Sunday, March 27, 2016

Isabel Ventura Jazz Quarteto - ...to Jazz

In life there are many coincidences, and precisely on the day that David Bowie has left us, I witnessed one. It is that this day has come to my hands the second Isabel Ventura disc - "To Jazz ...". In which, oddly enough, the opening track is a version of Space Oddity, well known theme and released in July 1969. This album the singer of Porto, is much more light than the first disc. Has ten themes pop / rock universe with jazzy arrangements of pianist Marco Figueiredo and bassist José Carlos Barbosa. They include topics such as "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles or "Us and Them" by Pink Floyd, that among other indelible marks of the musical universe. Quartet Isabel Ventura, as well as in his own voice, has Marco Figueiredo on piano, José Carlos Barbosa on Bass and Michel Marques on drums. For the record still had the special participation of Gileno Santana on flugelhorn. This album is a beautiful company for a homecoming, an end of a long day ... Even though for me dubbed "light" is a good album that takes the classification of very good! - by Miguel Estima, 
Acertezamusica.blogspot.com

Artist: Isabel Ventura Jazz Quarteto
Album: ...to Jazz
Year: 2014
Label: O Mercador Estrangeiro
Runtime: 51:40
Recorded 2013 - 2014 at Estudios Quinta da Musica (Porto, Portugal)

Tracks:
1. Space Oddity (David Bowie) 4:59
2. Us and Them (Richard Wright / Roger Waters) 6:15
3. Eleanor Rigby (Paul McCartney / John Lennon) 3:59
4. At Last (Mack Gordon / Harry Warren) 4:48
5. These Arms of Mine (Otis Redding) 4:06
6. Close to You (Hald David / Burt Bacharach) 5:22
7. Roxanne (Sting) 7:21
8. Hounds of Winter (Sting) 4:17
9. Cry me a River (Arthur Hamilton) 5:07
10. I Wish I Knew How It Would Be to Be Free (William Taylor / Richard Lamb) 5:26

Personnel: 
Isabel Ventura - Vocals
Marco Figueiredo - Piano
Jose Carlos Barbosa - Double Bass
Michel Marques - Drums
+ Gileno Santana - Flugelhorn (2,9)

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Silje Nergaard - Port Of Call

If you're like me and tire of the so-called diva's who express emotions by screeching endlessly up and down the scales then Silje is the ideal antidote. It's great to hear a voice which can convey sentiments with subtlety. This is particularly impressive when one considers Silje's first language is Norwegian. She obviously has a deep understanding and feel for this music genre. All of the tracks sound very polished in keeping with her beautifully clear voice. From the little I know of her it is obvious she has spent some time developing her style and direction. After buying this CD I immediately bought her latest 'At First Light'. This is also a triumph as Silje combines well with lyricist Mike McGurk to compose all but one of the tracks on this CD. Defiitely a must-play when you have some friends around for dinner. - by Amazon.com

Her highly successful previous album, "Port of Call" (Universal Music), returned Silje Nergaard to recording after a four-year absence, during which she spent time reconsidering the direction of her career. Released in March of 2000, the album presented Silje firmly as a jazz vocalist, reflecting her passion for the genre, which has always been the underlying basis of her music. Although initially meant as an homage to the art of the jazz standard that has so much influenced her, the album met with immediate success, receiving the highest critical praise from critics throughout the world. In the first week of its release, the album entered the Norwegian sales charts at no. 7, and remained in the top-twenty for 12 weeks. Such success is notably unusual for a jazz album, and especially for an artist who had not been active for the preceding four years. A single from the album, "Shame on You", landed the no. 1 spot for the summer's most requested radio play on the state-run Norwegian Broadcast Radio (NRK). Clearly, Silje Nergaard was not only back with unprecedented force, but also established herself as one of the few jazz performers to achieve critical as well as commercial success. - Mymusicbase.ru

Artist: Silje Nergaard
Album: Port of Call
Year: 2000
Label: EmArcy
Runtime: 47:08

Tracks:
1.  Me Oh My (Silje Nergaard / Mike McGurk) 3:04
2.  Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered (Richard Rodgers / Lorenz Hart) 5:25
3.  Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me (Duke Ellington / Bob Russell) 3:13
4.  If You Love Somebody (Sting) 4:05
5.  What's New (Johnny Burke / Bob Haggart) 2:25
6.  The Waltz (Silje Nergaard / Mike McGurk) 4:11
7.  You're Kind (Paul Simon)  3:39
8.  For All We Know (Fred Coots / Sam M. Lewis) 3:06
9.  Shame On You (Silje Nergaard / Mike McGurk) 4:45
10.  Every Time We Say Goodbye (Cole Porter) 5:20
11.  Dream A Little Dream (Wilbur Schwartz / Fabian Andre / Gus Kahn) 3:14
12.  Don't Explain (Arthur Herczog Jr. / Billie Holiday) 4:37

Personnel:
Silje Nergaard (Vocals)
Tord Gustavsen (Piano)
Jarle Vespestad (Drums)
Harald Johnsen (Double Bass)
Magnus Lindgren (Saxophone)
Putte Wickmann (Clarinet)
Georg Wadenius (Acoustic Guitar)
Heine Totland (Vocals) - 11

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Miki N'Doye - Tuki

N’Doye composes on the iron-tongued kalimba thumb piano, his hypnotic variations throbbing and buzzing into a vast and numinous sound field across which Per Jörgensens’s searing trumpet lines cut a plangent counter-swathe. If N’Doyes drumming and verbal extemporisations are often unremarkable in themselves, the sheer severity of the album’s sonic conception, with its discordant incursion of John Cage-style prepared piano, creates an entrancing Afro-minimalist feel that you certainly won’t be encountering anywhere else. - by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph

Artist: Mamadou N'Doye (aka Miki N'Doye)
Album: Tuki
Year: 2006
Label: ECM
Runtime: 62:33

Tracks:
1.  Intro 3:45  Jon
2.  Jahlena 4:20
3.  Loharbye 6:16
4.  Kokonum 8:31
5.  Rubato 6:23
6.  Dunya 6:06
7.  Tuki 3:27
8.  Kalimba 3:41
9.  Tonya 4:02
10.  Osa Yambe 4:11
11.  Box 4:29
12.  Me 4:11
13.  Ending 3:11
All compositions by Miki N'Doye

Personnel:
Mamadou "Miki" N'Doye (Kalimba, Tamma, M'balax, Bongo and Vocals)
Jon Balke (Keyboards and Prepared Piano)
Per Jorgensen (Trumpet)
Helge Andreas Norbakken (Percussion)
Aulay Sosseh (Vocals)
Lie Yallow (Vocals)

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