Mark Winkler

“Over a three-decade career, singer/songwriter Mark Winkler has released more than a dozen albums, and written songs performed by top vocalists including Randy Crawford, Dianne Reeves and Liza Minnelli. On Sweet Spot he brings together all of that experience, plus some superb musicians, to create a collection of songs perfect for a late night club performance—or for anytime listening anywhere else, come to think of it.”   “Winkler has name-checked Mark Murphy as a particular influence. On Sweet Spot, he doesn’t quite have Murphy’s hipster cool or vocal power, but he does have a talent for storytelling, for interpreting a lyric with flair. He treats the standards with respect, but he’s also happy to explore their less usual elements. On the Gershwins’ “But Not For Me,” which swings beautifully thanks to the superb bass and drums of Tim Emmons and Steve Barnes, Winkler sings the opening verse, something many other singers leave out, and adds a vocalese part written by Georgie Fame.” “Bobby Troup is one of Winkler’s favorite songwriters, as his 2003 album Sings Bobby Troup (Rhombus Records) testifies. Troup is represented here by “Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring,” a melancholy love song with lyrics that could easily descend into self-parody. Winkler, accompanied solely by Anthony Wilson‘s sparse and empathic guitar, avoids the pitfall, investing the tale with real pathos.” “Winkler’s own songs are a delight—often funny, occasionally melancholy but always displaying a sharp way with a lyric, and some wry observation. “Sweet Spot,” co-written with Geoffrey Leigh Tozer, is a late night, slightly risqué, blues enlivened by a honking saxophone solo from Bob Sheppard and the funky vocals of Barbara Morrison.” “Somewhere In Brazil (West Coast)” and its close cousin “Somewhere In Brazil (East Coast)” are beautifully observed and humorous stories, sung by Winkler in the role of a cynical and somewhat deluded bar singer. Sheppard’s...

Claire Martin’s Magical “Witchcraft”

Sometimes the idea for a partnership in music sounds wrong on paper but succeeds wonderfully well in practice.  A case in point is the partnership between Martin, one of the half-dozen best jazz singers in the world, and Bennett, a gifted classical composer whose symphonies and works for film and theatre are outstanding.  They have worked together now for a number of years, appearing in London and New York, including a March 2011 tour.  In their act the pair provide audiences with superb interpretations of songs in a manner that must surely please many otherwise disparate elements of their individual audiences.  On this CD, in which they explore the wide range of composer Cy Coleman, mainly from Broadway, their magical touch is really quite exceptional. In their interpretations, Martin and Bennett encapsulate all that is good from their respective crafts, blending these qualities in such a way that the result is one timeless version of a song after another.  Among Martin’s seven solos are lovely versions of I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life, Nobody Does It Like Me and On Second Thoughts; her sound is warmly intimate, mature and filled with understanding.  Bennett’s accompaniment on every track is rich and apposite, subtle here and earthy there.  His four solo vocals include Sometime When You’re Lonely, Let Me Down Easy andThat’s My Style, and are delivered with a comfortably-worn sound that charms the listener.  When Martin and Bennett duet on the remaining four songs, the years of collaboration are vividly apparent through their easy and unforced familiarity.  Indeed, there is not a weak moment anywhere, all the songs being given very special treatment.  Sound quality is exceptional and there is a good liner note from Brian Morton.  Unequivocally recommended. WRITTEN BY BRUCE CROWTHER FOR JAZZ JOURNAL ON 1ST MARCH, 2011...

Nicki Parrott-Jazz Singer and Bassist Extraodinaire

Nicki Parrott, an internationally acclaimed bassist, arrived in New York in May of 1994, the recipient of a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts allowing her travel to the US and study with her mentor, one of the world’s premiere double bassists, Rufus Reid. In the same year she was also nominated for the “Australian Young Achievers Award”. Today, Nicki Parrott is a world-class double bassist and an emerging singer/songwriter. In her work with artists from around the globe she has brought a signature sound to every bass part she has played. She performs regularly at the world’s best Jazz Festivals and can be seen Monday’s at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City with the legendary guitarist and inventor, Les Paul. Since June of 2000, this union has been an ideal showcase for her musical abilities, flair for improv, and gift for entertaining a crowd. Born in Newcastle, Australia, Nicki Parrott began her musical training on the piano at the age of four. She also took up the flute and continued to play both instruments throughout her school years. At the age of 15, Nicki switched her focus to the double bass, formed a band with her older sister Lisa (alto sax) and began composing instrumental pieces that they would eventually record for their premier CD release, The Awabakal Suite (2001). After completing high school, Nicki moved to Sydney and attended the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, where she graduated with an Associates degree in Jazz Studies. When bassists such as the legendary Ray Brown (Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson) and John Clayton (Diana Krall, Whitney Houston) were playing in town, Nicki would find them, contact them and arrange lessons from them. She was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Pan Pacific Music Camp, and soon after, took first place in...

Jazz Vocal Icon Abbey Lincoln 1930-2010

Abbey Lincoln, one of jazz  vocal music’s most distinctive singers and songwriters passed away in New York on August 14th.   Lincoln, whose career spanned more than fifty years, evolved from a rather traditional circa 1950’s super club ingenue into a true original in terms of both her singing and songwriting. On August 28th “The Vocal Sound of Jazz” will devote the entire program to the music of Abbey Lincoln. We will showcase her career from the early recordings through her extensive Verve Records catalogue which captures her at her most adventurous and memorable moments. Share Permalink Comments...

Kenia Celebrates Dorival Caymmi

Brazilian Vocalist Kenia Pays Homage To The Dorival Caymmi Songbook On Her New Mooka Records Release Kenia Celebrates Dorival Caymmi Ever hungry for new challenges, the sultry-voiced Brazilian enchantress Kenia, who reemerged on the jazz scene two years ago with the critically-acclaimed album Simply Kenia, serves up one of the most demanding and satisfying projects of her three decade long career with Kenia Celebrates Dorival Caymmi on Mooka Records. Renowned for her ability to translate the complex rhythms of her homeland into jazzy creations that made her a star of the smooth jazz movement two decades ago, the singer digs even deeper into Brazil’s cultural legacy on this compelling and artistically rich 15-track session. She tackles the supremely melodic and culturally telling legacy of the Brazilian composer and singer who spent over seven decades creating an aural portrait of Bahia, the stronghold of Brazil’s vibrant African culture. The author of such fabled standards as “Samba da Minha Terra,” “Doralice” and “Voce Ja Foi a Bahia,” Caymmi has long been recognized as a singular figure in Brazilian popular culture, truly an artist without peers in a country noted for a profusion of legendary musicians. “Dorival’s music lies just between the two major movements in MPB (Msica Popular Brasileira, or Brazilian Popular Music),” Kenia explains, “the Samba of the 1920’s and 30’s and the Bossa Nova of the late 1950s and ’60s. Caymmi’s music served as a kind of a smooth transition between these two styles. And, although he had two very distinct lines of composition, the link between these two movements is characterized by his firm foundation of Samba, sprinkled with some Bahian spices.” To ensure an impeccably authentic interpretation of this collection of Caymmi classics, Kenia employed a rhythm section of first-call Brazilian musicians. Fernando Merlino, who crafted some arrangements and plays piano, is joined by bassist Leo Traversa and percussionist...

Jimmy Webb – Finally in Front of His Own Hit Parade by Stephen Holden (New York Times)

IS it possible for a musician to emerge unscathed from the kind of early success enjoyed by the singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb? In the late 1960s, when he was barely 21, Mr. Webb was showered with Grammys for writing the Glen Campbell hits “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston” and the Fifth Dimension’s “Up, Up and Away.” Then there was “MacArthur Park,” the grandiose quasi-symphonic “cake out in the rain” popularized by the Irish actor Richard Harris and in 1978 remade into a disco fantasia by Donna Summer. These songs established Mr. Webb — the son of a strict Baptist minister from Elk City, Okla., who moved his family to Southern California in the mid-’60s — as a pop music wunderkind with a Midas touch. But because his intensely romantic ballads straddled two worlds — traditional pop and country-flavored Southern California rock — Mr. Webb found himself on the far side of a generation gap. At the same time, he admits sheepishly today, he avidly subscribed to his generation’s slogan of not trusting anyone over 30. To his profound frustration, audiences over 30 didn’t buy him as a singer-songwriter when he began releasing albums in the early ’70s. Not that that kept him from the customary excesses of the time. “I lost it pretty badly,” he said of those days, “but unlike some others, I never wanted to die — not really.” Sitting in his publicist’s Lower Manhattan office on a steamy afternoon recently, Mr. Webb, tall and rangy, now 63, still has a wild man’s gleam in his eye. He is a marvelous storyteller with the expansive style of a rural yarn spinner, who becomes more excited the more wound up he becomes. If he is an endless storehouse of real-life rock ’n’ roll adventure stories, set mostly in Hollywood and London in the late ’60s and...