Hub Songs not only functions as a heartfelt, loving tribute to Freddie Hubbard, one of the greatest trumpeters in bop history, but it’s a dynamic, engaging session in its own right. Both Tim Hagans and Marcus Printup had established themselves as two of the finest hard bop trumpeters of…
Yeah, Cassandra Wilson is a jazz singer, but she’s a 21st century jazz singer, mixing elements of jazz, pop, rock, Delta blues, and light funk into her performances, expanding what a jazz vocalist can be in a contemporary world with her horn player phrasing, smoky texture, and a voice…
Part of the reason Jeff Bridges was so convincing in his Oscar-winning role as Bad Blake in 2009’s Crazy Heart is that he’s so comfortable in his own skin he lends a casual authority to whatever he does. He stood behind the microphone as if he belonged, a stance…
Mwaliko is West African guitarist Lionel Loueke’s second album for Blue Note. Originally planned as a series of duets, it ultimately became one of duets and trios, in order to to showcase the collective talents of Gilfema, his touring band with bassist Massimo Biolcati and drummer Ferenc Nemeth. The…
Karibu is West African guitarist and vocalist Lionel Loueke’s debut album for the Blue Note label, and his fourth overall. Loueke is best known to America’s audiences as a sideman in Herbie Hancock’s quartet, and for his stellar 2006 offering Virgin Forest on the wonderful ObliqSound imprint. Fans of…
The very title of Interpreting the Masters suggests that the Bird & the Bee are digging into a catalog of a widely respected pop songwriter — a Burt Bacharach, perhaps, or a Jimmy Webb. That’s not the case: children of the ‘80s that they are, singer Inara George and producer Greg Kurstin have chosen Daryl Hall & John Oates for the…
The Bird and the Bee emerged from their retro nest in 2006, flaunting a sort of contemporary space-age pop that relied on Inara George‘s voice — a jazzy, soft soprano in the vein of Norah Jones and Priscilla Ahn — and Greg Kurstin‘s production chops. The combination celebrated outmoded genres without losing…
As a label, Blue Note has been changing its focus, drifting closer and closer to mainstream pop material — not that there’s anything wrong with this, but it is a bit of a shock that the name label in jazz since 1939 is looking for hits with Elisabeth Withers and a…
Please Clap Your Hands arrives just nine months after the duo’s full-length debut, but the Bird and the Bee have already widened their aviary considerably. Taking a cue from “F*cking Boyfriend,” whose breezily crisp rhythms sat atop the Billboard Club Play charts for weeks in 2006, Hands quickens the pace by adding more dance…
There’s no denying Priscilla Ahn’s voice. Crystalline and pitch-perfect, it’s the sort of classic-sounding soprano that belongs to an earlier decade, when folksingers wore flowers in their hair and sang songs about free love. Ahn is the product of a more current generation, but she fills her second album…