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Etienne Charles: Creole Orchestra Featuring René Marie
by Angelo Leonardi
A 18 anni di distanza dal debutto discografico in Culture Shock il trombettista originario di Trinidad & Tobago, si cimenta come bandleader di un ampio organico, in una lussureggiante sintesi di ritmi caraibici e orchestrazioni che vanno dalla tradizione Swing all'hip hop. L'orchestra è un ampliamento della sua storica Creole Soul Band e ospita la cantante René Marie in quattro brani. Etienne ha iniziato a scrivere per ampi organici a partire dalla collaborazione con la stessa cantante ...
Continue ReadingEtienne Charles: Creole Orchestra Featuring René Marie
by Chris May
Trinidad-born Etienne Charles has been fortunate in his associates during his development as a jazz musician. One of the first friends he made on arrival in the U.S.A. in the early 2000s to study at Florida State University was faculty member Marcus Roberts. Among much else, the pianist taught Charles the importance of keeping in touch with his roots. “He always said make sure you put where you're from in your music," says Charles in the press materials accompanying his ...
Continue ReadingOleg Kireyev and Keith Javors: The Meeting
by Howard Mandel
How far must a reeds virtuoso from Bashkiria--a town in the Ural Mountains, southeast of Moscow towards Mongolia--and a pianist-composer-educator from southern Illinois, now living in Philadelphia, have to go to get together? Not very, based on the music Oleg Kireyev and Keith Javors arrive at on The Meeting. Simply to a shared sense of joy in swinging rhythms, warm, rich harmonies and singable songs. In their second co-led album Kireyev and Javors offer more delightful proof that ...
Continue ReadingBouvier: Blachant
by Angelo Leonardi
Dai consigli d'amministrazione alla sala d'incisione. L'antropologa e urban designer Jackie “Bouvier" Copeland è stata riconosciuta di recente tra i massimi leader filantropici del mondo ed è impegnata in varie iniziative internazionali di sostegno umanitario. Ha fondato il programma “Black Philanthropy Month," la rete di filantropia femminile “Reunity" ed è dirigente di “The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund." Questo debutto discografico, prodotto dal bassista Ben Williams, s'inscrive in quest'attività, presentandosi come una profonda riflessione (anche spirituale) sui ...
Continue ReadingDewa Budjana: Naurora
by Dan McClenaghan
Balinese guitarist Dewa Budjana's seventh album on Moonjune Records, Naurora, reveals--for those who have not heard him--a musician of seemingly unlimited talent and an artist in possession of an expansive vision. He has been called a “progressive fusion maestro" and, if he has to be labeled, that description feels right. Leading off with this disc's eleven-minute title tune, Budjana--who composed, arranged and produced the music here--lays down huge, rich soundscapes in the company of a bunch of forward-looking allstars, including ...
Continue ReadingAlicia Olatuja: Intuition: Songs From The Minds Of Women
by Angelo Leonardi
È un tributo alla creatività delle donne in generale e delle cantautrici in particolare, questo di Alicia Olatuja, che interpreta composizioni di Tracy Chapman, Joni Mitchell, Violeta Parra, Sade Adu, Kate Bush e altre. Alicia ne aggiunge di proprie e partecipa come arrangiatrice in un progetto fortemente sentito e condiviso col produttore Kamau Kenyatta, noto per il suo ruolo nel successo di Gregory Porter, e con Ulysses Owens Jr. Alicia Olatuja è una versatile mezzosoprano, maturata ...
Continue ReadingJazzmeia Horn: Love & Liberation
by Ian Patterson
It's a big step for any singer, the move from interpreter of jazz standards to songwriter. And when you've been Grammy-nominated for a debut album of covers, as Jazzmeia Horn was with A Social Call (Prestige, 2017), the temptation must be to carry on in the same vein. Horn, however, clearly has greater ambition, as the eight originals on her follow-up attest. Not that she's thrown the baby out with the bathwater, for swing, blues, bebop, gospel and thrilling vocal ...
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