Wednesday, March 11, 2015

NEW RELEASES: VAN MORRISON - DUETS: RE-WORKING THE CATALOGUE; BAMALOVESOUL.COM PRESENTS ON DECK 3; KARIN KROG / STEVE KUHN – BREAK OF DAY

VAN MORRISON - DUETS: RE-WORKING THE CATALOGUE

On Duets: Re-Working The Catalogue, Van Morrison and the guests selected and recorded some of his songs from the catalog of 360 songs across his career. Deliberately steering away from his more well-known classics, Van enlisted some of the artists he most respects to perform these songs with him to re-craft and re-imagine them. The album was recorded in his home town of Belfast and London in the United Kingdom over the last year, using a variety of musicians and fresh arrangements. Produced by Van Morrison along with Don Was and Bob Rock, the album features duet performances with Bobby Womack, Steve Winwood, Mark Knopfler, Taj Mahal, Mavis Staples, Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, George Benson, Gregory Porter, Clare Teal, P.J. Proby, Joss Stone, Georgie Fame, Mick Hucknall, Chris Farlowe, and Van's daughter Shana Morrison. Van Morrison is considered one of the most prolific recording artists and extraordinary live performers of our time. He has received a multitude of awards and accolades including 6 Grammy Awards, a Brit Award, an OBE, an Ivor Novello, and has been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His visionary songwriting and mastery of many genres continues to shine on albums celebrating and re-exploring his blues, jazz, skiffle and country roots. With one of the most revered catalogues in music history, his talents as a composer, singer and performer are unmatched. ~ Amazon

BAMALOVESOUL PRESENTS ON DECK 3

On its way to becoming another much-loved series in the tradition of Stop and Listen, the Spectrum compilations, or perhaps more aptly Kon & Amir’s Off Track sets all from BBE, On Deck has been a music-format manifestation of the Birmingham, Alabama-based website BamaLoveSoul for the past couple of years.  For the third in the On Deck series, Rahdu introduces another scintillating taster for the more mature musical palette, featuring contemporary up-up-and-coming artists generally not too well-known on the international scene yet, with a bias towards artists sharing his own southern roots. Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy.  Due for release March 23, 2015.

KARIN KROG / STEVE KUHN – BREAK OF DAY

The already-great team of singer Karin Krog and pianist Steve Kuhn gets some extra special help here – thanks to the appearance of Eric Alexander on tenor and Lew Soloff on trumpet – each of whom guest on three different tracks apiece! The core of the record has Krog's dark, moody vocals alongside Kuhn's still-inventive piano lines – a match that has decades of work together, and which already makes the whole record exciting enough on its own – but the use of added horn soloists brings in this effective other voice to the proceedings, all without disturbing the gentle balance at the core. Alexander is especially great, but we like Soloff a lot too – and neither seeks to overwhelm, just bring a special voice to the tunes in which they appear. As always with Krog, the choice of tunes is perfect – and titles include "Scandia Skies", "Break Of Day In Molde", "How Do You Keep The Music Playing", "Love Came On Stealthy Fingers", "Time's Getting Tougher Than Tough", "Little Butterfly", and "Trane".  ~ Dusty Groove


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