PHILLIP HAMILTON - HEALING WATERS
Philip
Hamilton is one of the most captivating voices in music today. The New York
Times calls this inventive vocalist and composer “contemporary and cutting-edge”
for his explosive recordings and performances. Hamilton has a voice that
displays a combination of majesty, power and intimacy like Nina Simone and Bob
Marley. His music is a funky layered blend of rock, jazz and blues with global
grooves and sensibilities that is reminiscent of Massive Attack, Sting and
Stevie Wonder. Hamilton has brought his distinctive sound to many of the
world’s leading concert halls and music festivals, including New York’s Lincoln
Center, Indonesia’s Java Jazz festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Joy of
Jazz Festival in Johannesburg, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Kaunas
Jazz in Lithuania and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. He has performed and recorded with many
notable artists from various genres including Jazz (Mike Stern, the Pat Metheny
Group, Ronny Jordan), World Music (Gilberto Gil, Ivan Lins, Sara Tavares), Rock
(Donald Fagan/Steely Dan, Vernon Reid), Dance (Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theater, Ballet Hispanico) Classical (John Cage, Boston Symphony Orchestra,
Tobias String Quartet) and the Jam Band scene (John Medeski, Billy Martin,
Medeski, Martin & Wood). He has also been the featured vocalist for several
prominent jazz fusion groups throughout his career including Spyro Gyra, Steps
Ahead, Special EFX, Sixun and Full Circle.
PLUNKY & ONENESS - NEVER TOO LATE
One of
the deeper albums we've heard from Plunky in awhile – a set that's still got
some of the smoother jazzy styles of his past decade or two, but one that also
seems to offer a lot of input from a younger, fresher generation too! The
"Oneness" on the cover is well-put – as the whole thing almost seems
to be a Neo Soul reworking of his older Oneness Of Juju material from the late
70s/early 80s – that point when Plunky took his spiritual jazz modes, and
forged them with a bit more of a dancefloor groove – a style that echoes all
the older Oneness elements, but with a more contemporary vibe overall. Titles
include the original numbers "Be About The Future", "Never Too
Late", "A New Fantasy", "Space Jungle Love", "Sax
Afrique", "Tableau Noir", and "Tribal Vibe". ~ Dusty Groove
JOHN ZORN - THE HERMETIC ORGAN: ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL
John Zorn
really takes off here with some amazing sounds on the organ of St Paul's Chapel
– an exploration of the large pipe organ variant of the instrument, really
pushed to the limits in a way that recalls Zorn's early experiments on alto
sax! Despite the "hermetic" in the title, which might make you think
of some private proceedings, or stowaway sounds – the album's got this very
spacious, room-widening sort of feel – as Zorn really reaches forth with new sonic
possibilities and very dark tones – of the sort that hardly befit the usual
uses of a chapel of that nature. There's lots of very deep, bass-heavy notes in
the mix – and titles include "Ascent Into the Maelstrom",
"Prayer", "In Gloria Dei", "Battle Of The
Angels", and "Holy Spirit" – all improvised by Zorn. ~ Dusty Groove
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