On "Your Requests" Canadian singer and pianist Laila Biali fulfills the musical wishes of her fans. Fresh versions of classics from the Great American Songbook with a prominent line-up featuring Kurt Elling, Larnell Lewis, Grégoire Maret, Anat Cohen, Emilie-Claire Barlow and many more.
Laila Biali is an award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist whose recording Wintersongs offers an immersive journey into the delicate beauty and serene power of winter all through the lens of her jazz and classical roots. With two exceptions, all tracks were composed by Biali in a cabin surrounded by snow-capped mountains in the heart of Canada's Rocky Mountains. Many of Biali's usual collaborators participated in this production, including drummer Ben Wittman, renowned flutist and soprano saxophonist Jane Bunnett, accomplished trumpeter Kevin Turcotte and organ wizard Sam Yahel along with Detroit-born singer Wade O. Brown }}, among others.
The winter theme is not just a seasonal nod but a broader metaphor for stillness, reflection, and the beauty of quiet moments, which begins with the opening track "Drifting Down Ice"…
Laila Biali masterfully mixes jazz and pop: “Already highly acclaimed in North America, with Laila Biali’s mellifluous vocals, dynamic pianism and ability for penning, hook-laden songs that reputation is surely going to flourish further afield."
Laila Biali is an award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist whose recording Wintersongs offers an immersive journey into the delicate beauty and serene power of winter all through the lens of her jazz and classical roots. With two exceptions, all tracks were composed by Biali in a cabin surrounded by snow-capped mountains in the heart of Canada's Rocky Mountains. Many of Biali's usual collaborators participated in this production, including drummer Ben Wittman, renowned flutist and soprano saxophonist Jane Bunnett, accomplished trumpeter Kevin Turcotte and organ wizard Sam Yahel along with Detroit-born singer Wade O. Brown }}, among others.
The winter theme is not just a seasonal nod but a broader metaphor for stillness, reflection, and the beauty of quiet moments, which begins with the opening track "Drifting Down Ice"…
60 years have passed since the release of a recording that would change Swedish jazz forever. Bill Evans, with his incredible touch and mastery of harmony has made an undeniable imprint on jazz musicians all over the world - and through his collaboration with Monica Zetterlund on "Waltz for Debby" in 1964, a new era for Scandinavian music was born.Impressions of Evans is an effort to pay tribute to this - a gesture of gratitude for making pine trees and 5th Avenue come together in a remarkably seamless, beautiful way and for being the perfect example of how one plus one sometimes equals three.
Gösta Nystroem may have been diffident in his life decisions – he only chose music as a career in his mid-thirties – but it is clear from the two works on this 2004 BIS release that he was an earnest composer indeed when he set his mind to it. Perhaps too earnest: the Symphony No. 4, "Sinfonia shakespeariana," and the Symphony No. 6, "Sinfonia Tramontana," are long essays of some technical competence, but also unrelievedly gray, joyless creations that require a great deal of patience to get through.