, João Gilberto, Joyce – Brazil has given us so many brilliant composers, instrumentalists and vocalists. It is with great pride that Stunt Records releases this new recording by the revered Brazilian singer Joyce Moreno (previously known as Joyce), recorded in Rio last year with her own trio.
“The invitation to participate in this project came unexpectedly
After touring extensively for several years with the funk band Blast, Hanne Boel’s career took an explosive jump forward in 1988 with her first soul album. The first of the following fourteen solo releases was hugely successful, and she has topped the Scandinavian charts several times since. Shortly before, in 1987, Boel had a little jazz flirt on SHADOW OF LOVE, an album recorded with pianist Jørgen Emborg, bassist Mads Vinding and drummer Alex Riel. The record was released on a new label called Stunt Records and over the years, while no one was watching, slowly but surely it went gold. 23 years later, Boel and Stunt Records have re-established
Danish saxophonist Hans Ulrik worked for several years on the repertoire for his new Scandinavian quintet featuring Danish trumpeter Kasper Tranberg, Swedish bassist Anders Jormin, and the tw Norwegians guitarist Eivind Aarset and drummer Audun Kleive. When it comes to creative jazz and affiliated styles with a touch of Scandinavia, each of them have been important artists on their own for years. Now they are all together in a Scandinavian super‐group. Back in the old days, they would have been called all‐stars. All compositions are Hans Ulrik originals created especially with the group and each individual musician’s playing style in mind. This jazz music features extended melodic parts with that special Scandinavian flavor, free‐form passages, ragas and ballads. Ulrik draws his inspiration from many different sources: From Burt Bacharach to Carl Nielsen to John Coltrane. This music is free of restraining rules. Imagination is the only limit. Hans Ulrik is among Europe’s busiest and most prominent saxophonists, known for his Scandinavian tone, but also for his great diversity. He is a popular session musician – also in pop and rock – but more than anything else, he is a jazz musician with a long list of collaborators including Cæcilie Norby, Thomas Clausen, Lars Jansson, Gary Peacock, Niels Lan Doky, Marc Johnson, The Danish Radio Big Band and Elaine Elias. Ulrik has several recordings to his name featuring John Scofield, Steve Swallow, Jonas Johansen and Lars Danielsson. Ulrik is also a member of Marilyn Mazur’s Future Song. name as well with many of the foremost musicians of his generation. He has played with Mercer Ellington, Steve Swallow, Charlie Haden, John Tchicai, David Liebman, Ray Anderson, Marilyn Mazur, Chris Potter, Michael Blake, James Moody, Tim Berne, Django Bates and many others. Guitarist Eivind Aarset is an original artist from the creative and experimental Norwegian music scene. His recordings have created quite a stir, and reviews in the international jazz press have been overwhelming. His individualistic approach is hard to box in, and thus Aarset has found a central role in what may be called “NOW jazz”. Eivind Aarset is a regular member of trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær’s group and Marilyn Mazur’s Future Song as well as leading his own bands. He appears on more than 150 recordings with artists as diverse
With his new album To The One (Abstract Logix/Mediastarz), iconic guitarist and composer and 2010 Grammy Winner John McLaughlin looks backwards and forwards simultaneously. The six original songs are hauntingly evocative – with roiling rhythmic swells, modal expanses, and telepathic group interaction echoing the profound influence of John Cotrane’s 1965 spiritual jazz masterpiece A Love Supreme. Mostly written in July and August of 2009, the music composing To The One was set down in the studio in November and December, with very few overdubs, by McLaughlin’s current performing outfit, the Fourth Dimension: Gary Husband (keyboards, drums), Etienne M’Bappe (electric bass), and Mark Mondesir (drums). Compositional devices clearly inspired by Coltrane are fused with elements of McLaughlin’s own multi-faceted approach, all delivered with a group empathy and shared vision that harkens back to Coltrane’s fearless mid-‘60s quartet of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison. The effect of Jones’ kaleidoscopic approach to rhythm and drumming is especially felt, brilliantly recast and explored via McLaughlin’s gift for complex metrical structures.