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Jazz Articles about Melanie Charles
About Melanie Charles
Franklin Kiermyer: Scatter The Atoms That Remain
by Mike Jurkovic
Scatter The Atoms That Remain is a harrowing, yet affirming statement from drummer/composer Franklin Kiermyer. With a fine, fit, and hale conglomerate creating alongside him--drummer Ra Kalam Bob Moses, pianists Aaron Parks and Davis Whitfield, trumpeter Keyon Harrold, saxophonists Isaiah Collier and the ever-present Linda Sikhakhane, vocalists Jeff Bhasker, Jasbir Jassi, Melanie Charles and the Temitope Momorebe Gospel Singers, percussionist Carlos Niño, guitar synthesist Nate Mercereaux, and bassists Geraud Portal and Otto Gardner--Scatter The Atoms That Remain carries the free jazz ...
Continue Reading...Mark de Clive-Lowe, Melanie Charles, Shigeto: Hotel San Claudio
by Chris May
Lovers of Pharoah Sanders' fundamentally acoustic spiritual-jazz may experience something of a road-to-Damascus moment listening to Hotel San Claudio: the realisation that high-tech, digital-era excursions can, in the right hands, bring more than just novelty to the music. Almost half of Hotel San Claudio--a collaboration between keyboardist Mark de Clive-Lowe, vocalist and flautist Melanie Charles and drummer Shigeto--is an explicit tribute to Sanders, with two complementary but singular versions of his The Creator Has A Master Plan" ...
Continue Reading...Album Review
Melanie Charles: Y'all Don't (Really) Care About Black Women
by Angelo Leonardi
Questo primo album della cantante Melanie Charles per l'etichetta Verve apre alla cantante di Brooklyn un pubblico più ampio della nicchia dove ha operato finora: quell'universo dove s'incontrano nujazz, neosoul, spiritual jazz e sperimentazioni elettroniche con campionamenti e remixaggi. Attiva da un decennio in quest'area la Charles non è solo una splendida vocalist ma una talentuosa strumentista (flauto, tastiere), arrangiatrice e songwriter. Quest'album è un appassionante tributo alle donne afroamericane attraverso nuove interpretazioni di classici legati a ...
Continue Reading...Melanie Charles, Leo Sidran, Irène Schweizer, Ofentse Moses Sebula & Other New Releases
by Ludovico Granvassu
Leo Sidran and Kat Edmonson's latest single introduce the Art of Conversation in jazz. Irène Schweizer & Hamid Drake, and Javier Santiago & Melanie Charles continue it as a dialogue; Keith Brown and Garage a Trois as a trialougue; Dina Ramirez, Roberto Negro, Erik Fratzke as a quadralogue; Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Makram Aboul Hosn, Ofentse Moses Sebula and Little Rosies Kindergarten as a much larger exchange. But, in all cases, it's the result of deep listening and openness that gives rise ...
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