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Jazz vocalist Keiko Ito releases intimate acoustic EP "The Trio"
Source:
Lauren Rogers
The latest album from Boston, MA-based jazz vocalist Keiko Ito may be called The Trio, but the spotlight really lands on her delicate, sweetly innocent voice. Ito's twee vocals gives her the advantage of appealing not only to jazz fans but to indie-pop followers as well. However, do not mistake the tender caress of Ito's singing for absence of power or vocal range. Ito studied at the Berklee College of Music; she is no mere coffeehouse singer although her music ...
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Mansur Scott: Something Forgotten, Something Remembered (PAO Records, 2010)
Source:
Larry Reni Thomas
By Larry Reni Thomas Vocalist/percussionist extraordinaire Mansur Scott, known all over New York City as a serious sage and “the jazz mayor of Harlem" is the epitome of a working jazz musician. He has been on the front lines, pushing the music forward, making it visible, boldly, and making it strongly heard throughout all of the boroughs of the city for decades. He is known in Harlem' s jazz community as a warm, peaceful, graceful, adventurous, humble performer, who has ...
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Pianist Eiko Rikuhashi debuts with classy, stylish EP
Source:
Lauren Rogers
The model-like beauty and stylish classiness of pianist Eiko Rikuhashi is reflected in her music as well. On her debut EP You Are My Strength, Rikuhashi combines her own compositions with immortal classics from Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gene de Paul, and Joe Zawinul, every track gorgeously and tastefully played. It's a dazzler of a first effort, displaying the kind of emotional depth and artistic maturity that one usually doesn't find on a newcomer's record. Born in Osaka, Japan, Rikuhashi began ...
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Wadada Leo Smith's Organic - Heart's Reflections (Cuneiform, 2011)
Source:
Music and More by Tim Niland
Trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith has been on a wonderful creative roll of late, playing everything from post-Miles fusion to fragile acoustic projects. On this two compact disc set, he draws from all of that experience and imbues it with his deep spirituality and unique approach to music to develop a very successful project. The band is large, and shifts constantly, allowing for a large palette of musical possibilities to draw from. Opening the album is the extraordinary “Don ...
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Claudio Scolari/Daniele Cavalca - Colors of Red Island (2011)
Source:
Something Else!
Usually when we're on the topic of a record led by a drummer, the story will be about a bandleader and sometimes, the primary composer, who also happens to be the drummer. The burden of carrying of melody and most of the solos usually falls on other players, that ones with the tonal instruments. Not so with Claudio Scolari. His Colors Of Red Island is a drummer's record through and through. But that's hardly what makes it unique. First of ...
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Viktor Krauss - Far from Enough (2004)
Source:
Something Else!
By Tom Johnson I spent most of the morning flipping between one disc and the next, restless for something that actually fit my mood. I just didn't want to, you know, as they say, deal and nothing particularly appealed to me. On days like this, I tend to gather up a pretty disparate grouping of artists to accompany me to work because, well, I just never quite know what I'm going to be in the mood for. Today, I've got ...
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The Friday Morning Listen: Pat Metheny - Beyond the Missouri Sky (1997)
Source:
Something Else!
Vacation Part 3. OK, so I didn't win the lottery. I didn't buy a big house on the Maine coast. There was no affair with the real estate agent. But you could have probably guessed all of that. What came to pass did seem something like a fantasy but somehow ... it always does. Two weeks go by in what seems like one long afternoon. How does that happen? And why am I always surprised when it does? My intent ...
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Something Else! Featured Artist: Little River Band
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Something Else!
Australia's Little River Band placed 11 songs in the Top 40 in the late 1970s and early 1980s, becoming one of the most successful acts to come from Down Under. Yet, somehow that note-perfect blending of sweeping vocals and polished musicianship—smooth, approachable, ear-wormy—never translated to critical applause. Weary of the rock snobbery, we decided—wait for it—that we'd offer a cool change ... “RED-HEADED WILD FLOWER" (SLEEPER CATCHER, 1978): Some rock acts start out edgy, later mellowing out to adult contemporary ...
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