Carmen Wilken

It is fulfilling to attend a Carmen Souza concert just to listen to her breathtaking version of “Donna Lee” alone. However, there is much more to fall in love with than Miles Davis’ chart that Charlie Parker made famous by the singer on Live at Lagny Jazz Festival. Whether it is being mesmerised by her version of the standard “My Favourite Things,” or falling prey to the charms of the magnificent chart of that other famous son of Cape Verde, Horace Silver’s “Son of My Father,” or by Ms. Souza’s and Theo Pascal’s own “Afri Ka,” the effect is the same: breathless. For Carmen Souza is one of a kind - an original as rare as a throat singer and as exquisite as a vocalist who combines the best of Billie Holiday and Elis Regina - whose time has certainly come. Carmen Souza’s star is certainly on the rise…

The same year that Blues Creation gave us their amazing second album DEMON & ELEVEN CHILDREN, they recorded this collaboration with Carmen Maki. While it's not as consistently great as the aforemntioned album, it is a damn good seventies hard rock record…

If you are making a shortlist of the best jazz singers, Carmen McRae had better be right at the top. She had a distinctive voice, able to do heartbreaking and lighthearted equally as thrillingly. She had an unerring sense of melody and her phrasing is a thing of beauty. This collection covers her work in the mid-'50s for Decca both with small groups and larger orchestras. She shines on swinging tracks like "Comes Love," "Falling in Love With Love," and "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" and won't leave a dry eye in the house with her deeply emotional ballad singing.