For the daughter of two Salvation Army ministers, Elizabeth Shepherd must have had first dibs on the dusty jazz records dropped in the thrift store donation box. At least that might explain her soulful musical approach, rooted in the classics yet thoroughly modern. The young pianist/chanteuse, and her Toronto trio, step boldly into the continuum with their mature debut release, Start To Move, out now …
Lilting rhythm guitar, trumpet solos and swirling synth bubbles on "A Conta Do Samba," the opening cut on Tita Lima's debut solo album, 11:11, sets the mood for a journey to Tropicalia. Firmly grounded in and paying homage to the classic sounds of 70's Brazilian vocal soul, jazz, samba, and bossa nova, 11:11 is more rootsy than Bebel Gilberto electro-bossa. The album's 11 tracks— consisting …
A Rural Life, the 8th LP from Marie and Andy Compton (a.k.a. The Rurals), celebrates their 10th year of making luscious, jazzy, thumping music. I usually leave the music reporting to Ari because he's much more articulate about these things, but I've been listening to the new album all week and am quite pleased. It's perfect music for cocktail hour– upbeat, soulful and sexy but …
