Andrew Gilbert is a Berkeley-based freelancer who has written about arts and culture since 1989 for numerous publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, East Bay Express, Berkeleyside, and KQED’s California Report. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he experienced a series of mind-blowing epiphanies listening to jazz masters at Kuumbwa Jazz Center in the late 1980s, performances he remembers more vividly than the gigs he saw last month.
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Deeply informed by jazz but unbounded by idiomatic boundaries, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Becca Stevens is an x-factor artist who always seems to take music … Read More “Becca Stevens: Wonderbloom (GroundUP)”
On her first two albums, Nashville pianist/vocalist Kandace Springs focused on songs of recent vintage by leading pop/jazz composers like Jesse Harris and tunes that … Read More “Kandace Springs: The Women Who Raised Me (Blue Note)”
José James was already a force to be reckoned with when he released his fourth album, No Beginning No End, in 2013. For that Blue Note … Read More “José James: No Beginning No End 2 (Rainbow Blonde)”
A vivacious vocalist with a winning, unpretentious stage presence, Denmark’s Sinne Eeg has been something of a go-to collaborator for the Danish Radio Big Band. … Read More “Sinne Eeg & the Danish Radio Big Band: We’ve Just Begun (BFM Jazz)”
With her delightful but unsettling mix of whimsy and earnest irony, Kat Edmonson is a vocalist who can get inside your head and keep you … Read More “Kat Edmonson: Dreamers Do (Spinnerette)”
Singers often describe duo performances as a wanton act of exposure, a setting that presents the voice naked and open for close inspection. Two new … Read More “Norma Winstone & John Taylor: In Concert/ Jay Clayton & Jerry Granelli: Alone Together (Sunnyside)”
Concept albums seem to come naturally to Karrin Allyson. Since she first started making records in the mid-1990s, she’s found numerous ways to organize her … Read More “Karrin Allyson Sextet: Shoulder to Shoulder: Centennial Tribute to Women’s Suffrage (eOne)”
Joe Henderson made it clear from the beginning that if he and Laurie Antonioli were going to spend time together she needed to read up … Read More “Overdue Ovation: Laurie Antonioli”
If La Tanya Hall’s second album sounds far more poised, polished, and, well, accomplished than the typical sophomore release, it’s because she’s a well-traveled artist … Read More “La Tanya Hall: Say Yes (Blue Canoe)”
Some of the most interesting singers on the scene came to performance at midlife, after building non-musical careers and/or families: artists like Gail Pettis, René Marie, … Read More “Michelle Lordi: Break Up with the Sound (Cabinet of Wonder)”
Jazz was an essential component of Nora York’s artistry, but the polymathic performer inhabited numerous realms where her high-caliber intellectual firepower and boundless emotional insight … Read More “Nora York With Jamie Lawrence: Swoon (Good Mood)”
