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Becca Stevens, Elan Mehler: Pallet On Your Floor
by Angelo Leonardi
Tra le più sensibili e originali cantanti contemporanee, la trentacinquenne Becca Stevens sa esprimersi egregiamente in ogni contesto (come testimonia anche il recente Wonderbloom d'impronta synth-pop) ma quando affronta le ballad mette in luce le sue massime qualità espressive, risultando insuperabile. Non esiste vocalist della sua generazione capace di esprimersi con analoga purezza espressiva e intensa partecipazione nel classico songbook statunitense. L'intimo contesto strumentale (il pianista Elan Mehler è un raffinato partner di lunga data) esalta le ...
read moreBecca Stevens on releasing new music in a pandemic
by Leo Sidran
Singer and songwriter Becca Stevens has the ability to make you feel like you know her even when you only know her work. Here she talks about “dancing with the critical voice," looking for silver linings, “the whole money thing" and a newly born pack of baby ducks out her window. Plus she discusses her new record, Wonderbloom (which includes collaborations with Jacob Collier, Michael League, Jason Lindner, Cory Wong, Michael Mayo, Kaveh Rastegar, Alan Hampton, Larry Goldings, Michelle Willis, ...
read moreThana Alexa: ONA
by Doug Collette
A departure from Thana Alexa's first album Ode to Heroes (Harmonia Mundi/Jazz Village, 2015), ONA is also rooted in jazz, but it showcases Alexa's use of her voice as both a lyrical and experimental instrument. Commencing immediately on the title tune, this mostly original material features arrangements in various combinations of atmospheric, electronic soundscapes and exotic instrumental textures, complementing a voice which enchants as often through its feather-light air as its full-throated tones. Co-produced with master drummer Antonio Sanchez--with whom ...
read moreThana Alexa: ONA
by Geno Thackara
Thana Alexa's voice contains a world of sound, and that is without even mentioning the globe-spanning musical trappings which surround it. Hearing her is like watching a thunderstorm or maybe a wild hawk in flight. She doesn't just sing but uses her voice as an expressive precision instrument, in much the same way all the tones and electronics here are sculpted into an unclassifiably genre-defying whole. Her rich contralto can also be honey-smooth and soothing in the (relatively) rare calm ...
read moreJD Walter: Dressed in a Song
by Victor L. Schermer
JD Walter is a consummate vocalist who has devoted himself over many years to evolving a unique style that is nevertheless ensconced in the jazz tradition. The public relations sheet for this new CD states that “this is his first release since recovering from a life-threatening heart condition and surgeries on his heart and vocal cords." It states that this is a “comeback" record. That is a misnomer. In this recording, he takes the music to new levels of structure, ...
read moreBecca Stevens Band: Weightless
by C. Michael Bailey
There is an artistic point where Jacqui Sutton (Billie & Dolly (Toy Blue Typewriter Productions, 2010)), Gretchen Parlato (The Lost and Found (ObliqSound, 2011)) and Norah Jones (Feels Like Home (Blue Note Records, 2004)) intersect, giving rise to Becca Stevens, whose creative arc gains traction in a direction different from, but informed by, those singers. By combining Parlato's coquettish, diaphanous singing style, Sutton's rootsy, organic acoustic approach and Jones' tuneful composing, Stevens charts a course all her own in a ...
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