FEATURE: Buckwheat Zydeco on Mountain Stage

Buckwheat Zydeco returns to Mountain Stage, recorded live at West Virginia’s Culture Center Theater. The artist, born Stanley Dural Jr., has spent more than 30 years as the chief ambassador for one of Louisiana’s most distinctive musical products. Over the course of his career, Zydeco and his band have played with everyone from Eric Clapton and U2 to The Boston Pops. He’s performed at the closing ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics, as well as at both of Bill Clinton’s inaugural ceremonies.

Buckwheat Zydeco began his career playing guitar for zydeco architect Clifton Chenier and has since become his natural successor, putting a Louisiana spin on everything from original bayou and funk tunes to Rolling Stones covers. He became the first zydeco act signed to a major label when he joined Island Records in 1986. After four nominations in three different categories, Buckwheat Zydeco finally won a Grammy in 2010 for “Best Zydeco Or Cajun Music Album.” He continues to branch out with his own YouTube series, “Buckwheat’s World.”

SET LIST

“Allon De Paris”

“Goin’ To Lafayette”

“Jackpot”

“Peace Love And Happiness”

Listen to the live recording on NPR.org

Buckwheat Zydeco on TKA

REVIEW: New York Times on the “poignancy” of Bill Charlap and Tony Bennett’s “The Silver Lining”

THE NEW YORK TIMES –

There’s a track on Tony Bennett’s new album, “The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern,” that suggests a return to form: “I Won’t Dance,” which recently served as a his-and-hers set piece in his marquee collaboration with Lady Gaga.

This new version of the tune, arranged as a springlike waltz, features Mr. Bennett alone on vocals, with a sparkling piano trio. He sounds crisp but at ease, maybe a touch relieved — like someone given the chance, at last, to trade klieg lights for candle-glow.

(9/23/15)

PREVIEW: Elvin Bishop headlines Edmonton Blues Fest

Roger Levesque for The Edmonton Journal

Bishop’s story isn’t the first in which the musical explorations of a curious teenager led to a lifelong career. But at 72, this veteran guitarist and singer can’t think of a better way to stay busy than playing the music he loves. He still jets out to perform somewhere nearly every weekend.

Born in California but raised in Iowa and Oklahoma, Bishop was an easy convert to rock ‘n’ roll before he heard the blues. A five-year stint with the famous Butterfield Blues Band during the mid-1960s helped launch his career before he hit the pop charts leading his own band on Fooled Around And Fell In Love in 1976. More recent sets for have won him renewed popularity with blues fans.

Last year’s release Can’t Even Do Wrong Right (his 20th studio album) found the bluesman in excellent form, reunited with old friends, using his slide technique and good humour to garner seven Blues Music Award nominations (he won for Best Album, Best Song and Best Band), and winning the Living Blues Award for Best Album. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last spring as part of the Butterfield band.

Read the full preview and Q&A at The Edmonton Journal
Elvin Bishop on TKA

REVIEW: Walter “Wolfman” Washington Live at d.b.a

Keith Spera for NOLA.com

Walter “Wolfman” Washington closed out 2013 at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, far from the New Orleans music clubs that are his natural habitat. But, he happily reports, his Roadmasters had no trouble translating his distinctly Big Easy hybrid of funk, soul, and rhythm & blues for the Italians.

He is one of the living legends of New Orleans music, an especially soulful singer and guitarist who has haunted the city’s clubs and festival stages around the world for 50 years. He cut his teeth as a sideman to Lee Dorsey, Ernie K-Doe and crooner Johnny Adams before founding the Roadmasters 28 years ago.

“I lead the band with my movements. You never know what I’m going to do on the bandstand. Every night I do something different with each song. If I was to play a song the same way every night, everybody would get bored. Even me. So I try to do something different just to keep it alive.”

The current Roadmasters may be his tightest unit yet, he says, “because all the cats are older now, more settled. Five pieces, and they sound like 10. The connection we have with each other is good.”

FEATURE: From Bollywood to Brooklyn: Red Baraat

Amelia Mason for 90.9FM WBUR

Red Baraat does not aim to mimic Indian baraat bands so much as harness their energy and allow other influences to permeate. When he founded the band, Jain purposefully recruited a group of players with diverse musical touchstones. Among its eight members, Red Baraat includes a trombonist who grew up on gospel music in the African-American church, a Sikh trumpet player with background in ska and reggae, and a sousaphone player who likes to rap.

The result is strutting, hyper-rhythmic music inflected by hip-hop syncopation and the sinuous minor-key Punjabi melodies of Jain’s childhood.

Read the full feature at 90.9FM WBUR
Red Baraat on TKA

REVIEW: Roy Haynes at 90

Stanley Abraham for Elmore Magazine

The combination of wisdom and experience enhances anyone’s ability to perform. On a beautiful summer night at the Blue Note in NYC, Roy Haynes displayed those qualities, touching the hearts and souls of the audience with his showmanship and musical abilities.

Accompanied by Jaleel Shaw on sax, David Wong on bass and Martin Bejerano on piano, sublime musicians who have been with Roy for a minimum of nine years, Haynes’ set consisted of “Grand Street,” “We’ll Be Together Again,” “Bemsha Swing,” “Question and Answer” and “Summer Night.” Listening to them play together was a testament to their individual talents, as well as their ability to create a unified sound that was fun to follow and easy to enjoy.

Read more at Elmore Magazine
Roy Haynes on TKA

REVIEW: Bettye LaVette Proves Her Worth

Joann D. Ball for Grateful Web

Bettye LaVette and bandmates; Alan Hill (music director, keyboards), Darryl Pierce (drums), James Simonson (bass), and, Brett Lucas (guitar) treated the packed house to a deep and thorough exploration of her new album. She shared stories about how she discovered and personally connected with the songs, then sang them from her heart and soul. She also gave credit where it was due, and identified the songwriters of all of the record’s 11 tracks.

Ms. LaVette lets the music move her throughout the evening. She danced her way through “Complicated” by the Rolling Stones. She was wistful and reminiscent, however, when she introduced “What’s It Like” as the type of conversation she’d have with her beloved older sister who died years ago. After covering the entire new CD, she took requests from the audience and responded with a fiery version of “Joy” by Lucinda Williams. A reworked and almost unrecognizable version of the Beatles’ “Blackbird,” and a celebratory “Before the Money Came (The Battle of Bettye LaVette)” followed.

At the end of the upbeat tale about beating the odds, LaVette left her band onstage. Singing “until the money came,” she took a well-deserved victory lap around the venue and through the backstage door.

REVIEW: Bobby McFerrin at TD Victoria International Jazz Fest

Adrian Chamberlain for The Times Colonist

The casual listener knows Bobby McFerrin mostly for his lighter-than-air ditty, Don’t Worry, Be Happy.

However, it was the spiritual side — well, the lighthearted spiritual side — of the American singer that we witnessed Saturday at TD Victoria International Jazz Fest. (Sorry, pop fans — McFerrin hasn’t sung his greatest hit in concert for years.)

Black spirituals reflect the faith and the experience of Africans enslaved in America. McFerrin, an unorthodox jazz singer, focused on spirituals in his latest album, spirtityouall. On this warm summer evening, we were treated to some of these — and a good deal of McFerrin-esque whimsy as well.

Like Kurt Elling or Ella Fitzgerald, McFerrin scat-sings in the manner of a jazz instrumentalist. He opened the concert a cappella, rapping his upper chest with his right hand, sometimes seeming to hit two tones simultaneously. To hear this live is rather amazing. (06/21/2015)

REVIEW: Bobby McFerrin at Roy Thomson Hall

Agah Bahari for LIVE IN LIMBO

Roy Thomson Hall, the home to Toronto Symphony Orchestra, has seen many great legends and talents performing on it’s stellar stage. On Saturday, it hosted Bobby Mcferrin, the man whose instrument is his voice and that’s all he’s ever needed. From his 1988 hit song “Don’t worry, Be Happy” to his ten Grammy Awards and collaborations with the likes of Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby Mcferrin has been one of the heavy weights of music since the 70’s. On Saturday night, he joined the Canadian A Capella quartet, Cadence, first for a workshop in which he began with interacting with the children in the crowed by encouraging them to sing their own name. He suggested that singing your own name for fifteen minutes everyday will give you a completely new outlook. He then performed improvised a song with Cadence and then was off the stage to prepare for the night’s performance, Bobby Meets Toronto, including himself, along with the Torontonian musicians Cadence quartet, George Sawa on Arabic Instruments, Muthadi Thomas on West African Drums, Kyle Brenders on Saxophone, and the dance Michael Caldwell. (06/16/15)

Read the review at Live in Limbo
Bobby McFerrin on TKA

Review: Roy Haynes Dips into his Fountain of Youth

Review by Michael J. West for THE WASHINGTON POST

Roy Haynes, who turned 90 in March, is surely the world’s greatest living jazz drummer. He’s also astonishingly exuberant and spry for a nonagenarian: At his most sluggish, he still seems 20 years younger. Indeed, Haynes was easily the dominating force of the otherwise much younger quartet (which he fittingly calls “Fountain of Youth”) that he brought to Blues Alley on Friday night. (8/2/2015)

Read the full article on The Washington Post
Roy Haynes on TKA

Author: TKA