After scoring his second GRAMMY Award (and 14th nomination) in March 2021, the protean vocalist Kurt Elling hangs an unexpected left turn with SuperBlue for Edition Records. It’s a torrent of roisterous funk, indelible beats and all-too-current lyrics that boasts the talents of producer-guitarist Charlie Hunter and two stars of the hip-hop generation: drummer Corey Fonville and bassist-keyboardist DJ Harrison (both of the genre-hopping band Butcher Brown). Elling has always been a master of grooves, ranging from bebop to pure pop and progressive jazz to neo-soul, but he’s never filled an album with grooves quite like these.
The legacy of the father of fetish rock has finally been reviewed! With the cream of the music industry on hand with their insights, we present the music, the sex, the leather and the scandals! "Living After Midnight" and "Breaking the Law" are just two of the classic heavy metal songs that British rockers Judas Priest are best known for. This entry in the Music in Review series takes a look at the band's remarkable achievements and some of the controversy they have generated over the years.
Mercury Prize-nominated Portico Quartet has always been an impossible band to pin down. Sending out echoes of jazz, electronica, ambient music and minimalism, the group created their own singular, cinematic sound over the course of three studio albums, from their 2007 breakthrough ‘Knee-Deep in the North Sea’, and 2010 John Leckie produced ‘Isla’, to the self titled record ‘Portico Quartet’ in 2012. Now rebooted as Portico Quartet after a brief spell as the three-piece Portico, the group are set to release their fourth studio album Art In The Age Of Automation this August on Manchester’s forward thinking indy jazz and electronica label Gondwana Records. It’s an eagerly anticipated return, with the band teasing both a return to their mesmeric signature sound and fresh new sonic departures in their new music.
Somewhere in England is an album by George Harrison, released in 1981. Recorded as Harrison was becoming increasingly frustrated with the music industry, the album's making was a long one, and witnessed a tragic event in Harrison's life.
Casting its documentary net even wider than Ken Burns's Jazz series, American Roots sets its sights on more of the nation's quintessential styles and musical pioneers - affording context and continuity for viewers turned on by the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. In this four-hour, soul-stirring gumbo, just about every root gets its due, including bluegrass (Ralph Stanley, Bill Monroe); blues (B. B. King, Charley Patton, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson); country (Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, Hank Williams); gospel (Mahalia Jackson, Thomas A. Dorsey); folk (Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Mississippi John Hurt); Cajun and zydeco (Clifton Chenier); Tejano (Valerio Longoria, accordion master Flaco Jimenez); and Native American (Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman).