Christopher Loudon

Christopher’s Contributions

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12/15/12    Vox

(Re) Generet(ion)
Gregory Generet

For most of his artistic life, Gregory Generet has toiled as a post-production editor for various CBS news and sports programs, netting three Emmys for his efforts. An ardent jazz fan with a latent desire to become a vocalist, Generet established a wide...

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12/13/12    Vox

Black Orchid
Malia

When Malawian vocalist Malia first broke through in the mid-aughts, it was with the dense, production-heavy albums Yellow Daffodils and Young Bones . Overflowing with pop-soul sass, they were filled with both slick originals like “Mr. Candy” and “Richer...

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12/11/12    Vox

Soul Shadows
Denise Donatelli

Wisely adhering to the if-it-ain’t-broke adage, Denise Donatelli follows up 2008’s What Lies Within and 2010’s Grammy-nominated When Lights Are Low with a third partnership with musical director, arranger and pianist Geoffrey Keezer. The title is taken from...

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12/09/12    Vox

Soul Flower
Robin McKelle & the Flytones

Not since Dusty Springfield invaded Memphis has a white female singer dished up so flavorful a bucket of soul. Robin McKelle’s passion for classic American R&B—not the pasteurized pop produced by Motown, but the raw stuff that poured forth from Stax and...

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12/06/12    Vox

Night
Holly Cole

Though Canadian chanteuse Holly Cole and her longtime trio mates, pianist Aaron Davis and bassist David Piltch, released their first live album a few months ago, five years have passed since their last studio session. In the interim, Cole seems to have shifted...

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12/03/12    Vox

Espresso Manifesto: The Songs of Paolo Conte
Daniela Nardi

The title of Toronto-based singer Daniela Nardi’s latest album alludes to the dark richness of singer-songwriter Paolo Conte, one of Italy’s most beloved artists, his nation’s answer to Jacques Brel or Leonard Cohen. But the title is equally evocative of...

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11/29/12    Vox

I Carry Your Heart
Alexis Cole

Earlier this fall, a mammoth labor of love by Gary Carner, sax giant Pepper Adams’ biographer and discographer, finally came to fruition with Motéma’s digital release of the five-volume tribute Pepper Adams’ Joy Road Project , featuring contemporary recordings...

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11/26/12    Vox

A Ghost in Every Bar: The Lyrics of Fran Landesman
Ian Shaw

Among lyricists, Fran Landesman was a master of mise en scène , framing immaculate, insightful playlets that could be witty, wicked, joyous or heartbreaking, often all at once. Landesman always delivered the unvarnished truth, simply yet eloquently stating...

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11/23/12    Vox

Love Lost and Found Again
LaVerne Butler

A full decade has passed since LaVerne Butler’s previous album, yet her voice remains impeccably beautiful, her phrasing still pristine and her tone invitingly warm. Also intact, however, is her nagging lack of interpretive imagination. Like the MaxJazz...

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11/18/12    Albums

Glad Rag Doll
Diana Krall

Diana Krall insists that this survey of tunes mostly from the 1920s and early ’30s isn’t a period piece, positing, “We all just went in there as if these songs were written yesterday.” If so, somebody forgot to tell the rest of “we all,” because the players...

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11/15/12    Albums

Secret of the Wind
Elisabeth Kontomanou Featuring Geri Allen

Vocalist Elisabeth Kontomanou first met pianist Geri Allen in March 2011, when both were invited to participate in a Billie Holiday tribute presented in Montreal by the Jazz en Rafale festival. They immediately bonded, igniting a lively correspondence that...

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11/11/12    Albums

Soulception
Monday Michiru

She is a major star in her native Japan, equally renowned for her award-winning film work and her genre-blurring musical skills. Now based in New York and married to trumpeter Alex Sipiagin, Monday Michiru has also gained significant recognition among the...

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11/08/12    Albums

Sweet Happy Life
Connie Evingson

Seventeen years and nine albums into a sterling recording career, Connie Evingson is a singer who likes her themes. Past projects have included tributes to Peggy Lee, the Beatles, Dave Frishberg and the Hot Club jazz of Django Reinhardt. Now the Minnesotan...

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11/05/12    Albums

Introducing Letizia Gambi
Letizia Gambi

So often, across all of the arts, a powerful career liftoff requires more than just raw talent. Considerable guts, and a certain degree of luck, are also required, as Letizia Gambi learned while traveling the serpentine path that led to her debut recording...

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10/30/12    Albums

Travelin' Light
Dena DeRose

This hour-long session, captured over three nights at Antwerp’s Chromatic Attic in springtime 2010, isn’t Dena DeRose’s first live album. Indeed, she’s delivered nothing but live albums since the mid-2000s. But it does mark the first time, across a career...

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10/26/12    Albums

Live
Randy Crawford and Joe Sample

Though the careers of jazz-soul vocalist Randy Crawford and pianist Joe Sample have been intersecting for over three decades, dating back to Crawford’s 1979 teaming with the Crusaders on “Street Life,” a brief but perfect storm occurred a while back, when...

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About Christopher Loudon

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When the rest of the baby-boomers were wrapped up in the Beatles and the Stones, Christopher Loudon was discovering Sinatra, Fitzgerald and Bennett. Since 2003, Loudon has critiqued upwards of 700 vocal albums in these pages and shaped about a dozen profiles, including Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, Harry Connick Jr., Roberta Gambarini, Jamie Cullum, Nancy Wilson, Curtis Stigers and Dianne Reeves.