Albums

EXACTLY RIGHT! IS, WELL, EXACTLY RIGHT What swinging, unpretentious, accessible fun! Louis  Hayes‘s music is full of life and humanity. It is sometimes refreshingly simple and sometimes intricately complex, sometimes light, sometimes dark, but it is always interesting and consistently engaging. Through it all, Louis  Hayes has always remained indefatigably optimistic and his latest Savant release,  Exactly Right!,  is…

Logan  Halstead, 18 years old, is a country/folk/americana singer-songwriter who grew up in Comfort, WV.  Logan  pulls most of his music from the struggle and hardship of his life and those around him. Small-town living isn’t intensely stimulating socially or economically, but spiritually there is always a yearning for more. Being from WV and KY, it’s no surprise…

Chicago Symphony Orchestra clarinetist curates album of intimate treasures by past and present Windy City composers John Bruce Yeh, the  Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s celebrated assistant principal clarinet and solo E-flat clarinet for over 40 years, headlines a program of lyrical and engaging chamber and solo works by noteworthy Windy City composers of the past and present,…

WTF, INDEED! I put this on for a spin, and wasn’t just immediately hooked, I’m on my third listen in a row. Bursting with originality and old-fashioned, hard-driving songs of activism and pure joy — and I can understand every lyric. Award-winning journalist and lyricist Bryan Russo teamed up with workhorse punk-rocker Ryan Abbott to…

With her artist legacy series, pop/jazz vocalist and songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway paid homage to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan on two critically-acclaimed CDs while staying true to her artistic aesthetic. Callaway continues that series with Fever: A Peggy Lee Celebration!, which highlights the songwriting talents of Lee, who wrote or co-wrote over 270 songs…

NEIL WITH THE SHEPHERDS Heck no, it ain’t too early. And with the new Broadway musical A Beautiful Noise just about to spring to life, it seems that we can’t get enough of the legendary singer/songwriter Neil Diamond. The terrific Original Cast Album is out and it’s awesome. Now also available is A Neil Diamond…

PLUGGING INTO SONDHEIM Every song in this collection is fabulous, from the standards to the more obscure songs from the Sondheim cannon. Any collection like this will be a mixed bag. Sure there are some great interpretations, but there are others which don’t always do justice to the originals. Still, the voices are outsyanding: Blaine…

SLOANE AND EASY [Editor’s Note: It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Carole Sloane on January 23, 2023, at the age of 85. An Announcement is reprinted below.] In 1963 Carol Sloane said, “I want to be one of these persons who have been around a long time.” Check. Did you…

LICKED LIVE To celebrate their 40th  anniversary, The Rolling Stones embarked on a worldwide tour in 2002 and 2003 that would cover 117 shows in a variety of theatres, arenas and stadiums. This show captures their January 2003 performance at Madison Square Garden  in New York City and features a guest appearance from Sheryl Crow on “Honky…