Recording News

New Tower of Power CD Revisits Classic Soul

Source: Billboard Magazine
January 13, 2009

Tower of Power turned 40 in 2008, but the group is commemorating the anniversary with two special releases -- an album and DVD -- in the new year. The venerable R&B/rock outfit expects to release “The Great American Soulbook" during the first quarter of 2009 on its own Tower of Power Records imprint. As the title suggests. it's a collection of covers, ranging from obscurities (Stevie Wonder's “You Met Your Match") to well-known favorites. “We really didn't want to do ...

Continue Reading...

War Child: Heroes Dylan/Beck, Bowie/TVOTR

Source: JamBase
January 13, 2009

War Child: Heroes Cover Album

War Child has announced the full list of artists and songs for their new album Heroes. Set for release on Parlophone on February 16, the album's concept was to get some of the biggest legends in music history to select one of their personal favorite songs from their own songwriting canon, and nominate a music hero from the next generation to create a modern reworking of that classic song.

The Heroes track list in full: ...

Continue Reading...

Critics Jazz CD Reviews

Source: Michael Ricci
January 12, 2009

New York Times Critics CD Reviews

ROKIA TRAOR Tchamantch (Nonesuch)

In its traditional roles as historical chronicle and community conscience, West African music doesnt favor introspection. Thats what makes the Malian songwriter and singer Rokia Traor such a graceful exception. Not a member of a musical dynasty like the many musicians named Diabat and Kouyat, with no family tradition to uphold, Ms. Traor is a well-traveled diplomats daughter who is creating her own radically delicate fusions.

She almost ...

Continue Reading...

Faith Gibson Returning to Berlin to Record CD in April

Source: All About Jazz
January 12, 2009

American jazz vocalist Faith Gibson announced today that she will start production of a new CD in Berlin in April, 2009. The sessions, to be recorded at the award-winning Audio Cue studio, will feature some of the city's most sought-after jazz musicians.

Since the release of her debut CD You Don't Know Me in 2004, Gibson has found a second musical home in Berlin, within the lively jazz scene of Germany's pulsating, “poor but sexy" (as its mayor famously called ...

Continue Reading...

Boney James "Send One Your Love" CD Available on February 3

Source: Special Ops Media
January 12, 2009

On February 3, 2009 Concord Records will release Send One Your Love, a new collection of seductive love songs from sax icon Boney James. On February 3, 2009 Concord Records will release Send One Your Love, a 10-track album of seductive love songs from sax icon Boney James. Just in time for Valentine's Day, Boney has put together the ultimate “musical valentine." Send One You Love includes new James originals as well as covers from Stevie Wonder, Barry White, the ...

Continue Reading...

Sun Spin: Mary J. Blige

Source: JamBase
January 12, 2009

MODERN SOUL'S GREAT LADY TURNS 38 TODAY WE OFFER OUR RESPECTS

Soul music after 1980 isn't littered with memorable artists. That wing of popular music has focused most heavily on cranking out product, much of it consciously numbskull ephemeral, and the artistic depth it possessed in its '60s/'70s heyday on labels like Motown and Atlantic Records has been abandoned for something thinner if still hugely popular. However, there's a few real jewels left in soul's crown, including ...

Continue Reading...

Monk at Town Hall--Fifty Years Later

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
January 12, 2009

The unforgettable 1959 Thelonious Monk Orchestra concert at Town Hall will have a 50th anniversary recreation next month at the scene of the event in New York City. Preserved on a famous Riverside album and performed by jazz repertory orchestras everywhere, Monk's compositions in orchestrations by Hall Overton are perennially fresh, full of ensemble performance challenges and of opportunities for soloists. Reissued every few years on LP, then on CD, the recording is a basic repertoire item, as timeless as ...

Continue Reading...

Jane Monheit's The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me

Source: Special Ops Media
January 12, 2009

Grammy-nominated vocalist Jane Monheit is set to release the new CD, The Lovers, The Dreamers and Me on January 20th on Concord Records. The CD was produced by jazz veteran Matt Pierson and features songs by Fiona Apple, Corrine Bailey Rae, Ivan Lins and Paul Simon.

An ode to songwriters past and present whom Monheit greatly admires, The Lovers, The Dreamers And Me is a sumptuously sung passionate song cycle of 13 tracks produced by jazz veteran Matt Pierson. The ...

Continue Reading...