Bob Kindred is a great tenor sax player who is consistently underrated and underexposed. Aside from some CDs released by a small audiophile label Mapleshade, it is not easy to find his leader albums in the market. Venus Records wanted to correct this situation and signed Kindred a few years ago and released this label debut album, Blue Moon.
A highly consistent, fairly hard, rural flavored, semi-commercial rock album, featuring male/female vocals, and good guitar…
Just David Newman's third film score, The Kindred is a work of surprising sophistication and maturity, especially given the lowbrow origins of its creature-feature subject. Newman's macabre interpretation of classical traditions and deft fusion of orchestral and electronic elements create a palpable sense of drama and dread – his themes unfold like black orchids in bloom, with simple, foreboding melodies that build to dizzying eruptions of sound. While largely forgoing substance for style, The Kindred does offer several glimpses of Newman's emerging hallmarks. In particular, the chilling "Transformation" employs atonal string effects and dissonant woodwinds rooted in modernist sensibilities, anticipating the harmonic complexity of film scores to come.
Almost three years passed between the release of Love Has No Recession and this, the fifth album from Aja Graydon and Fatin Dantzler. The songwriting and singing couple, joined by longtime colleagues like Vidal Davis, Andre Harris, Steve McKie, James Poyser, Adam Blackstone, and Anthony Bell, nonetheless stick to their tried-and-true approach. Yet another strong set of traditional-minded R&B relatable to adults.