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Janiece Jaffe & Monika Herzig – Both Sides of Joni...

   The Both Sides of Joni Project was the product of a period of soul searching during the Covid Summer of 2020.  Vocalist Janiece Jaffe started listening closely to Joni Mitchell’s music and lyrics with her jazz vocalist ears and found truth and wisdom that inspired her and that she wanted to share with the world to inspire others. She studied the words more deeply and got the urge to re-imagine them in jazz arrangements.  … Read...

MARINA PAKOWSKI – INNER URGE...

Already known as an accomplished classical pianist, Marina Pacowski displays her engaging jazz vocal skills on her warmly delivered debut album, 2023’s Inner Urge. Born in France, Pacowski (who also teaches classical piano on the faculty of the Conservatory Maurice Ravel) has won accolades for her piano playing, including a 2017 Best Collaborative Music Award from the International Society of Bassists.… Read...

JOANIE PALLATTO – ACCIDENTAL MELODY...

ACCIDENTAL MELODY is the fourth album Singer and Songwriter JOANIE PALLATTO has recorded with all original music on Southport Records. The album presents 13 original tunes composed by Pallatto with five tracks co-written by her husband BRADLEY PARKER-SPARROW and “You Think You Know” with modern jazz guitar virtuoso FAREED HAQUE. “Accidental Melody” features some of Chicago’s finest musicians, including JOHN CHRISTENSEN (acoustic bass), ERIC HINES (percussion), JUAN PASTOR (cajon and percussion), BRADLEY PARKER-SPARROW (piano), and FAREED HAQUE.… Read...

EMILIE CLAIRE BARLOW – SPARK BIRD...

During the dark isolation days of the coronavirus pandemic, award-winning Canadian songstress Emilie-Claire Barlow found herself at an artistic crossroads. She questioned if she would ever want to make another record to add to her impressive 12-album oeuvre. She hadn’t been able to tour and she wasn’t aroused to assemble a new collection of songs. In her 25-year career of delivering a distinctive and accessible style of vocal jazz, Barlow has accrued a remarkable resume of critical success, including seven Juno nominations, with two jazz vocal Juno awards—2013’s best Jazz Vocal Recording for her all-French song collection Seule ce soir and her Clear Day collaboration with the Metropole Orkest winning the same award in 2016. … Read...
Brazilian Music Spotlight MINAS – BEATLES IN BOSSA
MINAS – BEATLES IN BOSSA Minas is a world music duet comprised of Orlando Haddad and Patricia King. Minas reflects a perfect musical marriage with a stage presence and chemistry that only a lifetime can produce. Drawing on the passionate styles of Brazilian and American roots music, the two create a fresh and innovative sound. With a catalog of 8 recordings released on their label Bluezul and a collection of over 100 songs, they have been building their reputation.… Read...
Recent Jazz Vocal Discovery HAILEY BRINNEL – BEAUTIFUL TOMORROW
HAILEY BRINNEL – BEAUTIFUL TOMORROW Outside in Music is proud to announce the March 17, 2023 release of Beautiful Tomorrow, the sophomore recording from vocalist and trombonist Hailey Brinnel. When asked to define her style, the Philadelphia-based artist, whose sound is steeped in swing and bebop, describes her effort to move the genre into new spaces: “I like pushing the limits of the idiom, while staying true to jazz.”… Read...
Classic Jazz Vocal Album Spotlight Jackie & Roy – TIME & LOVE
Jackie & Roy – TIME & LOVE With the backing of a large orchestra, lush even by arranger Don Sebesky‘s standards, Jackie and Roy front an exquisitely recorded Creed Taylor production that mostly falls outside the idiom of jazz into a polished, jazzy, classical/easy listening plane. More to the point, the collective taste of Taylor and the Krals is incredibly rich, for they tap into a small mother lode of scintillating contemporary material that jazz people rarely touched, then or now — like Leonard Bernstein‘s beguiling “A Simple Song” (from Mass) or Michel Colombier‘s “We Could Be Flying” (the high point of his Wings pop symphony). … Read...
Other Releases of Interest THOMAS LAUDERDALE MEETS THE PILGRIMS
THOMAS LAUDERDALE MEETS THE PILGRIMS On May 19, the Pink Martini founder and the iconic Oregon surf music group Satan’s Pilgrims released Thomas Lauderdale Meets the Pilgrims, an album sparked by the 1993 moment when Lauderdale stumbled into a Pilgrims performance and imagined a surf version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. A pandemic hiatus from touring with Pink Martini led Lauderdale to unearth the long in-development project.… Read...