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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Before her 2019 debut album Unraveled introduced her as a songwriter with a keen ear as an arranger and composer, Aubrey Johnson had already earned widespread notice … Read More “Aubrey Johnson & Randy Ingram: Play Favorites (Sunnyside)”
A San Francisco Bay Area mainstay, vocalist Roberta Donnay has earned an avid following over the past quarter-century with a repertoire focusing on pre-bop treasures. … Read More “Roberta Donnay: Blossom-ing! (Village Jazz Cafe)”
North American jazz fans are just starting to learn the name Daniela Soledade, but in Brazil, where she was born and raised through her early … Read More “Daniela Soledade Introduces Herself”
Musically, Sarah Elizabeth Charles has been stretching her wings since the release of her last album with her band Scope, 2017’s Free of Form. The Brooklyn … Read More “Sarah Elizabeth Charles: Blank Canvas (Stretch/Ropeadope)”
What’s love got to do with it? When it comes to veteran jazz vocalist Judy Niemack, everything. Almost 45 years after she released her first … Read More “Judy Niemack: What’s Love? (Sunnyside)”
Saudade, Colour of Love isn’t so much a follow-up to Netherlands-based vocalist Maria Mendes’ 2019 album Close to Me, which won the Dutch equivalent of … Read More “Maria Mendes: Saudade, Colour of Love (Challenge)”
Some singers play it cool. Whatever language she sings in, Jackie Ryan wears her heart on her sleeve. The multilingual San Francisco Bay Area vocalist … Read More “Jackie Ryan: Recuerdos de Mi Madre (Open Art Productions)”
Casting a sensually becalming spell with her ninth album, Lauren Henderson continues her ongoing exploration of her Latin American and Caribbean roots on La Bruja, a … Read More “Lauren Henderson: La Bruja (Brontosaurus)”
The spell that Allison Wheeler casts with her debut album Winterspring felt more potent the third time through, and each subsequent spin deepened the reverie. A poetic … Read More “Allison Wheeler: Winterspring (Ubuntu)”
It’s been almost 15 years since the release of Vicki Burns’ last CD, and judging by Lotus Blossom Days, her third album, she’s been putting her … Read More “Vicki Burns: Lotus Blossom Days (ViBu Jazz)”
Vocalist Sachal Vasandani and pianist Romain Collin introduced their neighborly musical partnership on 2021’s Midnight Shelter, a quiet and often ravishing collection of songs that emerged … Read More “Sachal Vasandani/Romain Collin: Still Life (Edition)”
You want to get the word about Bird? Sheila Jordan, doyenne of jazz singers and 93 years young, continues to share the gospel of bebop, … Read More “Sheila Jordan: Live at Mezzrow (SmallsLIVE/Cellar)”
Angélique Kidjo’s new album with Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf represents something of a demotion. Earlier this year she starred in an original theatrical production created with … Read More “Angélique Kidjo/Ibrahim Maalouf: Queen of Sheba (Mi’ster Productions)”
Lizz Wright’s seventh album, Holding Space, is a glorious declaration of independence. It’s the first release on her artist-centric new label Blues & Greens Records, a … Read More “Lizz Wright: Holding Space (Blues & Greens)”
Brazil is renowned for appreciating the importance of uproarious celebration, but even in a culture organized around Carnaval, Tetel Di Babuya seems determined to be the … Read More “Tetel Di Babuya: Meet Tetel (Arkadia)”
Vocalist and composer Jewlia Eisenberg didn’t just record albums documenting a set of tunes. She created entire worlds. Working mostly with her band Charming Hostess, … Read More “Charming Hostess: The Ginzburg Geography (Tzadik)”
Dozens of Ph.D. dissertations will be written examining music created during the first two years of COVID-19. I expect Jeremy Siskind’s Songs of Rebirth will … Read More “Jeremy Siskind: Songs of Rebirth (Outside In)”
The short list of active jazz vocalists forged in the crucible of the 1950s scene, when earning esteem required honing an individual sound, includes Carol … Read More “Carol Sloane: Live at Birdland (Club 44)”
Any artist who consistently bestows joy and pleasure is someone to treasure. Thankfully, Catherine Russell has been releasing albums on the regular since her 2006 … Read More “Catherine Russell: Send for Me (Dot Time)”
Based in British Columbia’s picturesque capital of Victoria, jazz vocalist and songwriter Angela Verbrugge introduced herself with 2019’s captivating debut The Night We Couldn’t Say … Read More “Angela Verbrugge: Love for Connoisseurs (Gut Strings)”
Melissa Errico isn’t a jazz singer, but for the past two decades she was the vocalist of choice for Michel Legrand and Stephen Sondheim, collaborating … Read More “Melissa Errico: Out of the Dark: The Film Noir Project (Ghostlight)”
Anna Laura Quinn’s debut album doesn’t sound like the work of an ingenue. Her first full-length release artfully threads the jazz needle, paying direct tribute … Read More “Anna Laura Quinn: Open the Door (Outside In)”
Youth is an overrated attribute in jazz. The advantages that accrue with a little mileage have been particularly evident in the emergence of several excellent … Read More “Eugenie Jones: Players (Openmic)”
Is there any instrument that comes more freighted with specific sonic associations than the harp? A handful of notes summons a celestial tableau, complete with … Read More “Tara Minton and Ed Babar: Two for the Road (Jazzizit)”
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)”
