Artist: Pablo Aslan
Title: Contrabajo
Label: Soundbrush Records
Genre: nu-tango/contemporary music/jazz
Available on: cdbaby, Discogs, itunes, Amazon and major streaming sites
Review by Fiona Mactaggart
This uplifting and luminescent new album from Argentinian born, Brooklyn based double bassist Pablo Aslan, is a real find.
Date: February 2, 2019
Venue: The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland
Review by Fiona Mactaggart
The inaugural three-day long Thrill festival of Belgian and Scottish jazz, opened on this winter night with an uplifting evening entitled “Beyond Django”.
First up were guests, Les Violons De Bruxelles (LVDB) led by inestimable Belgian Manouche virtuoso violinist, guitarist and singer, Tcha Limberger. Mirroring iconic 30s Quintette du Hot Club de France, but using just one guitar (played with brio by Renaud d’Ardenne), two violins (Limberger and Renauld Crols), a viola (Alexandre Tripodi) and a double bass (Hungarian Vilmos Csikos), their sound gave all respect to Django Reinhardt but in no way sounded dated.
Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo
By Dawoud Kringle
The U.S. government has been operating under a partial shutdown since Dec. 22, 2018. Trump is in political battle, holding our nation hostage for the $5.7 billion down payment to fund a wall along the border with Mexico.
Artist: Jeanne Gies & Howard Alden
Title: Window: The Music of Manu Lafer
Label: Tratore
Genre: Brazilian jazz
CD Review by Dawoud Kringle
Manu Lafer is an interesting man. A prolific and accomplished musician and composer with over 300 songs to his catalog, and a discography of over 15 CDs, he studied guitar with Luiz Tatit, Cezar Mendes Nogueira, and Ítalo Perón; and studied singing with Ná Ozzetti, Fernanda Gianesella and Wagner Barbosa. In addition to his extensive experience as a producer, arranger, and composer, Lafer also studied medicine at Escola Paulista de Medicina in at São Paulo. He earned a doctorate in pediatrics, and has worked as a visiting researcher at Columbia University in New York and with the Food and Drug Administration in Maryland.
Artist: Peter Wetzler
Title: Falling Awake
Label: Sound Forms
Genre: solo piano/nu classic/improv
CD Review by Dawoud Kringle
When I was asked to write a review of Peter Wetzler’s 2009 CD Falling Awake, I was expecting (for reasons I can’t explain) a classical pianist whose CD contained the usual standards of the genre, and one or two pieces by a living composer. My assumption was wrong, and pleasantly so.
