Jawanza Kobie’s Weekly Wednesday Jazz Playlist May 10, 2023
Mathew V
Mathew V is the stage name of Matthew van Vooght, a Canadian pop singer from Delta, British Columbia. He is most noted for his 2021 EP The Outer Circle, which was a Juno Award nominee for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2022. In 2017 he released the single "Tell Me Smooth", a preview of his 2018 full-length album The Fifth. The song spent 14 weeks on the Canadian hot adult contemporary radio charts in Billboard; after he unexpectedly saw drag queen Ilona Verley perform "Tell Me Smooth" as a lipsync number at a Vancouver drag show, he cast Verley in the video for his 2018 single "Broken". He followed up
with the album Two Faced in 2020, and The Outer Circle followed in 2021. ‘My Boy’ is the cut from his latest 2023 release.
Dominic Miller
Dominic James Miller is an Argentine-born guitarist. With much of his career as a sideman and guitarist for singer Sting, he has also released several solo albums. Miller was born in Hurlingham, Argentina to an Irish-born mother and an American-born father who worked for Johnson Wax. When he was ten, his family moved to Racine, Wisconsin, where the Johnson headquarters was located, and moved to London two years later. Returning to Racine, at fifteen, he performed publicly for the first time at a club in Racine as the only white person in a soul music band. In the 1980s, Miller toured as a guitarist for World Party and King Swamp. As a session musician he recorded with the Pretenders, Phil Collins, Paul Young, and Level 42. Since 1991, he has recorded and toured with Sting. He co-wrote the hit song "Shape of My Heart" with Sting. He released his debut solo album, First Touch, in 1995, followed by Second Natureand Third World. This is ‘All Change’ from his new release in April 2023.
GoGo Penguin
GoGo Penguin are an English band from Manchester, England, featuring pianist Chris Illingworth, bassist Nick Blacka, and drummer Jon Scott. On 6 December 2021, the band announced the departure of Rob Turner, citing creative differences. Turner's replacement was revealed as Scott. The band's music features break-beats, minimalist piano melodies, powerful basslines, drums inspired from electronica and anthemic riffs. They compose and perform as a unit. Their music incorporates elements of electronica, trip-hop, jazz, rock and classical music. The band received positive reviews as they released their debut album Fanfares in 2012 and their follow-up album v2.0 in 2014. In 2015, GoGo Penguin signed to Blue Note Records (France). Their album Man Made Object was released in 2016; the following album, A Humdrum Star, was released on 9 February 2018. An eponymously named album was released on 5 June 2020. ‘Everything Is Going To Be OK’ is their latest release in April 2023.
Eric Krasno
Grammy Award-winning guitarist Eric Krasno and Grammy Award-winning drummer Stanton Moore celebrate women musicians worldwide through their debut joint album Krasno/Moore Project: Book of Queens. The Concord Jazz release is the first official studio collaboration between the longtime friends, who have known each other since the mid-90s. After sharing a stage during last year’s Jazz Fest, Krasno and Moore set off to create a new body of work that would make their wives proud. They teamed up with organist Eric Finland to recreate some of their favorite songs by musical queens. The result is a stunning collection of covers that sound vaguely familiar, yet quite unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. ‘Lost Cause’ is a track recorded from their collaborative recent sessions released in March 2023.
Joe Regen & Lawrence Goldings.
Jon Regen began his career as a sideman to jazz artists like Kyle Eastwood and Little Jimmy Scott. A protégé of the legendary pianist Kenny Barron, Regen released a series of acclaimed jazz recordings (From Left to Right, Live at the Blue Note and Tel Aviv), before making a left turn into singer/songwriter territory. Nearly overnight, Regen was heralded as an important new songsmith and performer, with praise from both listeners and critics alike on albums likeAlmost Home (2004), Let It Go (2007), and Revolution (2011). Regen also hit Number One on the Billboard Chartswith his instrumental album Change Your Mind in 2013. Lawrence Sam “Larry” Goldings is an American jazz keyboardist and composer. His music has explored elements of funk, blues, and fusion. As a young teenager, Goldings studied privately with Ran Blake and Keith Jarrett. Over the course of his career, his distinctive keyboard sound has been sought out by pop, jazz, R&B, Brazilian, and alternative artists including De La Soul, India.Arie, Tracy Chapman, Madeleine Peyroux, Melody Gardot, Michael McDonald, Beck, Walter Becker, Steve Gadd, Leon Russell, Rickie Lee Jones, Sia, John Mayer, Herbie Hancock, and Norah Jones. Here is a collaboration from these two musicians ‘Satisfied Mind’ from their March 2023 release.
I hope you enjoy
JK