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Various Artists: Backspin: A Six Degrees 10 Year Anniversary Project
by Chris M. Slawecki
Upon this year's tenth anniversary celebration of Six Degrees Records, label co-founder and president Bob Duskis explains, “We like poking holes in the notion of what 'world music' is, or is not. And to commemorate the anniversary, we wanted to do something surprising and different.
The label's tenth anniversary celebratory release, Backspin, presents Six Degrees artists performing their favored rock and pop songs. It does justice to the label's history and future by simultaneously looking backwards and ...
Continue ReadingGive the Singers Some!
by Chris M. Slawecki
God sent his Singers upon earth With songs of sadness and of mirth, That they might touch the hearts of men And bring them back to heaven again. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Singers
Ruth Naomi Floyd Root to the Fruit Contour 2006
Along with her sidework with instrumentalists Charles Fambrough, Uri Caine and other jazzmen of note, composer/vocalist Ruth Naomi Floyd gives ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: One More: The Summary: Music Of Thad Jones, Vol. 2
by Jim Santella
This 2005 all-star session features contemporaries of trumpeter/bandleader/composer Thad Jones (1923-86) in a program that includes many of his significant compositions. Music of Thad Jones, Vol. 2 honors his memory through straight-ahead interpretations that swing enthusiastically.
The Jones brothers--pianist Hank, trumpeter Thad and drummer Elvin--have all brought greatness to the jazz world through their hard work and natural affinity for quality. Through the years, Thad Jones served as a role model for many and co-led a vibrant big ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: One More: The Summary: Music Of Thad Jones, Vol. 2
by Michael P. Gladstone
How do you follow up One More: Music of Thad Jones, a well-received album from 2004? The obvious answer is to round up as many of the musicians as possible from that session for a sequel. The result is a most pleasant trip for fans of big band jazz, and afficionados of trumpeter/composer/arranger/bandleader Thad Jones.
The nine musicians who perform on this project are largely the same crew that provided us with the 2004 album. Happily, the replacements ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Jazz and Blues on Edison, Volume 1
by Robert R. Calder
In some part a sampling of 1920s American popular music--sublime, quaint, occasionally ridiculous, livelier than mass market roaring Twenties pastiches--this set of unissued recordings from a quality label abandoned seventy years back includes one big footnote to jazz scholarship. That footnote's not in the stock 1920 (Vincent) Lopez performance of ragtime with military band echoes, or Genevieve Jordan's title. Ledgers say she was signed as a “negress," presumably to sing the newly fashionable blues. They'd seen her, but she sings ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Endless Highway: The Music of The Band
by John Kelman
At a time when Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Doors ruled, The Band was an anomaly. First emerging as the backing band for rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins before moving on to greater visibility behind Bob Dylan, The Band eschewed the hippy attire and attitude of the time, carrying the distinct look of an earlier time on the sepia-toned cover of its eponymous 1970 album. The group's music, largely written by guitarist Robbie Robertson, was a curious amalgam of roots ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Winds of Brazil
by Jim Santella
With strings and orchestral timbres accompanying them, a dozen Brazilian soloists took the stage in São Paulo during two nights in November, 2004 to interpret modern impressions of their country's folk tradition--each soaring high from deep within. This live performance comes with the lyrical beauty of traditional songs as well as heartfelt understanding.
Flutist Mauro Rodrigues blends with strings on a lovely ballad original that he aptly titled “Firm and Smooth. Trumpeter Joatan Nascimento and saxophonist Teco Cardoso ...
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