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.
Artist: Lucas Pino’s No Net Nonet
Title: That’s a Computer
Label: Outside In Music
Genre: jazz
CD Review by Dawoud Kringle
“That’s a Computer!” This remark was thrown at tenor saxophonist / bass clarinetist Lucas Pino by one of his teachers at Julliard, in a less than diplomatic attempt to dismiss one of Pino’s idols.
Artist: Future350 Nu Bossa
Title: Songs for the Amygdala
Label: Movita Records
Genre: nu Bossa/world
CD review by Dawoud Kringle
The amygdale is one of two almond-shaped clusters of nuclei located deep and medially within the temporal lobes of the brain in complex vertebrates, including humans. As part of the limbic system, it performs a primary role in the processing of memory, decision-making and emotional responses.
