Rodney Carmichael for NPR: In the canon of R&B, the ’80s are frequently dismissed as the genre’s most soulless decade. Nelson George called it “the death of rhythm and blues” in his book of the same name, citing the now infamous Harvard Report on marketing black music (commissioned by then-CBS Records exec Clive Davis) as the impetus for the industry’s switch from indifference to a vested interest in R&B. By 1980, he writes, CBS’ roster of black artists had jumped from two to 125 — and as the decade progressed, that sonic integration led to a watered-down R&B sound. Synthesizers replaced live bands. Commercial radio quelled the funk with the Quiet Storm. “Crossover” became the profit motive for packaging black artists for white consumption.

But if you were coming of age in the ’80s, like a teenaged Michelle Lynn Johnson — who took on the name Meshell Ndegeocello around the same time Prince began musing over the woman in the raspberry beret — all those behind-the-scenes industry machinations are incidental to a period whose output soundtracked your adolescence with some of the most emotionally indulgent R&B and pop of the latter 20th century. Meshell Ndegeocello has always been a soul conjurer of sorts, bent but never bound by tradition. With her latest body of work, Ventriloquism, out March 16, she splits the difference — stitching together a wide swath of songs that reflect what we remember, and even regret, of the era in which her own artistic sensibilities were taking root, distilling its clichés into a rootsy, bluesy folk romp.

As with most cover sets, the story is in the song selection. What may at first seem like a random mix of one-off hits from beloved-but-unsung artists (Force MDs, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Surface, Al B. Sure!) and influential megastars (George Clinton, Tina Turner, Janet Jackson, Sade) is actually a carefully curated homage to some of the era’s definitive sonic innovators. It’s a perfect collection for an artist whose genre-bending fusion of rock, soul, funk and R&B befuddled an industry still beholden to racially-coded designations (i.e. “urban”) when she entered the scene.

Listen to Ventriloquism on NPR

Meshell Ndegeocello on TKA

Congrats to Stacey Kent, whose new album “I Know I Dream” won Vocal Album of the Year at the Jazz Japan Awards!

“It’s often said that the most sophisticated jazz audiences in the world these days are to be found in Japan. So I’m delighted, but not surprised, that Stacey has won this important award for her beautiful new album. She’s one of the truly great jazz singers of this or any other era – and one of the most subtle. Her brilliant technique works through understatement, nuance and implication to create complex shades of feeling. In other words, she exemplifies the kind of artistic qualities Japanese people have understood and celebrated for centuries. It’s been a privilege for me to write lyrics for her over these past ten years, and I’m so glad I was again allowed to contribute to this superb new record. I hope Japanese jazz fans will go on from here to have a long, deep love affair with Stacey Kent’s music.” – KAZUO ISHIGURO, Novelist, Lyricist, Nobel Laureate

 

Stacey Kent on TKA

Lizzie Manno for PASTE MAGAZINE – Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn have released a new music video for “Let It Go,” taken from their 2017 album, Echo In The Valley.

This banjo-playing duo (and married couple) won a 2016 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album for their self-titled debut album and last year, the band released their follow-up album, Echo In The Valley, to critical acclaim.

”’Let It Go’ is an important song for our family,” Fleck and Washburn tell Paste. “Having a child is a constant process of letting go, starting with birth. It’s both exciting to see our son Juno spread his wings, and simultaneously sad to see him move independently out into the world. The song was also designed so it can be about other things, involving relationships and personal growth as we put things behind us and lean into the future … It’s up to the listener to find the meaning that resonates for them.”

Read the full article and watch the video here

Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn on TKA

FRONTVIEW MAGAZINE – Accomplice One, full of standouts, Tommy Emmanuel delivers a jaw-dropping rendition of “Purple Haze” with Dobro master Jerry Douglas that captures all the fire and energy of the Hendrix original as the two modern masters push each other to new heights with each raunchy slide and bend. “

Tommy about the new song: “I tried to think of a way of annoying bluegrass purists and my idea was to get Jerry Douglas to play Purple Haze with me! This recording is one take and totally spontaneous. I’m still not sure if I followed him or if he followed me, but we both ended up in the same place – and then laughed about it. Jerry, to me, is a genius and has a beautiful attitude towards making music and I’m very grateful to have him as a friend.”

Watch The Soul Rebels, referred to by CBS as “the hippest brass band in the land,” sits in with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert house band to kick off this year’s Mardis Gras celebration in style.

The band has several engagements lined up in New York City in March before performing several shows with Talib Kweli and GZA on the East Coast. The Soul Rebels will play the national anthem at a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. The band also will perform with G-EAZY at Radio City Music Hall, and it will do three shows at the Brooklyn Bowl with guests Curren$y, Cory Henry and Marcus King.

 

Watch the performance on YouTube

The Soul Rebels on TKA

Talia Schlanger for NPR – “If you’re into Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Dr. John or Louis Armstrong and play almost any instrument under the sun, let’s jam!”

That’s the gist of what musician Zach Lupetin said in a Craigslist ad more than a decade ago when he was looking to put together a band in Los Angeles. Among the respondents, he found a trumpet player, mandolin player, a retired principal and a chiropractor — a real mixed bag, but one that formed the bones of what would become The Dustbowl Revival, Lupetin’s high-octane, bluegrass-meets-soul, New Orleans-meets-Memphis, brass-meets-fiddle conglomerate with a rotating cast of characters that, at one point, swelled to a whopping 25 musicians on stage.

These days, The Dustbowl Revival is eight members strong, including trumpet, trombone, fiddle, bass, guitar, drums, mandolin and some big vocals from Lupetin and singer Liz Beebe. You’re going to hear a real party of a live performance and a big group interview where you might not know who’s who, but I’ll shout ’em all out at the end.

Listen to the session on NPR

The Dustbowl Revival on TKA

The Kurland Agency wants to congratulate Cécile McLorin on winning a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for her Mack Avenue Records album ‘Dreams and Daggers’.

Cécile McLorin Salvant on TKA

Pablo Gorondi for AP: Compared to other genres, flexibility of lineups is one of the most fascinating aspects of jazz bands. Musicians are constantly looking for new partners, reuniting with old ones, the musical colors of ensembles shifting as this sax player or that guitarist comes and goes and another one sits in.

The leaders of The Chick Corea + Steve Gadd Band have played together occasionally for over 50 years but “Chinese Butterfly” is the first joint album by the keyboardist/composer and the drummer under that not-so-imaginative name. Beyond that small grievance, however, there’s an album full of creativity and chops.

The first half is comprised of five “shorter” tracks, each below 12 minutes. Leading the way is “Chick’s Chums,” a funky, relatively recent Corea tribute written by John McLaughlin with a decidedly 1970s vibe, a powerful sax solo by Steve Wilson and a wide range of Gadd dynamics. “Serenity” has some gentle Brazilian breezes and the disc closes with the title track, a real group effort with strong contributions by all band members, also including guitarist and vocalist Lionel Loueke, Carlitos Del Puerto on bass and percussionist Luisito Quintero.

Read the full review on The Washington Post

Chick Corea on TKA

 

Nate Nurrell for BILLBOARD – It’s been 18 years since Squirrel Nut Zippers‘ last album, and group leader Jimbo Mathus saw no need to reinvent the proverbial wheel for Beasts Of Burgundy, which comes out March 23 and whose “Karnival Joe (From Kokomo)” is premiering exclusively below.

“There’s kind of a template there for (the band), that kind of New Orleans hot jazz, cabaret, vaudeville era,” Mathus tells Billboard. “We work with early 1900s, old American weirdness, y’know? I didn’t want to break the mood of that template. You can fit a lot in there, for sure. I just wanted to make the best Zippers record that ever has been made. I think that’s what we’ve done.”

Mathus says a new album was not a foregone conclusion when he reactivated SNZ during 2016, after a six-year hiatus. But after touring with the current lineup, a hot group of virtuosos recruited mostly from around New Orleans, it became clear that the goods were there to take the group into the studio once again. “I wanted to use the strengths of the cast, the gentlemen and ladies I have in the group now, which is a lot of talent,” says Mathus, who co-produced the album with fiddle player Dr. Sick, recording in Nappy’s Dugout studio with longtime engineer Mike Napolitano. “Everybody’s just very talented, and I was able to really bring them in and get something more than I could’ve before, by myself. I wanted the record to be real New Orleans-centric, especially the old New Orleans.”

Listen to new song “Karnival Joe (From Kokomo)” on Billboard

Squirrel Nut Zippers on TKA

Jon Blistein for ROLLING STONE – Singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello unveiled a gorgeous cover of Prince’s “Sometimes It Snows in April,” the first offering from her upcoming covers LP, Ventriloquism.

Ndegeocello puts a unique yet faithful spin on Prince’s Parade ballad, opening her version with a rumbling tangle of bass and guitar that delicately unravels into the melody. Ndegeocello delivers a enthralling vocal performance, with her rich voice jumping between registers as each resonant syllable rounded off with a hush.

“I had to make something of him, for him,” Ndegeocello tells Rolling Stone of her Prince cover. “I’ve made so much because of him. I still can’t believe he’s not on the planet and this was as close to closure as I’d get.”

Ventriloquism is available to pre-order. The record will also feature covers of TLC’s “Waterfalls,” George Clinton’s “Atomic Dog 2017,” Janet Jackson’s “Funny How Time Flies (When You’re Having Fun),” Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer” and Sade’s “Smooth Operator.”

Ndegeocello also shared her cover of Force MDs’ song “Tender Love,” in which she flips the R&B ballad into an acoustic folk tune tinged with a harmonica that unmistakably recalls Neil Young.

“I recorded this album in California and I was driving around with Abe Rounds, my friend and the drummer I play with, and we were listening to [Young’s record] Harvest every day,” Ndegeocello says. “We’d go into the studio to record these tunes and it was dissonant. ‘Tender Love’ reminds me of life in D.C., as a young person, and I wanted to bring the two together. I like the genre-bending, I like making something new by way of another old gem.”

Listen to the song on Rolling Stone

Meshell Ndegeocello on TKA