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Showing posts from October, 2020

Album Review: So In Love from Ashley Locheed and Chris Rottmayer

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Album:  So In Love Artists:  Ashley Locheed and Chris Rottmayer Label: Timucua Arts Foundation Website: www.chrisrottmayer.com Bandcamp: https://chrisrottmayer.bandcamp.com/album/so-in-love Clad with smooth swing sensibilities, the music of vocalist Ashley Locheed and pianist Chris Rottmayer revitalizes traditional cafe blues chirping on their latest release So In Love from Timucua Arts Foundation.  Comprised of original arrangements on an assortment of jazz standards and classic pop tunes, the pair are joined by electric bass player Chuck Archard and drummer Keith Wilson, whose untimely passing inspired the duo to dedicate the CD to Wilson's memory. Plunging into the recording, the team's rendition of Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight" is coated in silky aesthetics helmed by Rottmayer's reflective musings while the feline softness in Locheed's register adds a buttery polish to the track that is of the elk of legendary jazz crooners.  Her vocal elasticity

Album Review: Live in California from Dan Costa

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Album:  Live in California Artist:  Dan Costa Label:  Self-Released Website:  https://www.dancosta.net Live in California , the new recording from pianist/composer Dan Costa is performed live at Kuumbwa Jazz in California on February 29, 2020.  A collection of original compositions by Costa are mingled with jazz standards from Brazilian composers including Antonio Carlos Jobim, Roberto Menescal, and Ivan Guimarães Lins.  An evening with Costa puts listeners in an uplifting mood. Costa's piano keys move in a poetic fashion, flickering with charming nimbleness in "Baião" and elegant brushstrokes across "Tempos Sentidos." His treatment of Lins's ballad "Love Dance" demonstrates the graceful pose in his swagger.  Skillfully, he threads dynamic turns along the phrasing of "Maracatu," and infuses classic jazz piano verbalization across Jobim's masterpiece "Garota de Ipanema." Live in California is Costa's third release follow