WHITNEY JAMES: I was always singing and performing and choreographing shows at home from the time I was 5, my sister and friends were the cast and my Mom would hold a flash light as a spotlight.  We would charge 10 cents a seat and have a stage, curtains...

An exceptional and natural rhythmic inventor, she conjures up her own worlds - some jagged, others even more broken and interrupted. And she is good at it, putting the notes in the right places. Her repertoire includes original...

Saxophonist Andrew Neu made his debut in 2000 with his solo album Inspire, presenting material that exhibited his flare for stylish chord movements and sensual elevations. He maintained that standard in his 2007 sophomore album In Clear View, and has now taken his flare for debonair lifts to new heights on his third solo CD, Try Something Neu. Working...

The duo of bassist Mark Saltman and keyboardist William Knowles makes music that finds optimism through the crackles made by life’s sorrow and despair. Saltman draws inspiration for his compositions from such tragedies as the devastation of New Orleans after being hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the scars left by The Holocaust which prompted the title track...

When guitarist Rob Tardik sets his mind on a project, it is as good as done. He can corral a band of musicians and accomplish his task with the expediency and astute calculations which Martha Stewart applies when she is rounding up a crew to plant a new garden. Both Tardik and Stewart understand the need for everyone to...

Smooth jazz saxophonist Tom Braxton would be the last person on earth to describe himself as a beacon of light, but anyone who listened to his latest CD, Endless Highway would give him the title without debate. The making of Endless Highway was ironically spurred on by a series of losses that have recently entered Braxton’s life, especially the...

Sometimes the greatest challenge for a singer is taking the leap into making a debut album. The exposure opens them up to receive public scrutiny and global adulation. For the artist, it is always impossible to predict how the public will react. Luckily for singer-songwriter Kelley Suttenfield, she has the vocal chops to attract hordes of people, the charisma...

It is very easy to assume that every track on Ellynne Plotnick’s new album, Life Is Beautiful is a cover of a jazz standard created by one of the Gershwins or Cole Porter or Johnny Mercer. The songs have the smooth flowing lines relatable to Porter, the graceful swells often attributed to the Gershwins, and an alluring orchestration liken...

Music has been known to soothe broken hearts, to tame wild animals, and to tell stories through sonic imagery. Filmmaker, writer, producer, and Ruby Flower Records executive Ana-Isabel Ordonez is a conceptual artist who utilizes the talents of avant-garde musicians to give her films another dimension that penetrates the listeners emotions beyond the visuals and narrations. She brought the...

The origins of “Rumba Foundation” can be traced back to the 1800’s when sailors arrived in Spain with a new rhythm named rumba brought all the way from Cuba. This accessible and upbeat style of flamenco has attracted people across the globe. Rumba flamenco music reflects the soul of the gypsies, the passion of flamenco and the irresistible beats...

In August, Jeff Golub (pronounced Goal-ub) released his 8th solo album, Blues for You. Jeff is known primarily as a smooth jazz guitarist, but he stretches out his blues chops on this album - the blues being an early influence in his musical background. Blues for You is also a different album for Jeff in that four of the...

Channeling her multi-cultured background that includes German, Angolan, and Native American Indian ancestries, singer-songwriter Kristina Smith delves into a litany of influences to bring out a rich palette of textures steep in Afro-Cuban rhythms, swing-inspired motifs, and flowery ballads on her debut album Offshore Echoes from Patois Records. She describes how the album fulfilled her innermost needs. “I call...

German born and bred pianist/composer Monika Herzig has a flare for putting an eclectic twist on traditional jazz idioms, and she makes no exceptions on her interpretation of classic holiday tunes for her forthcoming CD, Peace On Earth. Fraught with decorative furls and spontaneous chutes, Herzig’s album injects boasters to familiar holiday sing-along numbers like “The Coventry Carol” and...

Originally, I was to have interviewed Professor Graves by phone. When I called him at his home in N.Y.C he asked how long this was going to take. “As long as...

When American author Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote the novel, Tarzan, he provided people with an impression of what a man would be like if he lived in the jungle and bonded with nature, taking its life forms into his bosom like a close member of his family.  Similarly, composer-drummer-percussionist Zlatko Kaučič does the same with his music, treating nature like...

Paul Carlon has built a reputation for himself in the chamber-jazz quarter as the bandleader, composer and saxophonist for the Paul Carlon Octet, and as a motivating force of Latin-jazz in the New York City-based ensemble Grupo los Santos.  But recently, he has taken on an additional role as the saxophonist and co-writer for The McCarron Brothers.  The quartet...

Dissecting and sculpting opinions concerning the new tour of blues sounds has always dropped me off at my own crossroads. Just left of wax center, extremes of rhythms and vocal curves that stretch the traditional concepts of the textbooks become a welcome exploit for me. Whether the stylistic bending in blues is welcome or forbidden by traditional masses and...

It is Monday, June 8th 2009 and I am at home drinking a very good cup of coffee, while on the phone with Ezra Weiss. We have finally connected after playing an intense game of phone tag for a week or two. It feels amazing to finally have the opportunity to interview one of the true originals in jazz music...

Trumpeter Curt Ramm, saxophonist Dan Moretti and pianist Bill Cunliffe excel in a myriad of musical settings; funk, fusion, Latin, r&b and classical. However, their true love is straight-ahead, soulful and grooving jazz. This common ground is the seed that germinated The Foundations Jazz Record label and as a result of this, we have the product of their first...

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