Zana Messia and The Balkan Soul Orchestra
Balkan Soul
(2012 USA)
Although the name of the album suggests Zana Messia's spiritual ties with her musical heritage of the Balkans where she grew up, "Balkan Soul" she is using her songwriting skills and sensibility to integrate the folk music of her homeland into an original mixture that fuses together overtones of jazz, pop, blues, Latin, yet without losing the cohesive thread that gives the album its own color.
This music-without-borders fiesta made of ten short stories about life's aches, regrets and mistakes, passion and joy is impregnated by a genuine "saudade" specific to the Balkan traditional music without any overdo or exageration.
There is a pleasant harmony between lyrics and music, between the singer's voice and the creative collective of thirteen musicians, that bring all their energy and prowess to
the arrangements. They play like a Balkan brass band, acoustic jazz combo and mariachi ensemble with fine transitions and delicate
solos, everything crafted with a great taste matching singer's vocal nuances.
She moves smoothly from dramatic to joyful with a sort of bluesiness that comes from the heart and doesn't sound pretentious, a quality transferred organically to all the songs she
performs.
The lyrics of the opening track reveal her source of inspiration: " Every ache, every mistake/How can it be
wrong?/Things I regret,/I've done or not / Each has become a song" - and this is precisely why this album is delightful: the sublimation of emotions into catchy melodies you'll find yourself humming. Worthy to mention the Romani/Gipsy music accents on "This Is How I Get" enriched by the glissando of the violin, the sunny Latin beat on "Palm Tree Leaves", or the jazzy "I've Seen Him Before" with nice
sax and guitar solos.
Besides the eight originals, the album features a Balkan flavored rendition of the "Round Midnight" and the
anthemic "Djelem Djelem" Zana Messia sings with unbridled passion in Romani language.
An etertaining and moving album in the same time, "Balkan Soul" will please those who are looking to hear a voice and a music beyond cliches and deja vu.
Brazilian singer and composer Fabiana Passoni is back with a new album she recorded after a 2 year successful battle with cancer. Her powerful, clear voice rises to new levels of emotion infused with the same warm, emotionally-charged tone we heard on her debut album.
"Naturalmente Brazil" is a genuine meaningful hymn to life performed by a singer whose vocal qualities are backed by an artistic sincerity that reaches to your heart from the first song.
She sings form the heart about hope, dreams, love, the everyday life without any artificiality, combining soft bossa-novas and velvet sambas with swing, electronics, flamenco and pop.
Sometimes the melodic line is nostalgic: "Life is too short to ignore the messages that come from beyond" but there is a sense of happiness and joy that emerges from sorrow in the quest for freedom ("I want to do what I want/I am tired of this life/I'll become a hippie.)
"Natural" is an explosion of rhythms and colors, a real hit among the other beautiful songs of the album, speaking about renewal and the nourishing water that refreshes our souls .
Top marks for the outstanding musicians who
complement perfectly her vocals playing a wide range of instruments from accordion and colorful percussions to strings, keyboards and horns.
“Naturalmente Brazil” offers a "natural" life's perspective, one that does not neglect difficult existential questions yet leaves the door open to the miracle of living.
Track listing: Esse João, Maria das Fofocas, Natural ,Não,Baby I’ll Be Back, Baiamor, Ó Vida Ó Céus, Quem Sou Eu, Te Amo sem Querer ,Terça-Feira, Última Chance, Torradeiro, Vou Virar Hippie
Roberto Magris Quartet with Voice- Canzoni Italiane in Jazz
(2011)
(Italy)
A beautiful selection of famous Italian hits, arranged for jazz quartet and voice by Italian pianist Roberto Magris the bandleader and initiator of the project.
Roberto Magris has been involved in the last years in many successful trans atlantic cooperations with American jazz musicians, via the J-Mood label, but this time he shares the stage with Italian musicians featuring singer Maria del Revere, Paolo Prizon on drums and Mario Cogno on acoustic bass.
Magris shines on all the ten "Canzoni Italiane" he invests with his own melodic-exploratory sensibility making this highly melodic album an enjoyable jazz record pleasant to a broader audience as well.
The atmosphere is relaxed, the piano keeps the improvisation flowing freely, expanding beyond the surface of the original song, swinging
unpredictably without overshadowing Maria del Revere's jazzy voice.
There are intimate ballads ("Bambina innamorata" , "Napule e'" "Mi sono innamorato di te, E penso a te), joyful moments including the famous bossa "Estate" , "Un'estate fa"
"Arrivederci" . and an especially modernistic exuberant piano version of "La Canzone di Marinella"
An album worth listening even for those already familiar with Italian pop-jazz themes as Roberto Magris playing and direction turned them into a a collection of new gems Roberto Magris @ JWQ Roberto Magris website
Alphonse Mouzon
Angel Face
(Tenacious Records #9216-2, 2011 USA)
Alphonse Mouzon's career as a drummer, composer, arranger, producer, actor, multi-instrumentalist, playing jazz, fusion, disco, funk, pop, or rock has delighted generations of fans all over the world, since the time when he was at the forefront of the jazz fusion movement.
As his impressive discography already proved it, his creative drive and audacity didn't slow down over the years, and "Angel Face” turns out to be another compelling proof of his qualities.
This time he is surrounded by a selected group of jazz personalities well connected with his vision and skills, displaying an impeccable showcase of artistic prowess.
As composer and arranger of all 14 pieces, Alphonse Mouzon directed this dream band with care for details and cohesiveness, giving musicians the partitions that value most their stylistic traits, making sure that their distinguished personalities blend in full power in a united stream.
Working on this foundation, the band puts all its virtuosic spontaneity on display, with Mouzon controlling the overall direction and dynamic, while boldly maneuvering between enthusiastic beats and warmer, soft touches, always showing his natural musicality, propelling forward yet leaving enough space for free improvisational adventures. At his side, we hear master bassists Darek Oleszkiewicz and Christian McBride, accenting details and passages with their trade-marked agility and subtlety.
The common denominator of this solid performance is the irresistible melodic swing flowing throughout, starting with the remarkably animated "Harlem Blues", featuring Cedar Walton on piano and Don Menza on sax. Arturo Sandoval is drawing attention like a magnet, his magic trumpet can also be heard on "Birds on a Wire" and on the whimsical "Blues Clues" here in dialogue with Don Menza on tenor saxophone and Kenny Barron on piano.
The graceful "A Labor of Love" introduces veterans Bob Mintzer and Wallace Roney, the latter bringing echoes of Miles Davis on "More Miles in the Sky". Memorable is also the smiling elegant melody of the "Angel Face" with trumpet and tenor sax in perfect fusion.
The album is rich in other pleasant surprises: "Stepping Stone" a dazzling fresh melody with springy harmony vocals , courtesy of Emma Alexandra Mouzon, while Mouzon himself is at the piano on "I Wonder Why" and "Whatever" , opening rhythmic colorful avenues in close harmony with trumpet and saxophones. Shunzo Ohno's sunny trumpet takes the front stage on the danceable "Night Walker", then the pace is growing faster on "Never Say Never" where Alphonse Mouzon plays a deep and tender trumpet just before going on an explosive drum solo full of vitality on "Canopus Octopus".
The album contains alternates version of "Whatever"(with Henry “The Skipper” Franklin on bass) and "Angel Face" with a nice soft tonality of strings weaved by Mouzon.
As a whole, the perfect balance and proportioning of themes, gives “Angel Face” a classical aura of a major work of refined straight-ahead jazz that will please the most sophisticated ears, and takes a definite top place among what Alphonse Mouzon has created so far.
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Alex Coke/Tina Marsh/Steve Feld
It's Possible
(VoxLox 2008,USA)
An archive honoring Tina Marsh memory has been recently established in Austin, Texas, with the goal of making available to the public an important collection of recordings and documents regarding her career and life.
Tina Marsh was not just a gifted protagonist in the contemporary music but also a musical activist who dedicated her life to the advancement of arts and new talents.
On August 19 2008, Alex Coke, Tina Marsh and Steve Feld released "It's possible" their last album together, and Tina Marsh's last recording. "It’s Possible" is not the type of fashionable music that sounds outdated after years. Until today it stands under the sign of timeless innovation, going from subtle, to bold and intense, travelling from African to Western inspirations, mixing ethnology, nature. emotions and associations.
Tina Marsh’s pure voice is more than a complement to the magical ambient created by Alex Coke and Steve Feld, evolving as an organic part of them. Highly sensitive, she travels between poetic and elementary, expressing the unspeakable through her original vocabulary of onomatopoeic sounds and emotions, inviting us to a meeting with the unfamiliar.
The free style of arrangements extended over the boundaries of a labeled territory opens the door to adventurous combinations as on the title track, where the intensity and color of Tina Marsh's voice is wonderfully backed by the velvet sound of flute, at the point when both instrument and human voice become as one.
Unforgettable is the unusual rendering of Lonely Woman, or the meandering spiritual Deep River. A little masterpiece is "Eclipse" revealing the impressionistic delicacy of the Khaen, a Lao mouth-organ played by Alex Coke while on the collective composition "Peace Prayer", Tina Marsh singing reaches a high level of dignified beauty.
This is an album that prompts listeners wherever they live, to forget about conventions and learned patterns and let their imagination free, and "live" what they hear. It is like a momentary return to a time where humanity reinvents the music, learning how to express itself by listening to the sounds of nature.
In Mahler's words "A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything."
Although not a symphony, the analogy comes to mind after listening to the second album of Italian guitarists Matteo Minozzi and Eugenio Polacchini aka The Bruskers. "Addition" contains a suite of 13 miniatures or "movements" harmoniously integrated in an unitary stylistic "world" where classical and modern reach a refined level of fusion. The impeccable connection between the personalities of these 2 virtuoso musicians previously displayed on their first album, is clearly discernible on "Addition" and is not surprising that the result is again enchanting.
Yet there are many surprises on their new album that features nine jazz standards, three original compositions and a pop song. But these numbers do not tell about the essence of expression and clarity of music which is not only enjoyable but also touching.
What is delightful in the first place is the duo's personal perspective on evergreens such as Kendall Bright's Bright Boy, played here in an improvisational ingenious free style or the fresh flavored Minor Swing. Lullaby of Birdland receives a subtle bluesy-classical aura while Blue Moon is distilled through a classical filter. Finally a leitmotif from Sting's Englishman in New York is developped in a clever improvisation.
On the original compositions we can appreciate the duo's grace and inventivity that goes from a well tempered romanticism on "Cliffs of Moher" to a lyrical-capricious exchange on "Dreams of a black cat" . Notable the heart warming "La mamma e il bambino" a ballad of refined beauty. Yet delicacy does not mean lack of vigour or depth, "Addition" abounds in dazzling colors, rhytm breaks, humorous, joyful exhanges, unexpected twists and turns masterfully balancing composition with virtuosity. A special album for intimate moments.
Tracks: Alfie's Theme, Blue Moon, Cliffs of Moher, The Midnight Sun Will Never Set, Jersey Bounce, La Mamma e il Bambino, Bright Boy, Minor Swing, Dreams of a Black Cat,
Lullaby of Birdland, Jordu, Nuages, Englishman in New York
Nadishana Trio- Far and Near (Sound Microsurgery Department 2011)
(Germany)
On their first album together, the members of “Nadishana Trio” bring to the recording studio an original repertory that has been captivating audiences for more than four years of performances in prestigious venues and festivals.
What has been forged through collective interactions, now becomes an original concept that captures the spirit of their fruitful kinship.
Vladiswar Nadishana, the founder of the project, is a multidisciplinary Siberian artist with a deep knowledge of ethnomusicology, playing more than 100 instruments. He is joined by master percussionist Steve Shehan, a legendary world music innovator, member of the famous Hadouk Trio, and bass player Armin Metz, versed in different styles, from electronica, pop, to world fusion.
The title of the album is a suggestive metaphor of their creative road map: "Far" is geographical distance, but also it is about traditions, a journey to an ancient time when music was evolving as a fundamental ingredient of human culture, while "Near" evokes spatial closeness, neighborhood, the fresh modernistic flavor intersected with its “Far” counterpart.
The variety of the musical themes and instruments we hear is impressive. There are original compositions along with skilled solos contributed by all three multi –instrumentalists who distill and blend layers of “Far” and “Near” in a polychromatic panoply composed of a wide array of influences and sources. We are taken to explore a world of harmonies infused by a cross-cultural symbiosis that resonates with the innermost chords of the soul.
Flowing happily like a mountain spring, the invigorating “Water song”, opens the journey. As the musical flow progresses we pass through a mysterious “Hidden Door”, reaching the “Vast lands” of the “Sanskar Valley”, charmed by a mellow “Overtone story” , before “Riding north” surrounded by the dark melodious voice of the bass.
Then comes the silky “Hulusi”, a melody you wish it never ends, and the ritual-like “Kuzhebarsko Horo” reminiscent of ancestral East-European circle dances.
The inspiration flies high when the adventure slows pace with the delicate oriental beauty of the “Urhat”, in which Nadishana’s sensuous kaval narrates an emotional intense melody. In tune with him, Armin Metz weaves rich bass tones, swirling like a snake made of velvet sounds, while sound wizard percussionist Steve Shehan radiates lights and shadows, whispers and silence, deepening the mystery.
But “Far and Near” is also an enriching sonic experience for listeners, as the album showcases a rich variety of percussion , woodwind and chords instruments of different origins, some of them invented by the musicians themselves . It is a momentary return to the sources of music when the humanity was closer to the nature than today. At the end of this fabulous journey, the three fellow storytellers leave us enchanted by the pure joy they shared with passion and virtuosity all along the way. From every angle, “Far and Near” is a vivid illustration of Longfellow’s words: “Music is the universal language of mankind.
