jazz2love

Album:  Looking For Light Artists:  Shiri Zorn and George Muscatello Label Name: Self-Released Website: shirizorn.com Facebook (artist page): https://www.facebook.com/shirizornvocalist Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shirizornband YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCqGtlBdNSGUR-dDH_tYin2w Bandcamp Link: https://shirizorn.bandcamp.com/album/into-another-land Looking for the Light is the second offering from Israeli-born vocalist Shiri Zorn, accompanied by guitarist George Muscatello and Brazilian percussionist Mauricio Zottarelli.  The effort is a sequel to Zorn's debut album Into Another Land .   Both albums share a penchant for warm aesthetics and a luxurious sonic landscape, bringing together various musical cultures from American torchsong to Latin smooth swing and Middle Eastern folklore.  The trio is a congregation of voice, guitar, and percussion, rising to the level of an inviting global luau or scintillating fiesta. The Latin trimmings of "Nothi...

Album:  Windows Through Time Artist:  Mariah Parker Label:  Ancient-Future.com Records Website: mariahparkermusic.com Mariah Parker’s compositions on her 2024 release Windows Through Time are characteristic of her penchant to explore Latin rhythms combined with wordless chanting and melodic interfacing, compiling a bounty of sonically soaring structures.  The vivacious voicing of Paul McCandless's saxophone is complimented by the elegant stride of Parker's piano keys and the soothing vibrations of Matthew Montfort's scalloped fretboard guitar.  The rhythm section of Ian Dogole on cymbals and cajon along with drummer Mark Walker, bassists Sascha Jacobsen, Kash Killion and Gary Brown, and percussionists Daniel Feldman and Michaelle Goerlitz cup the spacious soundscapes in a steady hold, solidifying the tracks harmonious flow. Parker's track "Sol de Barcelona" has a vibrant Latin beat that transports the listener into an ecstatic state of mind.  With a flare ...

Album:  Spirit Artist:  Peter Calandra Website:  https://www.petecalandramusic.com/   Spirit , the latest release from neo-classical composer and chamber jazz pianist Peter Calandra, illustrates reflections brought to the canvas in melodic form.  From soothing lullabys to majestic landscapes, the music is expressive, introspective, and deeply sentimental.  Calandra's solo works demonstrate his keen melodic sensibilities and instinctive sense of synchronicity.  A native of orchestral tones and organic musings, Calandra creates fluidly versed stories, garnished in glittering notes and ethereal emanations. The compositions flow seamlessly, turning another page in the recording's journal with each track.  The earthy textures of his keys ruminate with an intuitive stroke along "The Weight," transitioning into the pensive mood of "Reflective Romance," puncturing the track with swirling doodles on the piano keys, peppered lightly across the melodic progr...

Album:  Our April Tigers Artist:  Michael Whalen Label:  MWM/Spout (Six Degrees Distribution/InGrooves) Website:  https://www.michaelwhalen.com When singer-songwriter Yoko Ono made a guest appearance on the 1990's TV sitcom Mad About You, she requested that the documentary filmmaker Paul Buchman, played by Paul Reiser, create a film about the wind.  Bandleader Michael Whalen has not made a film about the wind but he has certainly made a recording that from the listener's viewpoint sonically illustrates the movements the wind, putting into a tangible form what the wind communicates from what it sees.  Imagine the wind in the role of an observer of the temporal world, and the audience is hearing what this observer sees and communicates using music as its form of expression. Whalen's latest offering Our April Tigers projects such a sonic imagery laden in thought-provoking symphonies that audiences will relate to the sounds of nature from the voices of its eth...