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 these choices of songs my ‘wish list songs’. I wanted to share the message w …

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 "Silent Night’ producing bursts of freestyle energy rimming the main themes. Her improvisations ac …

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 Kau i does the same with his music, treating nature like it is a family member, corresponding with it and respecting its space.  Kau i is a man who is inspired by …

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 has become his outlet to indulge his craving for American roots/smoky blues-jazz music, where he has settled into a stride t …

Composer/arranger/violinist Noel Webb is like a human sponge, able to absorb a multitude of influences from different sources of art found in the works of musicians, filmmakers and literary writers. He asserts, "Artists should dive into any and every form of creative art and literature that they can get their hands on. Then, they should explore every aspect of those areas that time and money will allows. All art and literature, yes literature." He emphasizes will explode you …