Christopher Loudon
Christopher’s Contributions
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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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ReportAbout Christopher Loudon
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.