Jazz and Classical Interviews
Front Page Jazz and Classical Interview Archive
Barbara Dennerlein - Blues Album
Barbara
Dennerlein has long been considered one of the world’s foremost Blues
and Jazz Hammond B3 organists and composers and in more recent years has
added to her musical palette by playing the same music on pipe organs.
The affable artist who lives in Germany took time out from her busy
schedule to chat with Riveting Riffs Magazine about her first ever
compilation albumm Best of Blues:
Through the Yearss. “There are two
things that came together, one is I love Blues and my roots are Blues.
For a long time I wanted to do something with the Blues, because I have
a lot of contact with the audience when I play concerts. Over the years
many people have asked me on which of your CDs are the most Blues
compositions? I realized that one day I should do some kind of a Blues
compilation (album). This has been in my mind for many years and I have
thirty-three years of Bebab Records, which is my own label. I thought it
would be nice to do it now. I have been in the business for long enough
now to do a compilation from my label,” she says, laughing lightly..
Because it is a
compilation album, it is important to note that the songs were all
recorded at different times throughout the years and then remastered
recently.. Barbara Dennerlein says, “First I had to pick the songs I wanted on the
album. There were many Blues compositions (that I recorded) over the
years. The difficult part was to pick the ones that I want on the
compilation.. There are so
many that I like. |
Ada Rovatti & Randy Brecker
There
is something about sitting down for an interview with two people whom
you have known for many years, although most of that from a distance,
that has more of the feel of friends getting together for a visit, a
comfortable conversation if you like. Ada Rovatti and Randy Brecker’s
new album, Brecker Plays Rovatti:
Sacred Bond creates that same mood when you listen to the collection
of songs composed and arranged by Ada Rovatti. The musicians who play on
the album were drawn together by Randy Brecker and the album was
masterfully recorded at Bunker Studios by Aaron Nevezie, while Cynthia
Daniels put her magical touch on the mixing and mastering of the album.
Just a word about Cynthia Daniels, we could not possibly do justice to
her career, the many artists with whom she has worked, or the Broadway
productions, films and television shows that have her fingerprints on
them, so we encourage you to visit
her website.
|
Gretchen Parlato & Flor
Ten
years had gone by since Jazz singer, composer and lyricist Gretchen
Parlato and I last sat down to have a chat. A lot had changed both in
the world and in Gretchen Parlato’s life during that time. She moved
from New York City back to Los Angeles to be closer to her family, she
got married and she now has a seven-year-old son. She received a Grammy
Award nomination, Best Jazz Vocal Album, in 2015 for her album, Live
in New York City. Her sense of humor, which was so evident a decade
ago is still evident and as we talked over the phone she was just as
insightful, introspective and still comfortable in her own skin. Ten years ago, she told this writer, “The goal
of art is to reflect who you are and to reflect your life. It has been a
process for me to get to that place and to realize that it is okay to
not try to sound like anyone else or to try to be like anyone else. It
is just being completely honest and open and vulnerable. I want to be
versatile, but I also want to sound like me.”
Did she still feel the same and does her new
album Flor (her quartet has the same name), reflect that same
sentiment?
She enlightened us, “I am pleased with my thirty-five year old self for
saying that (she laughs lightly). I would agree, that was my path then
and it was my self-realization then. It is definitely a continued path
now. Our art is a reflection of our life, so my life now and for the
past seven years of motherhood is very different than when I was
thirty-five, single, independent, and |
Diane Marino at Her Best!
In
what may be her best album to date,
Soul Serenade the Gloria Lynne
Project, Nashville based pianist and Jazz singer Diane Marino brings
to life the songs of Gloria Lynne whose career spanned a phenomenal six
decades. Marino talks about her decision to delve into
Lynne’s catalogue, “I wasn’t too familiar with her, but I heard the name
years ago. While I was doing a gig up in New York my drummer was Vince
Ector and he was Gloria’s drummer for the last fifteen years of her
life. He knew all of the material very well.
We were doing a tune called “I Am Glad There Is You,” which I
recorded on another album many years (earlier) and I didn’t realize it
was one of her signature songs. When we played it on the gig Vince told
me that. Then he said her big song was “I Wish You Love,” and that I
know and I sing it too. It got the wheels
turning and I investigated her catalogue of music. I thought these are
really cool tunes. I had not heard a lot of them. She also recorded a
lot of standards, but the songs that we picked out for this CD I had
never heard before.” As for why this particular selection of songs
she says, “It is a combination of the song and how she sang them. It is
great stuff. How do you put your finger on how it struck you
|
Diane Marino - I Hear Music
As
the world and in particular the performing artists emerged from two
years of being shutdown, locked down, out of work during the pandemic it
has been interesting to watch the creative juices start to flow again
and to observe the results of the creative juices that kept flowing
during those two years. Some treasures have emerged by numerous artists
in various genres of music. Diane Marino whom Riveting Riffs Magazine
has had the pleasure of interviewing and she befriended us over the past
fifteen years or so, recently released a new Jazz album, I Hear Music
and, in our opinion, it is the best vocal performance we have heard from
Diane Marino yet and that says a lot, because she was very good to begin
with. “I started (this
album) not long after COVID was in lockdown. I have lost track of the
years. What was that 2020 or something? A lot of people took advantage
of that time and there was a lot of creativity going on. That is
probably what happened here too,” recalls Diane Marino. Continuing she
says, “I was researching the songs and looking for the next project,
before COVID even hit and we said what are we going to do now. It forces
you to spend more time focusing on what you want to do. You weren’t
going anyplace. You weren’t working. You weren’t doing anything.
|
Allyson Morris - Jazz Album
CHILL…me
some jazz,
the new album from Canadian singer and songwriter Allyson Morris, is
sultry, sexy and innovative. It may also very well be the best Jazz
album produced in Canada in decades. The country has produced several
outstanding Jazz singers and musicians, but few albums produced in
Canada measure up to the quality that Allyson Morris and her producer /
arranger Asher Ettinger created at Asher Music Studio in Toronto.
The album opens with an old David Frishberg song, “Peel Me a Grape,” for
which a sultry, mysterious, almost James Bond like companion video was
filmed. The creation of the video has a hint of mystery to it with two
Peters and an Allyson, during a pandemic.
Allyson Morris recalls, “I ran into an old friend (Peter Clifford) who
is in the film industry. I played the album for him and he loved “Peel
Me a Grape.” He said you need
a video
Allyson. Nobody in the film industry was working in Toronto, because of
COVID. That conversation was in June of 2020.
Peter
Faragher started writing out the storyboard with my friend Peter
Clifford who has an old 1968 Delta 88 car, and we did that video on a
Sunday afternoon when it wasn’t busy, down University Avenue (Toronto)
and we |
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