Two new vocal recordings — one from a likely source, the other not — remind us that genuine vocal artistry brings delight not quite like anything else. The human voice, malleable and expressive and colorful, vibrates with genuine (and profound) feeling on “Close Up,” by Sara Serpa, the celebrated singer, known for her angelic tone,...
We were youngsters in 1973 when Paul Simon recorded his song “American Tune,” too immature to understand the profoundity of his words, too busy listening to disposable records to grasp the greatness of his creation. The song has been covered many times subsequently, but now that Kurt Elling sings it on his new album “1619...
The Tierney Sutton Band — Christain Jacob, Trey Henry, Kevin Axt, Ray Brinker, and a chick singer — continues to make music that transcends labels. Their latest album, “American Road,” features virtuoso musicianship, astounding arrangements, and a dedication to grooviness that proves high art can be enlightening and deliciously fun.
Imagine the musicality and tonal precision of Gretchen Parlato but with more soul, more meat. On her latest recording “Wishes,” New Orleans singer Sasha Masakowski does Brazilian, and swamp funk, and jazz, and basically whatever she wants. And it’s all good.
Last week, the singer Ella Fitzgerald would have been 90. More than a dozen of Los Angeles’s finest musicians and singers, led by the renowned vocalist Barbara Morrison, congregated at the Musician’s Union in Hollywood to honor a woman who has touched and inspired everyone with functional ears. We heterogeneous Americans usually gather in large...
This past week I’ve had the honor of producing an album for FreeHam Records, the little record company I own. I’ve lived inside the control room of a studio in Hollywood, listening closely to what the musicians are playing and making sure their most stirring creations are captured properly on a computer disk. My job...
I run a tiny jazz record label called FreeHam Records, which recently released new albums by Zaxariades (“Mr. Z”) and Charmaine Clamor (“Searching for the Soul”). Hundreds of individuals like me dedicate much of their life (and most of their savings!) to jazz music, with no realistic expectation that it will ever earn a penny...
Last night, the Tierney Sutton Band gave a Grammy nomination celebration concert at Catalina Bar & Grill, in Hollywood. The place was packed with music lovers, some of whom “knew her when” she was performing in front of six people, others who had been faithful fans since her first Telarc album, and some recent converts...
An Open Letter to Councilmember Hugo Soto-MartinezDear Councilmember Soto-Martinez,
The man you replaced, Mitch O’Farrell, was perceived by many as a cynical politician who placed the desires of wealthy real-estate developers over the concerns of the people he was supposed to represent. Sensitive to any perception of impropriety, you’ve made it a point to not accept…
For more than forty years one of our favorite writers, Detroit-based Peter Werbe, has been publishing provocative essays about capitalism, technology, religion, politics, and popular culture in the anarchist journal The Fifth Estate, where he’s long been an indispensable member of the editorial collective. Some of his best work is now organized in a compulsively readable...
