Jazz Articles

Douyé: Quatro Bossa Nova Deluxe

by Jim Worsley
February 11, 2019

Sultry songstress Douyé takes listeners by the hand and assuredly leads them through an enchanting and intoxicating stroll amidst the rich sounds of Brazil and the percussive shimmer of Africa. This sixteen-song effort is heartfelt and glides impeccably with a mood-enhancing glow. Throughout Quatro, Douye rides the crest of instrumental ripples that touch the shoreline with finesse and tenderness. A brilliant enclave of notable and accomplished jazz musicians adds their collective talents to an array of ensembles. Their buoyancy and ...

Douye': Daddy Said So

by Jim Worsley
March 2, 2018

Daddy Said So, and clearly father knows best. Raised with the epic jazz renderings of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne and Etta James, Douye' harkens back to a jazz era rich with elegance and timbre. Her silky and deliciously subdued voice pulsates through a set list of choice jazz standards. With quiet intensity Douye' whispers new life into every breath and nuance. Joined by a long and impressive list of jazz musicians, Daddy Said So is instrumentally dynamic as ...

Jacintha: Jacintha Goes to Hollywood

by Michael P. Gladstone
March 16, 2008

Singer Jacintha (Abisheganaden) was born in Singapore to Chinese/Sri Lankan parents in 1957. She eventually began recording, and established a reputation as both a singer and actor in Southeast Asia. Signing a contract with Groove Note Records in 1999, she became a more familiar musical name to North American listeners for the first time..

Jacintha Goes to Hollywood is an easy listening jazz vocal album with the studied influence of singers like Julie London and Astrud ...

Jacintha: Jacintha Goes to Hollywood

by Woodrow Wilkins
February 10, 2008

When seeking jazz, Malaysia isn't likely to be on many people's lists of possible sources. Yet that is where vocalist Jacintha hails from. Born Jacintha Abisheganaden in 1957, to a Chinese mother who sang and Sri Lankan father who played classical guitar, Jacintha got into music at an early age. Her experiences included periods with the Singapore Youth Choir as well as leading several solo albums. To date, she has recorded thirteen albums as a lead vocalist. Jacintha ...

Lauren White: At Last

by Michael P. Gladstone
January 2, 2008

Musical suspicions are immediately raised when jazz singer Lauren White is described as a cross between Linda Ronstadt and Norah Jones. White is a twenty year-old native of Grapevine, Texas; a child prodigy singer from age four. She did, indeed, study with the same vocal coach as Jones, but the latter has little of White's smoky and seductive vocal assets as a jazz chanteuse. White performs Roy Orbison's “Blue Bayou"—which was one of Ronstadt's biggest hits—on At Last, and even ...

Anthony Wilson: Power Of Nine

by Budd Kopman
January 15, 2007

Anthony Wilson, the son of Gerald Wilson--and Diana Krall's guitarist for quite a while--has been gradually making a name for himself with each of his releases, of which The Power Of Nine is the sixth. Increasing his forces to a nonet, Wilson has created an album of interesting arrangements and many beautiful sounds, blending the brass and reeds expertly. The beginning of the record sounds like standard fare, starting with a straightforward mid-tempo Duke Pearson tune, “Make ...

Anthony Wilson Nonet: Power Of Nine

by Alain Londes
November 10, 2006

Anthony Wilson's young talent has earned him opportunities to play with a number of other jazz artists within different configurations. The guitarist son of legendary composer/arranger/bandleader Gerald Wilson has already played with the likes of Bennie Wallace, Larry Goldings, Joe Henry, Harold Land, Chris Botti and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. He joined Diana Krall on her Grammy-winning Live In Paris (Verve Records, 2002), and they have remained friends since. Wilson has been a member of the Jazz Studies faculty at ...

Anthony Wilson Nonet: Power Of Nine

by Michael P. Gladstone
November 9, 2006

Anthony Wilson has been a vital member of singer Diana Krall's group over the past few years, but the guitarist has also been able to maintain his own identity as a bandleader and composer, recording five albums since 1997. These releases have met with very positive critical responses.

On his sixth and most ambitious work to date, Power Of Nine, the guitarist works with a nonet. Given the fact that he is the son of famed bandleader Gerald ...

Eden Atwood: Waves: The Bossa Nova Session

by Dave Nathan
September 8, 2002

Ever since the 1950's when Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, helped along by the seminal Stan Getz, Joao and Astrud Gilberto 1963 recording, Bossa Nova has been woven into the warp and woof of Latin Jazz. After making three albums with Concord Jazz, vocalist Eden Atwood has switched her allegiance to the Groove Note label and has chosen to make the Bossa Nova the rhythmic foundation for this initial outing. Not all of these tunes rely on Bossa Nova. There ...

Eden Atwood: Waves: The Bossa Nova Session

by Dan McClenaghan
September 7, 2002

Eden Atwood is a stylish young woman, an erstwhile model and television actress, a dark-haired, light-eyed beauty blessed with sultry good looks that are displayed in an array of professional model poses on the CD booklet; and if you're of a cynical frame of mind that old “style-over-substance" debate might come to mind when you pick up her new CD, Waves: The Bossa Novs Session" on Groove Note. Put the pictures down and listen, though, and substance wins out, big ...