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Dan Lutz
Robyn Spangler: Robyn Spangler
by C. Michael Bailey
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 ...
Continue ReadingAda Bird Wolfe: Odd Bird
by Richard J Salvucci
There is a style of singing--midway between conversation and conventional vocal technique—which can only be called talk-singing, or something to that effect. It puts considerable weight on the meaning of the song, the words themselves, rather than the melody per se. Chances are, one could not hum such a tune if one wanted to. To some ears, Abbey Lincoln was an expert in the technique, or even more so, Nina Simone. Much of the success of the genre depends on ...
Continue ReadingAdrianne Duncan: Gemini
by Dan McClenaghan
It started out for Adrianne Duncan with classical piano. Then—as it happens so often—she fell in with a jazz crowd. On her Gemini, the vocalist/pianist/composer proves herself an adept and compelling artist in the jazz genre, one who isn't afraid to take some chances. And she has a way with words, penning lyrics in an off-the-beaten-path style on three of her songs—one offering is an instrumental—while throwing in Sting's “Roxanne" as a closer, a familiar tune than isn't initially recognizable, ...
Continue ReadingJim Kimo West: More Guitar Stories
by Mark Sullivan
Guitarist Jim Kimo West (aka Jim West) is probably best known as the guitarist in musical satirist “Weird Al" Yankovic's band. Anyone familiar with Yankovic's music knows that is an eclectic gig, but West is even more eclectic on his own. He jokingly describes this album--a sequel to Guitar Stories: Slack Key & Beyond (Westernmost Records, 2016)--as a “Slack Key, New Age, Jazz, Funk, Celtic, Americana and Indian Classical mashup." Crazy as that sounds, it is about right; West uses ...
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