Jazz Articles about Edwin Livingston

About Edwin Livingston

Album Review

Robyn Spangler: Robyn Spangler

Read "Robyn Spangler" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 18, 2026

Award-winning vocal stylist, songwriter, and actress Robyn Spangler is a fourth-generation performer whose deep musical roots trace back to an Indiana childhood of circus musicians, military band players, and a mother who sang in big bands. After taking piano lessons from former Steve Miller Band keyboardist Jim Peterman and fronting professional cover bands at age 17, Spangler moved to Los Angeles to study theater and music. She quickly built a diverse bi-coastal career working both behind the scenes and in ...

Album Review

Dave Slonaker Big Band: Shifty Paradigms

Read "Shifty Paradigms" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 16, 2026

While Los Angeles-based composer and arranger Dave Slonaker's paradigms may be shifty, his all-star big band is about as forthright as one could wish. On Shifty Paradigms, his third recording fronting the band, Slonaker guides his peerless eighteen-member ensemble through its paces on a dynamic and always-swinging program that encompasses seven of his stellar original compositions and the venerable standard, “Bye Bye Blues." Slonaker's game plan is simple: give the band superior themes and charts on which to ...

Album Review

Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz: Lado B Brazilian Project 2

Read "Lado B Brazilian Project 2" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
August 26, 2025

Catina DeLuna and Otmaro Ruíz have once again teamed up to explore the rich tapestry of Brazilian music in Lado B Brazilian Project 2. As a follow-up to their earlier exploration of this repertoire, this album sees the duo delve even deeper into Brazil's lyrical and melodic treasures, producing results that are both innovative and rooted in tradition. They have assembled a stellar band to perform Ruíz's arrangements, including two carry-overs from their first edition: guitarist Larry Koonse and bassist ...

Album Review

Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz: Lado B Brazilian Project 2

Read "Lado B Brazilian Project 2" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright

by Katchie Cartwright
August 17, 2025

In a time of disembodied digital-only releases, luxuriously well-crafted albums like Catina DeLuna and Otmaro Ruiz's Lado B Brazilian Project 2, with physical disk, album notes, lyric translations and evocative graphics, can really be the balm. The project was born in 2015 with the release of Lado B Brazilian Project (Self Produced), which received a Grammy nomination in 2016. The idea was to interpret what we might call Great Brazilian Songbook--classics by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chico Buarque, Dorival ...

Album Review

Judy Whitmore: Let's Fall in Love

Read "Let's Fall in Love" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
July 6, 2025

Polymath Judy Whitmore has taken time away from her busy and productive career(s) to record her fifth album, Let's Fall in Love, and like the first four, it is a smooth and delightful tour of memorable themes from the Great American Songbook, sung with radiance and heart by one of the leading exponents of popular song on today's scene. Whitmore does not sing jazz (no scatting or improvising here); she leaves that in the capable hands of ...

Album Review

Liz Cole: I Want to Be Happy

Read "I Want to Be Happy" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
April 4, 2025

"Unfortunately, I became entangled in a variety of day jobs and set music on the backburner for a shameful number of years. Finally, I have realized that I don't want to work in an office." How often has some frustrated artist said just those words, or some variant? The music business is a tough one, and how many singers, pianists or other instrumentalist have harbored similar thoughts? Yes, everyone pays dues, but some pay more than others, and for a ...

Album Review

Bevan Manson featuring Tierney Sutton with The Hollywood Studio Orchestra: Talking to Trees

Read "Talking to Trees" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
October 4, 2024

Bevan Manson is an artist who has a creative duality. As a pianist, composer/arranger and educator, he's been successful in classical and jazz environments. With Talking to Trees, Manson provides an array of both originals and jazz standards, most with an arboreal tint, as the title indicates. The work is a validation that his pen, guiding the talents of vocalist Tierney Sutton and L.A.'s premium players, can make the familiar fascinating and the novel intriguing. Miles Davis' ...