Steely Dan is an American rock band consisting of core members Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop. Rolling Stone has called them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the Seventies."
The band's music is characterized by complex jazz-influenced
structures and harmonies played by Becker and Fagen along with a
revolving cast of rock and pop studio musicians. Steely Dan's "cerebral,
wry and eccentric" lyrics, often filled with sharp sarcasm, touch upon such themes as drugs, love affairs, and crime.
The pair is well-known for their near-obsessive perfectionism in the recording studio,
with one notable example being that Becker and Fagen used at least 42
different studio musicians, 11 engineers, and took over a year to record
the tracks that resulted in 1980's Gaucho — an album that contains only seven songs.
Steely Dan toured from 1972 to 1974, but in 1975 became a purely studio-based
act. The late 1970s saw the group release a series of moderately
successful singles and albums. They disbanded in 1981, and throughout
most of the next decade Fagen and Becker remained largely inactive in
the music world. During this time "a cult following"
remained devoted to the group.
Molly Johnson began as a child performer, receiving formal training from the National Ballet School and the Banff School of Fine Arts.Molly's career started in the mid-1960s when as a young grade schooler, she and her brother, Clark Johnson, actor and director (Homicide: Life on the Street, The Wire), were tapped by legendary Toronto producer Ed Mirvish to appear in Porgy and Bess at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.
In time Porgy and Bess was
followed by South Pacific, Finian's Rainbow and other musicals. The
budding child star was soon enrolled by the National Ballet School as
she desired to become a choreographer.
By the age of seventeen, Molly was fronting a disco band named A Chocolate Affair. The group lasted just over a year.
Although she has performed as a Jazz singer throughout her career, she did not release a Jazz album until her self-titled solo debut in 2000.
She was lead vocalist for two rock bands, Alta Moda and Infidels in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as frequent contributor to Big Sugar, who also became a prominent Canadian band in the 1990s.
Both of her bands had notable hits in Canada (Alta Moda's "Julian" and Infidels' "100 Watt Bulb" and "Celebrate"), but both bands broke up (for different reasons) after just one album each.
Also in the mid-to late-eighties, she performed with popular Toronto group Breeding Ground, most notably on their hits Happy Now I Know and Ceremony of Love, both of which received consistent college radio airplay, and even had rotation on MuchMusic.
She also performed with them live whenever her commitments with Alta Moda weren't in conflict.
In 1989 she performed the song "The Best We Both Can Be" for the film Babar: The Movie, and also provided voice work for Babar and the Adventures of Badou in 2010.
In the mid-1990s, Molly also organized an annual concert series, the Kumbaya Festival, as a benefit for Canadian charities working around HIV and AIDS. Johnson went on to release Another Day in 2003.
This album was well received at home and went on to be successful in France, where she continues to tour. In 2006 she released her third solo album Messin' Around.
She made history at the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, becoming the first Canadian female vocalist in the festival's 17-year-history to sell out a show on the mainstage.
She has even regaled royalty during a private command performance aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia before the Prince and late Princess of Wales, as well as having performed for Nelson Mandela and Quincy Jones.
On November 11, 2008, Johnson released her fourth full-length album, a record of standards entitled Lucky, via Universal Music Canada and Universal Music France. In March 2009 Lucky took home the Juno Award for "Vocal Jazz Album of the Year".
Her latest release The Molly Johnson Songbook includes 14 studio recordings and 2 previously unreleased tracks – featuring the Daniel Lanois' song Still Water from his acclaimed album, Acadie.
The Molly Johnson Songbook also features a Cole Porter composition not included in the Juno Award Winning Lucky sessions. A truly distinctive voice – unique mixture of Soul and Jazz – Molly delivers luscious interpretations of Jazz standards & original repertoire such as “Lush Life”, “Ode to Billie Joe”, “Melody” & “Rain” on this beautiful collection of music. Also featured as an iTunes exclusive track is the Daniel Lanois composition, St. Ann’s Gold.
Ledisi Anibade Young is an American recording artist, singer-songwriter, record producer, CEO and actress. Her first name means “to bring forth” or “to come here” in Yoruba (ethnic groups in West Africa). Ledisi is known for her jazz influenced vocals.
In 1995, Ledisi formed the group known as Anibade. After unsuccessfully trying to get the group signed to a major label, she formed LeSun Records with Sundra Manning. Along with her group Anibade, Ledisi released an album entitled Take Time. The album gained major airplay from local radio stations.
In 2000, Ledisi released her first album, Soulsinger: The Revival. Ledisi and her group toured in 2001, performing various shows. In 2002, Ledisi released her second album, Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue, which was also released independently. The album featured the singles "Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue", "Autumn Leaves" & "Sugar/Brown Sugar".
The album won her an award for "Outstanding Jazz Album" at the California Music Awards. During
her five year hiatus, Ledisi made appearances on soundtracks.
In 2007,
she signed with Verve and released "Blues in the Night" which featured
on the tribute album, We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of
Song.
In 2007, Ledisi signed a major record deal with Verve Forecast and released her third album entitled Lost & Found, which sold almost 217,000 copies and earned her two Grammy nominations, including one for Best New Artist.
In 2009, Ledisi released her fourth album, Ledisi explained the album's title reflected its musical diversity: "The title 'Turn Me Loose' is basically me saying : 'I don't wanna be boxed in! Let me be myself as a performer and singer, because I do EVERYTHING! Not just one particular style!'.
Ledisi toured with R&B/soul singer Kem on his North American INTIMACY Tour.
Ledisi's sixth studio album, Pieces of Me, was released on June 14, 2011. Ledisi has performed at the White House 3 times at the behest of President and First Lady Obama.
Special appearance on : Trombone Shorty – For True
The main reason for opening my iTunes account was...for her, Sandra Nkaké, impossible to find…You know in the other ways & couldn't wait. So that was my 1st purchase, 3 years ago…
Sandra Nkaké is stunning from the first notes, she gives you an uppercut :) You are breathless the first time you listen to her and see this young woman, specially thanks to her incredible voice and her fire temperament on stage.. From a French-Cameroonian culture, she's totally comfortable with both French and English & mix Jazz, Soul and R&B. Her diversity goes beyond language, she is also adroit in handling diverse styles.
One second, the Jazz or the Funk influences are evident, and then the Opera and European folk elements surface, and without hesitation, all of that may be chucked aside as Sandra Nkaké employs the sounds and languages of West Africa, with talent and incomparable imagination!
And you should have some to assure the 1st part of Al Jarreau's show, alone on stage, using a simple machine recording live the rhythmic and her melodies.
As an evidence, her resumption of Georges Brassens song ' La Mauvaise Réputation' on her 1st album MANSAADI (little mother) dedicate to her mother, who died before having seen her daughter on scene. Her mother used to listened to BB King while she was pregnant. Years later, when Sandra was carrying her own child, she heard BB King and inexplicably was emotionally overwhelmed and started crying.
Her debut at 35, in today's youth-oriented music industry, is a delightful rarity. What Sandra Nkaké has...is taste. She is gimmick-free, in that she doesn't rely too much on just one technique. Murmuring voice, throat deployed shouts, whisper words : her universe as a singer, performer and actress seems to be endless. Association of generosity, sensuality and talent, Sandra is a musical UFO!
Soul diva, of-the-wall rocker and song-writer : she slams, protests and invents a universe which she does not have cease to reinvent, to explore, as to recall us that 'the life is a gift'.
It's your turn to discover this prodigious artist, you can't compare her to anybody… Sandra is Unique!
An useful link: A Tribute To Gil Scott Heron - A Place For You
This dreamer observes as much the past as the present to better build and understand the future.
Charles Pasi is a French-Italian and if he grew in Paris, he spent many of his summers across the Atlantic to listen to Miles Davis, Otis Redding, Ray Charles or Bob Dylan.
Down from his 27 years, he speaks to us about a time that some less than thirty years should better known. When he begins the music at the age of 17, Charles doesn't choose an electric guitar but a harmonica.
Against the advice of all, he follows his idea and takes singing & instrument lessons. Having joined a Gospel group, then having studied music in Italy, he picks up several springboards and prizes, skims the jam-sessions and, having ended finalist of International Memphis Blues Festival in 2006, begin an international tour ( United States, Canada, Russia, Hungary, Benelux, Italy, Spain) with his first album, Mainly Blue.
If his first opus was tinged with Blues, his successor Uncaged, is unclassifiable.
Charles often delivers dark texts on melodies with diverse colors. Passionate and enthusiastic, the arrangements are a mixture of influences Blues, Funk, Jazz, Rock or Soul, following the example of Wild it up, title frank as an uppercut in tones Red Hot Chili Peppers or Fume Against the Hatches...
A happy marriage to discover with Better With Butter, generosity in the rough which will make you sway hips as well as on a James Brown and will tempt you to see again all Bertolucci or Ferreri.
The singer distills with talent his wide influences and invites in the passage the legendary Archie Shepp's saxophone for two titles!
The phrasing clashing of the saxophone mixed with the captivating voice of Charles Pasi not betrays a second that half a century separates both men. Once upon a time Charles Pasi, delivers with Uncaged a poignant testimony of what can be the music of yesterday handed back with current tastes and skillfully mixed by a current passionate person. Charles Pasi is a young talent to followed closely.
Archie Shepp
- Pioneer of the free Jazz, the saxophonist evolved towards a music merging the constituents of the Jazz since his origins,Superstar of the saxophone Jazz,Archie Shepp (born in 1937) is, since his debuts, a free musician!
An unforgettable voice, an unique way to treat the rhythms and the words. Terez is an atypical jazz artist, she has an incredibly disproportionate voice, which transcends and kidnaps you from the first measures with this hoarse stamp which moved sometimes in incredible howling. We often compare her with Janis Joplin, Edith Piaf and Ella Fitzgerald, all combined in a single person.
And nevertheless, she remains unique and original. She begins really young to play guitar with her brother, they were listening to any kind of music from Jimi Hendrix to Billie Holiday passing by Zappa, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, who remains at this day one of her favorite artists.
At the end of the 80s, she's in Alberta where she collaborates with a local theater. During this stay, she shares the stage with The Cowboy Junkies and Robert Charlebois. On returning to Quebec, she gives a series of shows and brings out her first album Risk, in 1994. She makes the promotion with hundred of shows in Quebec, in France, in Belgium and in Switzerland.
Her second album, Speaks not so hardly, goes out in 1997, followed by another big tour through Quebec. Her third recording, Térez Montcalm, goes out in 2002. After few months on the road, she decides to have a break to get fresh ideas. She spends some years to deepen her learning of the bass and to polish up her writing.
Voodoo, her most ambitious album, is the result of this introspection.
On this album, Térez Montcalm offers three original compositions of her own invention, several great classics of the jazz and also songs of Eurythmics, Elton John, Jimi Hendrix and Claude Nougaro. She restores life in these well known melodies by filling them with colors and with her particular jazzy accents. For this album, she teams up with legendary Michel Cusson, composer and musician of extraordinary jazz.
Don't buy this album...Don't go to her concert you will become addicted. Now you are aware...She is outstanding!
Mr Scruff makes such a good sound that his record company even authorizes him to draw badly big whales in the shape of balloons on its cover album.
More seriously, Mr Scruff built up to himself a graphic and special personal sound who made of him one of the members most respected by the label Ninja Tune.
And that makes everything crushes ten years ago when his first record 'Keep It Unreal' became cult after his release only with the piece 'Get A Move On'.
7 years later with 'Trouser Jazz', and after some
mixed compilations where he shares his rather funky influences, he's
back with a real album Ninja Tuna. A record
which will help him to unstick to the easy-listening label, because he
tested every piece in club and validated their efficiency.
It's true that the groove is omnipresent in Andy Carthy's
titles, to begin with 'Test The Sound' which acquaints with your
speakers and verifies if they are authorized to allow to pass big beats ,
jazzy melodies and hip-hop flows .
OK let's go there, our mister 'Potatoes' invites Alice Russell on 'Music Takes Me Up' who teleports us in a piano bar where everybody would pay with spirit its piña colada's round.
You'll always distinguish a point of humor in these pieces which would even force a grin to inspector Derrick: no effort at all for speaking of the already classic and cheerful 'Donkey Ride', and let us discover the house pumpin of 'Get On Down', and then the R' n B dynamic of 'Hold One' and the very soulful 'This Way' well served by the pleasant voice of Pete Simpson.
'Hairy Bumpercress' is an old fashion jazz ballad and 'Whiplash' offers its lesson of dive in corals sometimes sharpened, sometimes comfortable with its aquatic bass line.
Always there to trap us in a conceited trap, Roots Manuva makes an appearance on 'Nice Up The Function' which combines dubstep spirit and discreet trumpets, directly followed by the annoying man 'Bang The Floor' where Mr Scruff has fun with Danny Breaks sending us some heavy groove.
The carnivals 'Kalimba' &'StockportCarnival'
give the occasion to brass instruments to show themselves under the sun
of Rio.
With that in mind, I'm at a loss to explain how Tok Tok Tok's album 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover is so enjoyable. It's got all the classic earmarks of the smooth jazz movement - simple stripped-down arrangements built around upright bass and saxophone behind a soulful female vocalist with the occasional bit of percussion thrown in to round out the mix. And the track listing doesn't exactly inspire confidence that we're in for an exciting time.
Amongst the artists whose back catalogues are mined for this all-covers album are Paul Simon, Burt Bacharach, and Gilbert O'Sullivan. On paper, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover looks like little more than a trite album of elevator music that no self-respecting music lover would ever want to sit through from start to finish.
It doesn't take more than a moment or two of actually listening to the album, though, to realize how misleading those simple summaries are. Consider the title track, for one. Olaf Casimir's and Morten Klein handle acoustic bass and tenor sax duties masterfully sliding between slow-burning, soulful verses and the bouncy pop of the choruses to really bring the song to life.
Klien also doubles on percussion, creating all the drum sounds vocally with a beat-box precision that any college a capella group would kill for. Give a listen to the their take to The Beatles' Day Tripper, that translates that familiar guitar riff to a bouncy, playful bass line.
Jump over to the band's take on Stevie Wonder's I Wish, which creates a neo-soul wall of sound with just that single bass with over-dubbed saxophones, backed by those vocal drums. They capture the somber melancholy of the traditional spiritual tune Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child the joyous energy of Ray Charle's Hallelujah, I Love Her So, adding in a Fender Rhodes piano to the arrangements of those sounds to round out the sound.
Tok Tok Tok definitely do some great work with songs that already have a jazzy element to them, but it's even more impressive to see how well they reach further afield for their songs. Take their interpretation of AC/DC's The Jack for example.
Stripped down to a slow walking bass line and swingin' sax riff, it’s the kind of song you'd expect to hear at two in the morning in a smoky, dimly lit jazz club that Bon Scott and Angus Young would never set foot in. And the above mentioned Gilbert O'Sullivan? Tok Tok Tok take the weepy schlock-pop of his Along Again (Naturally), gussy it up with some syncopated tropical island jazz rhythms, and turn it into a sweet little melancholy escapist fantasy.
They even manage to take cheeky vaudevillian pop the Beatles' songlet Her Majesty and work it into a sultry little jazz ditty.
The jazzy instrumentation on 50 Way to Leave Your Lover lends a great deal of appeal to the album (despite how easy it may be to incorrectly classify the sound as "smooth jazz"), but the lion's share of the album's charm comes from singer Tokunbo Akinro's voice. Her deep, breathy voice captures the same sultry sensuality that made singers like Nina Simone, Sade, Lena Horne, and Billy Holiday so memorable.
And her pipes are just as good at putting a playful spin on the words as they are at bringing the inherent sensuality of the lyrics.
While the easy label for 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover is "jazz," the album has an eclectic, quirky nature that makes it difficult to truly nail down. There are enough rock and pop songs to be found amongst the source material that listeners who aren't normally fans of jazz will find something to hook them in.
It's far from the most energetic, bombastic album out there, opting most of the time for a low-key, subdued charm, but that just helps it to stand out from all the heavy handed, big name albums out there today. No matter what you may think of the original version of the songs presented here, Tok Tok Tok's interpretations are well worth a listen.
Una Mas Trio have a vision. Based on a blend of traditional south American styles meeting contemporary club music they construct their very own, crystal-clear 'Ritmo Del Futura' and release it as their debut full length album.
Una Mas Trio are Christian Schilgen, multifaceted instrumentalist on guitar and keyboards, composer and engineer as well as producer in his own studio, and Fab DJ Sammy, musical mastermind, disc-jockey and record collector extraordinaire.
They define their irresistible upbeat harmonies as boogaloo, a fusion of Cuban salsa rhythms and American soul.
In 'Clear As Water', Una Mas Trio blend urban grooves, catchy up-tempo energy and world music traditions. With the enigmatic poetess/singer Bajka’s tone and phrasing provides perfect vocal flavor to
the track.
With 'Ritmo Del Futura' Una Mas Trio release a treasure trove of hitting rhythms that are fresh and modern, keeping the spirit of original Latin and Brazilian music alive while placing it on firm grounds in the present and, of course, for the future.
A low-down dirty funky groove with a sexy bass-line and Isleys / Chris Jasper era type keys thrown in for good measure. A salvo of questions hit the chaps from a number of voices asking whether it be hip hop, soul, pop, R&B, funk, neo-soul etc…The answer according to the soulful chorus is…It is what it is.
This wonderful fusion of soul, jazz and softly spoken rap suits Impromp2 to the ground. They are not finished there, though. “You’re A Queen” is a splendid track and is receiving a lot of interest of Urban radio stateside.
In this offering, a message is sent to ALL women about not allowing themselves to be portrayed as objects by the brainless R&B / Rap industry – the videos typifying women as only able to wear next to nothing or shaking their booty.
Oh yes, and let’s not forget the endless parade of car bumpers or basketball courts.As Sean says, he hates to think of his small children growing up, seeing that and ascribing to that thinking. The “music industry” is sick and thank God for the likes of Impromp2 for a dash of sanity and intelligence.
