Every week our staff of CD Reviewers bring you the best in Independent CD releases. Making a Scene is considered the number 1 resource for the independent musician and the fans that love them.
Ches Smith’s We All Break Path of Seven Colors Pyroclastic The music on Path of Seven Colors is likely unlike most anything we have heard. After all, how many of us are familiar with traditional Haitian Vodou music? The octet We All Break, led by forward-thinking drummer Ches Smith, take this foundation, and mix it […]
Szczeciński Zespół Dupa MaMo to Pinokio “The songs were recorded during several sessions in 2020 and 2021 between lockdowns. The idea for the song title was inspired by The Guillotines “BoJo The Clown”. They have their Clown, we have our Pinocchio.” The Polish band Szczeciński Zespół Dupa ,translated as “The Szczecin Asshole Ensemble or Ass Band […]
Julian Lage Squint Blue Note Squint is esteemed guitarist Julian Lage’s debut for Blue Note as a leader although he has appeared on the label for Nel Cline’s Lovers (2016) and Nel Cline’s 4 Currents, Constellations (2018). This writer was especially impressed by his performance on Charles Lloyd’s 8: Kindred Spirts (Live from The Lobero) […]
Molly Miller Trio St. George GSI The Molly Miller Trio features three well-known first-call musicians. Molly Miller, the chair of the Guitar Department at Los Angeles School of music and has a regular gig with Jason Mraz, having also played with the Black Eyed Peas, Donna Missal and Morgxn. Bassist Jennifer Condos has a decorated […]
Mark Remmington 12 Weeks After a break of more than ten years, Mark Remmington presents us his first solo album “12 Weeks”. Mark is based in the UK and has played and performed on numerous commercial releases before. During the lockdown that hit us all, he had the idea to write a song every week […]
Leni Stern Dance Self-released Dance is the second quartet album for guitarist/vocalist Leni Stern, following rather closely last summer’s 4. For the past decade-plus Stern, hailed as one of the world’s top guitarists (her guitarist husband, Mike Stern, isn’t shabby either), has fused a contemporary jazz approach with West African folkloric elements. She has traveled and studied […]
Judy Wexler Back to the Garden Jewel City Los Angeles-based jazz vocalist Judy Wexler is taking more risks with each album, Back to the Garden, being her sixth. Her last effort, 2018’s Crowded Heart (covered here) had her stepping away from Great American Songbook fare to present, in this writer’s terminology, the Great Global Songbook, […]
Tim Mayer Keeper of the Flame D Clef Saxophonist and composer Tim Mayer leads an octet as well as other intimate configurations of first-call musicians including bassist Rodney Whitaker, drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., and trombonist Michael Dease, with pianist Emmet Cohen sitting in for one track on Keeper of the Flame. The dates and places […]
Tia Carroll You Gotta Have It! Little Village Foundation Tia Carroll has been performing in California’s Bay Area for decades. She made her own successful albums in both Italy and Brazil, This is the album her fans have been waiting for and her first stateside studio recording. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered by […]
Jalen Baker This Is Me, This Is Us Outside In Music There’s a new vibraphonist on the scene not named Joel Ross. Indeed, hailing from Houston, TX we have the young Jalen Baker, also a composer of merit that belies his youthful stature with his auspicious debut This Is Me, This Is Us. Baker has […]
Mary Hott with The Carpenter Ants Devil in the Hills – Coal Country Reckoning Self-released You may be thinking that The Carpenter Ants may not be the most inviting band name, but this is as an important concept album as you’ll find. Singer-songwriter Mary Hott is a seventh generation West Virginian who has devotedly researched […]
Bruce Harris Soundview Cellar Music Group Trumpeter Bruce Harris is a died-in-the-wool New Yorker, having grown up in the Soundview section of the Bronx (hence the title) and living now in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem. The album is a tribute to his community and family in both places and Black American Music. The […]
Elizabeth King Living In The Last Days Bible & Tire Recording Co. After a terrible car accident King was told she would never walk again and so she has since pledged herself to the Lord. Elizabeth King, primarily recorded singles, but she quit recording Sacred Soul in the mid-seventies to raise her fifteen children. Producer […]
Cathedral Birds 4 Songs About Love, Loss and Wild River Swimming Cathedral Birds are the songwriting duo Brandon Petty and Rick Baines based in Sheffield, UK, who decided after twenty years of friendship with numerous visits to gigs and festivals it is now time to make your own music. That was in 2019 and in […]
Chris Bergson All I Got Left 2 Shirts Coincidentally as we sit down to write on this day of Levon Helm’s birthday, we have one of his many disciples – singer-songwriter, blues guitarist Chris Bergson, offering his new solo effort, All I Got Left. It’s solo in the true sense of the word as you […]
Etta James The Montreux Years Montreux Sounds/Montreux Media Ventures Jamesetta Hawkins was born in 1938, known professionally as Etta James, she was an American singer who performed in various genres, including blues, R&B, soul, and Jazz. Starting in 1954, she gained fame with hits such as ”At Last”, “Tell Mama”, “Something’s Got a Hold on […]
Dahveed Behroozi Echos Sunnyside Echos is the sophomore album from both classically and jazz trained, California-bred, and New York based pianist Dahveed Behroozi. This is his first studio recording and he’s flanked by two of New York’s finest in this trio – bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Billy Mintz. The leader has already received high […]
Andre Ferreri Quintetto Numero Uno Laser A first glance at the name and title would suggest a European group but New York born, Charlotte, NC-based guitarist Andre Ferreri and his quintet are a stateside group. Ferreri has worked in an array of genres including frequent stints with the Charlotte Symphony. For years he led the […]
Wee Willie Walker Not In My Lifetime Blue Dot Records Born in Hernando, Mississippi, Wee Willie Walker’s career spanned six decades as he was one of the last real soul singers. He recorded nine sides for the Memphis based Goldwax label in 1968. More recently, between 2004 and 2011, Walker recorded three albums with the […]
Almog Sharvit Get Up or Cry Unit Get Up or Cry is the first album as a leader for New York-based bassist and composer Almog Sharvit. Yet this is far from your conventional jazz record; some of the press materials bill it as a crossover record. Much of that has to do with Sharvit’s sense […]
Alex Conde Descarga for Bud Sedajazz If you were to ask most casual jazz fans to name the most important pianist of the fifties, it would inevitably be Thelonious Monk. Yet although the jazz pianists may agree, they would also name the bebop giant Bud Powell as the major contender as he had a profound […]
Shannon McNally The Waylon Sessions Compass Records Shannon McNally and Compass Records released her newest album, The Waylon Sessions, on May 28, 2021. Having always been intrigued by the man, Shannon’s interpretations add a great deal of feminine mystique to the songs. Hell, these songs have always been universal, it’s nice to hear a woman’s […]
Kendall Carter Introducing Kendall Carter Lladnek Music Recently one of my review comments was that organ trios are far from dead. In fact, we’ve seen several contemporary twists on the idiom lately, but newcomer B3 master Kendall Carter mostly embraces the tradition on this soulful, bluesy debut. Impressively he teams with one of today’s most […]
Dara Tucker Dreams of Waking Green Hill Productions The blues readers of these pages probably know the name Dara Tucker, ostensibly a jazz vocalist on this outing – Dreams of Waking – Music for a Better World. She co-wrote and sang on the title track for ‘Keb Mo’s Grammy winning Oklahoma. Tucker indeed hails from […]
Donna Herula Bang at the Door Self-released Donna Herula, a killer slide and resonator player and singer-songwriter, is releasing her third album, Bang at the Door. She brings ten originals, a co-write, and three well-chosen covers. While Herula’s slicing guitar is usually front and center, she is joined by quite a cast including FJ Ventre […]
Various Artists 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin’ Music Alligator Records Alligator, the Chicago based label, is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. In 1971 Alligator President Bruce Iglauer started operating out of his efficiency apartment. The first album issued was “Hound Dog Taylor and The Houserockers”. The catalog now contains over 350 titles. Iglauer has stuck to […]
Mothman and The Thunderbirds “Into The Hollow” Mothman and The Thunderbirds is the solo project from Alex Parkinson and“ Into the Hollow ”is the debut album. And what a one! The band name was inspired by a binge-watch session of the program Ancient Aliens and Alex thought, this name is just as dumb but also awesome […]
Ahmed Warshanna Ishta Tiber River Ahmed Warshanna is an artist to watch, hailing from Baltimore and leading a septet that combines the western music of jazz with the eastern music of Egypt. Warshanna is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland Baltimore County where he received a Music Achievement Award in 2020. Warshanna is […]
Aaron Germain Bell Projections Aaron Germain Music This is a one-of-a-kind for this writer and maybe for any artist as the versatile Bay Area musician Aaron Germain who typically plays bass, delivers 17 compositions for guitar quartets and plays every guitar part himself. He does have accompanying musicians who appear in various configurations across the […]
Oliver Wood Always Smilin’ Honey Jar/Thirty Tigers Okay, before anyone gets too worried and jumps off the next cliff, the Wood Brothers remain intact as an ongoing band. That said, Always Smilin’ is the first solo outing for one of the three members, Oliver Wood. As you likely know, brother Chris has long had side […]
Maria Muldaur Let’s Get Happy Together Stoney Plain Records Six-time Grammy nominee Maria Muldaur was raised in Greenwich Village. In 1963 she began her recording career as a member of The Even Dozen Jug Band. She left the following year and joined The Jim Kweskin Band where she married Geoff Muldaur. As a duo she […]
Jacqui Naylor The Long Game Ruby Star Jacqui Naylor is not your prototypical jazz vocalist. She stands apart in this intensely competitive field from those who revel in an over reliance the Great American Songbook, scat, and predictable fare. She is a terrific writer and an inventive interpreter of contemporary material found in other genres. […]
Dan Moretti Tres Libre Roots Grooves Tres Libres is the unusual trio album that features ten musicians and ten different instruments. Marking his twentieth recording as a leader, versatile saxophonist Dan Moretti, as you might guess, uses an array of combinations across diverse styles ranging from free-Latin-jazz, funk, ambient, modal, and swing. Moretti employs all […]
Ralf Dee Candy Box Ralf Dee is a German singer / songwriter who has released an EP, three albums and four singles since 2009 and has played numerous gigs since then. The first German-language album Glück gehabt was released in 2017 and since then he has only been writing German songs. The last single Regen, […]
Declan O’Rourke Arrivals Miesta Music/Warner UK Arrivals is the seventh album for Irish singer-songwriter Declan O’Rourke and represents his first new material in two years, and importantly, a new raw, intimate sound encouraged and realized by producer Paul Weller of Jam fame. Weller is also a multi-instrumentalist who chips in now and then along with […]
Rale Micic Only Love Will Stay Whaling City Sound Organ trios generally take the soul-jazz path, to the point where such a configuration is too easily stereotyped. Guitarist Rale Micic will argue that he still brings plenty of soul in this quartet setting, Slavic soul that is. As such, it is a refreshingly different sound […]
Maia Sharp Mercy Rising Self-Released Maia Sharp just did two years ago what many singer-songwriters do. She moved to Nashville to be in the company of kindred spirits, hoping her change in scenery from L.A. would inspire her musically and give her personal life a necessary reboot. This is not to say she hadn’t enjoyed […]
Jesse Terry When We Wander Wander Recordings When We Wander marks a series of first for New England-raised, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jesse Terry. It’s the first album of his seven, that he wrote since becoming a parent, the first he ever recorded live in the studio, and likely the first that was delayed for a year. […]
Lunar Octet Convergence Summit Put Ann Arbor in the headline and this writer is immediately interested, having received a degree from the city’s most famous school and hosting a wonderful jazz radio show during my tenure there. Yet, of course, this is not about yours truly but about the long-running Lunar Octet who return after a […]
Alex Sipiagin Upstream Posi-Tone Russian-born, once New York-based trumpeter Alex Sipiagin has recorded near twenty albums as a leader, yet Upstream marks his debut for the Posi-Tone label. He is backed by the label’s consistent and reliable rhythm team of pianist Art Hirahara, bassist Boris Kozlov, and drummer Rudy Royston, each of whom contribute originals […]
Ted Nash and Glenn Close Transformation Tiger Turn This one takes plenty of concentration. The liner booklet and perhaps this review will help when you listen to Transformation from reedist Ted Nash and actress Glenn Close. It is an ambitious project of the first order with the subhead entitled Personal Stories of Change, Acceptance, and […]
Jesus Hooligan The Gospel of Swamp Stomp Jesus Hooligan is Stephen Brunton, former singer of the hardcore punk band Gout / Lager Louts. After he could no longer sing live due to illness, he made the best of it and started making his own music. And with everything that you can use to make music […]
Tony Joe White Smoke from the Chimney Easy Eye Sound Smoke from the Chimney, a nine-song album of never-before-heard Tony Joe White tunes, is the posthumous album that most thought never existed. Produced by Dan Auerbach and rounded out by Nashville’s most seasoned studio musicians, Smoke from the Chimney started as several unadorned voice and guitar demos […]
Van Morrison Latest Record Project: Volume 1 BMG Perhaps no artist was more upset about the pandemic lockdown, at least to the point of railing against it in song, as the ever prolific Van Morrison. And yes, he used the time to generate a ton of new material, indicating that this tongue-in-cheek entitled Latest Record […]
Francesco Amenta Midtown Walk Amenta Music International This is the second release and U.S. debut for saxophonist, pianist, and composer Francesco Amenta. The Italian-born, now New York City based Amenta enlists some premiere players or this effort including co-producer John Lee (best known as Dizzy Gillespie’s bassist and producer for Larry Coryell, Roy Hargrove, Antonio […]
Paul Colombo Group Rio Crystal Vectordisc The Paul Colombo Group is a quartet of players residing in the Philadelphia area, that expanded the original trio of guitarist Paul Colombo, bassist Andy Alonso, and drummer Chris Loser with the addition of renowned pianist/composer Ron Thomas who had played with Pat Martino on 1972’s Pat Martino/Live. As […]
Berta Moreno Afro-Jazz Soul Project Tumaini Tiger Turn Berta Moreno is a Madrid-born, New York -based saxophonist and composer who leads a sextet dubbed the Afro-Jazz Soul Project through the music of Kenya. Morena volunteered, working with children at the Little Ray of Hope School in the Kawangware region of that country several years ago […]
Bob Corritore & Friends Spider In My Stew Vizztone Label Group/SWMAF Records Bob Corritore was born in Chicago and as an adolescent got hooked on blues harmonica. He studied and received playing tips from some of the cities finest, including Carey Bell, Big Walter Horton, and Junior Wells. Corritore moved to Pheonix when he was […]
John Daversa Jazz Orchestra (featuring Justin Morell) All Without Words: Variations Inspired by Loren Tiger Turn Multiple Grammy winner, trumpet master, bandleader, composer and arranger John Daversa continues his string of poignant, imaginative, and vastly different projects with this captivating work – All Without Words -Variations Inspired by Loren. And yet, he does not compose, […]
Dumpstaphunk Where Do We Go From Here Mascot Label Group/The Funk Garage Art “Poppa Funk” Neville formed the New Orleans Funk band, Neville Sounds, in the early 1960’s and later changed their name to the Meters. With his brothers Cyril, Aaron and Charles, he also formed the Neville Brothers; and The Funky Meters with a […]
