Bailey's Bundles
November 2022: Novel Noël: A Jingle Jazz Celebration
by C. Michael Bailey
Lyn Stanley Novel Noël: A Jingle Jazz Celebration A. T. Music 2022 Vocalist Lyn Stanley ironically calls her ensemble the Big Band Jazz Maverick when it is she who is the maverick, the evidence being how seamlessly she expands the holiday canon on Novel Noël: A Jingle Jazz Celebration. Over the past decade, Stanley has done two significant things: one, she has methodically and with carefully considered concepts addressed in the Great American Songbook, ...
read moreOctober 2022: Smile
by C. Michael Bailey
Tawanda Smile Resonance Records 2022 Tawanda Suessbrich-Joaquim, known professionally as Tawanda, tied for first place in the 9th annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition held in June 2021. That is fresh talent. Tawanda won this award only a year after making her stage debut, a feat, surpassed only by the aptitude and maturity revealed on her debut recording, Smile. Tawanda seems to go from zero to belonging in the esteemed company of Veronica ...
read moreSeptember 2022: Jazz Child
by C. Michael Bailey
Sheila Jordan Live At Mezzrow's Cellar Music 2022 Nonagenarian Sheila Jordan is a jazz singer enjoying an incandescent twilight. In late 2021, Jordan appeared on Roseanna Vitro's Sing A Song of Bird (Skyline Records, 2021) singing a song contra-composed in her honor from Charlie Parker's “Cheryl," -"Sheila, Jazz Child." Jordan, along with drummer Roy Haynes, remains the last living connection to the famous alto saxophonist, who is generously represented on Jordan's Live at Mezzrow. ...
read moreAugust 2022: Higher Ground
by C. Michael Bailey
DO'A Higher Grounds Outside In Music 2022 Polymath composer, guitarist and pianist, DO'A, possesses an embarrassment of talent equal only to the smoky and concealed mystery surrounding her and her provocative moniker. Her voice is deeply alto: dusky, rich, and indulgent, like dark chocolate, full of crepuscular secrets and seductive charisma. Her musical vehicle is largely a Latin vibe with an elastic momentum defying any interfering inertia. Conceived and recorded remotely, Higher Grounds reflects ...
read moreJuly 2022: Love Of The Tiger
by C. Michael Bailey
Dida Pelled Love Of The Tiger Self Produced 2022 Jazz singing is seeing an uptick of artists stepping out of their “traditional" roles into dramatically different vocal genres altogether. Mainstream-to-progressive Kristina Koller, who debuted in 2017 with the youthful and forward-thinking Perception (Self Produced) followed that effort with the hard-left turn of Stronger (Self Produced, 2019), on which Koller seizes the feet of the musical arts, shaking the change from its pockets. Now, we ...
read moreJune 2022: Constellations
by C. Michael Bailey
ChimyTina Constellations La Reserve 2022 ChimyTina is a collision moniker for the duo of bassist Dan “Chimy" Chmeilinski and vocalist Martina DaSilva. They are part of a daring group of singers/bassists perfecting the most musically intimate of performance formats. With the bass as the “harmony" instrument supporting a vocalist, there is an added tension in performance brought on by the absence of chords, relying instead on single-note disposition. It takes an exceptional bassist ...
read moreMay 2022: Music In The Air
by C. Michael Bailey
Mark Christian MIller Music In The Air Sliding Jazz Door 2022 Southern California has an embarrassment of jazz vocal riches, of which Mark Christian Miller is a considerable part. A welcome fixture in the Los Angeles area, Miller has released two previous recordings in 2004's Dreamer With A Penney (Sliding Glass Door) and Crazy Moon (Sliding Glass Door, 2015). The singer returns with Music In The Air, a collection of love-inspired compositions shot through with ...
read moreApril 2022: Get Out Of Town
by C. Michael Bailey
Kristina Koller Get Out Of Town Self Produced 2022 Youthful, vibrant, and musically precocious, vocalist / composer Kristina Koller answers her two previous recordings: the gracefully insurgent Perception (Self Produced, 2018) and frankly anarchic Stronger (Self Produced, 2019) with the intensely focused Get Out Of Town, devoted to a dramatic reconsideration of the music of Cole Porter. Koller favors humid and moody arrangements that are the sonic equivalent of chiaroscuro in the visual arts. ...
read moreMarch 2022: Send For Me
by C. Michael Bailey
Catherine Russell Send For Me Dot Time Records 2021 Where can one separate nostalgia from performance practice? Vocalist Catherine Russell prefers to engage her art using older formats. On Send For Me, Russell infuses her performances with a certain New Orleans-cum-Chicago flavor, circa 1930. She does not do this as a gimmick, rather it is the style in which she best works. Of the material on Send For Me, Russell states that she, ..."loves romance ...
read moreFebruary 2022: While I'm Still Here
by C. Michael Bailey
Bob Levy While I'm Still Here SRM Records 2021 Bob Levy is the Lord Byron of songwriters: he has the ability to throw off verse and melodies at will. His contribution to the COVID pandemic is the aptly named, While I'm Still Here. Levy has a stable of talent singing his songs, including Nicolas King, Nicole Zuraitis, and Benny Benack III, as well as Jennifer Roberts, Marcus Simeone, and Dane Vannatter. His instrumental support ...
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