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Imola Vida-Veres is a new artist and she’s got an exquisite voice and compositional chops. She sings in both Hungarian and English, naturally with a slight, but charming accent reminiscent of the fabulous Polish songstress, Basia from the 1980s. Imola’s got an airiness to her vocals that can go from a gentle wind to full gusts pretty quickly showing both grace and power. The accompanying musicians are all locked in and include several Hungarian string players as well as GroundUP/Snarky Puppy stalwarts Bob Lanzetti, Keita Ogawa, Marcelo Woloski, Bobby Sparks and André Ferrari (Bokanté). Nic Hard, Snarky’s long term soundContinue Reading

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Every Greyboy Allstars album release is a time to celebrate and I’m loving listening to all the gifts in Grab Bag: 2007 – 2023. It’s an eclectic mix of songs that the band had played life but never recorded over the last several years. In that sense, and because of the warmth and style of the album, it feels gorgeously familiar. It’s a testament to the collective experience of the group as bandmates and as craftsmen with other artists. The five fit together seamlessly and they weave in and out of the tunes with adroitness.  This absolutely hits the sweetContinue Reading

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Electric Kif is one of the leading funk fusion foursomes of the early 21st century and, I believe, have the gravitas to be among those bands that are listened to for decades, as their predecessors, Weather Report and Return to Forever have been. That’s a lofty statement, for sure, but the textures and contours of their tunes merit such praise and ReThink is a marvelous addition to their portfolio as the sixth studio album.   Buy or Stream ReThink(click on image) The band has been around for nearly 15 years and in the current configuration for more than 10.  They’veContinue Reading

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New Cool Collective is one of my favorite bands of the last twenty years. Every single album is top notch starting with Soul Jazz Latin in 1997! Now, Everything is OK! is one of my top albums of 2024! NCC from Amsterdam, is one of today’s leaders in Afrobeat music and the name of that debut album set the stage for the evolution of their sound. In 2005, they collaborated with legend Tony Allen (cofounder of Afrobeat with Fela Kuti) on their album Trippin’ and they’ve never looked back. Today, if you consider an Afrobeat spectrum from happy to dark,Continue Reading

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Eliane Elias is one of the most glorious, distinguished jazz vocalists of our lifetimes. She’s complied 32 albums with eleven Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations with two Grammys and two Latin Grammy Award wins to date. Time and Again has been nominated for another Grammy in the Best Latin Jazz Album category to be announced early next year. I’ve been a listener and fan of this wonderful Brazilian artist sing she arrived in New York in the early 1980s. Initially, I was drawn in when Eliane was a member of the cutting edge band Steps Ahead which was formed byContinue Reading

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Big Party is the fifth studio album from the band Forq with the first coming 10 years ago in 2014. Henry Hey, the band’s composer and keyboardist is one of the cofounders along with Michael League (Snarky Puppy). The album is a blast, a mix of fusion, funk, rock, whimsy and electronica all in a delectable recipe. It’s damn near impossible to listen to this album and not have a smile on your face. It’s like you’re at a house party and these great players hash out some deep-groove jams that change directions and feel great. All of the musiciansContinue Reading

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Claro e Escuro (Light and Dark) is the first collaboration of Justin Stanton and Chris Bullock together as a duo. Stanton and Bullock are members of the instrumental collaborative, Snarky Puppy and have each released prior solo albums. Both are multiinstrumentalists, with Stanton regularly playing keys and trumpet and Bullock all saxophones and flute as well as synths so this was bound to be an interesting combination. In addition, Stanton relocated to Portugal a few years back and Bullock traveled extensively in Brazil and South America so that flair naturally ended up on the record. Claro e Escuro, was recordedContinue Reading

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Can I Tell You Something? is Mark Lettieri’s ninth album as a leader and it’s a fantastic addition to the collection. Many listeners will know Mark as one of the guitarists in  the Grammy-winning band Snarky Puppy or the collaborative funk band The Fearless Flyers. He’s also put out a string of successful albums including Deep: The Baritone Sessions Vol. 1 &  2 (Read our coverage of Vol. 2 here) which leaned heavy on the funk. This album primarily features the touring Mark Lettieri Group including Wes Stephenson on bass (Funky Knuckles), Jason “JT” Thomas on drums (Snarky Puppy, FORQ) andContinue Reading

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Kinga Głyk has put out a truly transcendent album “Real Life.” It’s easy to lose yourself along the complex, multipath journey that is comprised of twelve individually adventurous songs. Kinga is a young Polish-French bassist and composer that was unfamiliar with until very recently. She was scheduled to perform at GroundUP Music Festival but was unable to because of an accident and then I was supposed to see her at North Sea Jazz in Rotterdam but was unable to attend. With Snarky Puppy’s Michael League as my sherpa, I know he’ll always lead me to some of the world’s absolutelyContinue Reading