From the Corner to the Block (2007)
From its early muses in the house bands of James Brown and Stax Records, to its popular prophets in George Clinton and his progeny, funk has always been accepted as the musical drippings of many things. Rock, soul, blues, R&B, none have been sacrosanct, and all have contributed to the popularity of the funk. Now Galactic […]
Jazz Money$$ (2007)
HEAVy, out of Jamaica, Queens consists of vocalist Nicky Guiland and musician Casey Benjamin. As a unit, the two have been associated since their high school days in the 1990’s – both are alums of NYC’s prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Thomas Mannes/New School University. During their tutelage, Nicky […]
Transoceanic (2007)
Open Our Eyes was the last Earth, Wind & Fire album where the group made its jazz influences explicit. Up until then, Maurice White, who had played drums for Ramsey Lewis in the 1960s, ensured that EW&F albums drew from jazz, funk, rock and world music. Those early albums – especially Last Days and Time, […]
After Tonight (advance review) (2007)
For nearly two decades, Will Downing has had a unique relationship with his overwhelmingly female listeners. Even among the dozens of "lover men" singers who have created meaningful careers during that period, Downing has established and maintained a level of intimacy with fans that is unmatched. Luther Vandross was arguably the greatest pure singer of his […]
Tomi (2007)
Appearances can be deceiving. Tomi’s self-titled debut album, released independently on Rose Hip Records, is worthy of the critical acclaim it’s sure to garner. He’s originally from Bratislava, Slovakia (Central Europe) and currently resides in Chicago, IL. Tomi (pronounced "tow-me") is already being compared to blue-eyed R&B heavyweights Robin Thicke and Justin Timberlake. Undoubtedly though, […]
River: The Joni Letters (2007)
Joni Mitchell is no stranger to jazz. Nearly thirty years ago, she collaborated with Charles Mingus on Mingus (1979), illustrating her penchant for adding a poet and painter’s perspective to melodies created far outside the pop realm. Prior to that album, she’d enlisted jazz-outfitted groups like the L.A. Express and Weather Report to add more color […]
Bare (2007)
With titles like "Since You’ve Been Gone," and "How Deep is Your Love," one could be forgiven for thinking Alison Crockett’s latest CD Bare is a cover album. In reality, Crockett wrote 10 of the record’s 12 tunes, and neither of the two songs mentioned above are remakes. One of the remakes, however, illustrates Crockett’s […]
New Cool Collective Big Band LIVE (2007)
Back in the days of ’94 a group of musicians came across an empty club in Amsterdam and were given four weeks to fill it. Three weeks later the place was packed and the rest as they say is history. ‘Big Mondays’ as they became called are still in existence at Amsterdam’s now legendary Sugar Factory […]
Soul Togetherness 2007
Some years ago I approached Ralph Tee, the head honcho at Expansion Records with an idea for a compilation album based on my somewhat eclectic tastes in world soul or what I now prefer to call groove oriented music. The music was lined up but the project did not get off the ground due to the […]
Ultimate Earl Klugh (2007)
Anyone in contemporary jazz for the long haul will already be aware of the tremendous gift bestowed on the genre by legendary guitarist Earl Klugh. It was Klugh along with Bob James, Grover Washington JR and Dave Grusin who, in the mid seventies, began to shape the music into something more pop and urban influenced […]
