George Koller

Biography
Articles

Laila Biali: Wintersongs

Read "Wintersongs" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
November 10, 2024

Laila Biali is an award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist whose recording Wintersongs offers an immersive journey into the delicate beauty and serene power of winter all through the lens of her jazz and classical roots. With two exceptions, all tracks were composed by Biali in a cabin surrounded by snow-capped mountains in the heart of Canada's Rocky Mountains. Many of Biali's usual collaborators participated in this production, including drummer Ben Wittman, renowned flutist and soprano saxophonist Jane Bunnett, accomplished trumpeter ...

Album Review

Laila Biali: Your Requests

Read "Your Requests" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 16, 2023

While the jazz pipeline produces plenty of artists who pay no mind to an audience's interests, those types--figures with tunnel vision, in many if not most ways--rarely reach their full potential. Instead, it's the musicians who make it a point to communicate who tend to forge the strongest bonds with those on the receiving end. Laila Biali is one such figure. This JUNO-winning gem of a vocalist, pianist, arranger and songwriter always manages to connect. Biali has a keen awareness ...

Album Review

Linda Carone: So Many Beautiful Men, So Little Time

Read "So Many Beautiful Men, So Little Time" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
July 7, 2020

Canadian vocalist Linda Carone specializes in what she calls “vintage" jazz and blues. The sound is that of the music originally emerging from New Orleans Dixieland or traditional jazz as it headed upriver to Chicago before catching a train for Prohibition-era New York City. Her debut recording, Black Moonlight (Self Produced, 2017) is a historically-informed collection of speakeasy music, organically rendered and enjoyed. Carone returns three years later with a single release to brighten our time of COVID-19 ...

Album Review

Lara Solnicki: Whose Shadow?

Read "Whose Shadow?" reviewed by Everett R. Davis

by Everett R. Davis
September 27, 2014

Canadian contemporary jazz vocalist, published poet and composer, Lara Solnicki originally intended a career in opera but turned to jazz in 2008 following a brief collaboration with a classical composer, in a conscious attempt to marry her two arts, music and poetry. She has emerged from the Canadian scene with a spellbinding voice and is highly sough after on the Toronto jazz circuit. Solnicki has been rightfully labeled a vocal purist with tremendous tonal control and naturally sings any jazz ...