Though there are many beautiful singing voices in jazz today, Viktoria Tolstoy is one of a kind. A great melodramatist of jazz who is also bipolar, she makes happiness sound fragile and threatened, and bitterness sweet and enchanting. She has framed and perfected this art on a conceptual level since becoming an ACT artist in 2003, whether concentrating on material from Esbjörn Svensson – whose e.s.t. began to some extent as her accompanying trio – or, most recently, on Herbie Hancock, classical originals, Swedish standards or repertoire from Russia, the home of her ancestors.
The year is 1987 and Japan is just reaching the peak of its economic success. Eighteen-year old Yonosuke Yokomichi arrives in Tokyo from Nagasaki. Ordinary in every way possible, he lives in a suburb far from the excitement of the big city and commutes to a university in the center of Tokyo. During his first days at school, Yonosuke befriends Ippei Kuramochi and Yui Akutsu. Soon after, he joins the Samba club and spends his leisure time learning to dance. In the Samba club, Yonosuke meets Kato, who turns out to be gay.
A documentary that weaves together personal journeys, historical facts and expert analysis to show the world through the eyes of those touched by the issue of "colourism".
The first episode looks at the shift in the language and sound of music from the beautiful melodies and harmonies of the giants of classical music such as Mozart, Haydn and Brahms into the fragmented, abstract, discordant sound of the most radical composers of the new century – Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky and beyond.
Having made the switch to exclusively playing vibraphone with his quartet on 2009's Music Update, Jason Marsalis sticks to his guns, errr, mallets on 2013's In a World of Mallets. Besides vibes, Marsalis also plays various other instruments here including marimba, glockenspiel, tubular bells, and xylophone. Once again working with his quartet featuring pianist Austin Johnson, bassist Will Goble, and drummer Dave Potter, Marsalis delivers an exploratory yet swinging mix of chamber and post-bop jazz. As an ensemble, they seem to have a relaxed, intuitive sense for group interplay and plenty of chops to spare.
Enduring German hard rockers Dark Age are back with their seventh studio album and it’s their finest to date. The Hamburg based quintet look set to finally get that all important recognition they deserve outside of their homeland.
Greek act DODSFERD on their new album decided to stick so rigidly to depressive black metal genre aesthetics, doing their best to convince the listener that they are really, REALLY depressed, misathropic and well, against anything and everything.