For DiMattina, Stella is a labour of love, and her fascination and admiration for Franklin show through.
Category: Reviews
Xani is a virtuoso musician who sees no boundaries in music. At times during the concert, she tapped a rhythm on her violin; other times, used her fingers along the strings to find the exact effect she wanted.
Jazzmeia Horn’s scatting is like nothing I’ve ever heard — her originality of interpretation transcends.
The audience was treated to Kurt Elling’s distinctive, creative vocalese, punctuated by the scintillating lyrical embellishments of guitarist Charlie Hunter as well as his masterful solos. It was a case of dual sheer artistry.
What makes Ally Hocking Howe’s EP ‘The Feather Came First’ a great listen is not the music itself, but the promise it carries: the promise of a great composer, and a great musician, who can mover through genres and blend elements from all sorts of sources to create something new
“Hilary Geddes is equally comfortable using her guitar to evoke ambient spacious soundscapes as she is weaving single note melodies through complex chord changes, generating raucous energy through angular lines and overdriven rock solos.”
With these two recent albums, one solo piano, another an ensemble project, Keyna Wilkins shows something of her style and musical imagination.
For an album filled with gems of the Great American Songbook, it is telling that the songs that mostly stand out are Tamara Kuldin’s original compositions. ‘Maisie’s song’ in particular, has all it takes to become a modern classic – a sweet, catchy melody; simple, honest lyrics; a warm, compelling delivery by a vocalist at the top of her game.
“Playing double bass and electric bass, Elsen Price invites us to join him as he rides the rivers, enters the woods, explores luminescent caverns and encounters freakish bees (buzzing included) in what could easily be categorised as eight mini-suites, each of three movements.”
A great deal of art is description, or at least representation. Describing or representing love, hate, the universe. None is the right description. Nor the wrong one. This is art after all.