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Jazz Articles about Ekep Nkwelle
Kenny Barron: Songbook
by Pierre Giroux
Kenny Barron's offering Songbook is a deeply personal milestone in the pianist's career. Long regarded as one of the most lyrical voices in modern jazz, Barron fulfills a long-held dream by revisiting thirteen of his original compositions, now reimagined with words by lyricist Janice Jarrett and performed by a talented cast of vocalists spanning different generations. Joined by his longtime trio with bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake, Barron creates an album that effortlessly blends instrumental mastery with vocal ...
Continue ReadingJoy Guidry: Amen
by Gareth Thompson
Along with the soprano saxophone, the bassoon in the right hands and mouths can invoke whatever spiritual visions one places faith in. Maybe it lies in the promise of divine warmth, conjured by Eastern or Indian reed instruments with similar qualities. As often noted, the word “oboe" sounds like something a bassoon might emit. With a softer tone than its imposing size suggests, the bassoon has also been lumped in with humorous clownish noises. Resembling a strange undersea plant, its ...
Continue ReadingAfro Blue: We Shall Overcome
by Jack Bowers
The vocal group Afro Blue was founded (in 2002) by its director, Connaitre Miller, Jazz Voice Coordinator at Howard University in Washington, DC. Miller's approach to vocal jazz is patterned after that of such celebrated groups as Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, the Manhattan Transfer and Take 6, a blueprint that has served Afro Blue well and led to numerous awards, locally and nationally, recognizing its excellence as a group and the primacy of its three previous recordings from 2013-15. We ...
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