MESHELL
NDEGEOCELLO – VENTRILOQUISM
Some albums
are testimony, some confessions and some are escape. Ventriloquism, the latest
album from Meshell Ndegeocello, is a place, like its process, to take refuge
from one storm too many. Ventriloquism has the hallmarks of all of
Ndegeocello’s work, lush and investigative, subversive and sublime. As always,
she pays tribute to her diverse influences in these eleven covers. Meshell
chose art for the album package that hints at what’s inside: A graphic V, a
hidden M, the artwork is symbolic, sexy, and calls on the language of protest
of the era from which these songs were mined.
ROBERT
GLASPER – ROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENT: LIVE (DVD)
On their
star-studded, chart-topping Black Radio albums, Robert Glasper Experiment laid
out a new paradigm for creative music, reaching beyond entrenched genre
boundaries to create a singular vision that draws from all reaches of
contemporary black music and beyond. The concert film Robert Glasper Experiment
- Live features the 2-time Grammy-winning band in their element, capturing the
thrilling, genre-defying group live on stage from New York and Los Angeles to
Shanghai and Rotterdam. This program presents favorite songs from the Black
Radio albums and more with special guests including Lalah Hathaway, Bilal,
Wayne Brady, B. Slade, Algebra Blessett, and the Metropole Orchestra conducted
by Vince Mendoza.
SUSAN KREBS
CHAMBER BAND – SPRING: LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS
Spring: Light Out of Darkness is Susan Krebs' sixth album as a leader and the second
recording project for the Susan Krebs Chamber Band. The idea for the jazz
chamber band grew from salons hosted by jazz vocalist Krebs at her home, in
which she and a small group of her close friends get together in front of an
invited audience to explore various motifs through wide-ranging music, poetry
and improvisation. The overarching concept that binds the seven tunes on this
CD is renewal. Like many people, Krebs is concerned about the problems that
beset our country and, indeed, the whole world. For Krebs, change has to begin
on a personal level. She connects to the world both as a musical artist and as
a serious gardener, attuned to the rhythms of the natural world. Joined by some of the finest jazz players in
Southern California, the album comprises a mix of musical genres imbued with a
jazz sensibility. “SPRING ~ Light Out of Darkness” is infused with a reverence
for nature, and, as with all of Krebs’ recordings and live performances, it is
also filled with her hopeful vision and generous soul.
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