High End Munich 2019--Saturday Highlights

Made it through another day at High End 2019 in Munich. My latest show report for Part-Time Audiophile is now live here!

High End Munich 2019--Friday Highlights

My summary of Friday at the High End Munich 2019 is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. My first full day of coverage in Germany can be found right here!

High End Munich 2019--Here I Go!

Here's my preview from the High End Munich 2019 Show for Part-Time Audiophile. I'm currently typing this from Germany--a first--and we'll be supplying coverage all through the weekend. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: Marc's Wrap Up

My final show report from AXPONA 2019 is now live at Part-Time Audiophile, with my picks for best sound and more. You can read it here.

And now, I'm off to Munich for the biggest hi-fi show on earth!

Jerome Sabbagh and Greg Tuohy's No Filter

My latest Vinyl Anachronist review for Part-Time Audiophile is now live. This one is a wonderful and unique jazz LP from Jerome Sabbagh and Greg Tuohy called No Filter. You can read it here.

Simon Sammut & Omar Vazquez's Gravity

This is a strange, dark and rainy weekend, full of excitement and anxiety because I'm about to head to Europe for the first time in my life in a few days. I'm finally attending my first Munich High-End show, after years of being an international importer and distributor and only getting off the continent once in that eight years. (Have I told you about my trip to Australia in 2015? That's an in-joke.) Anyway, calming and meditative music is most welcome in my house as I plan for a busy week. Fortunately I have an intriguing new album from bassists Simon Sammut and Omar Vazquez, a dreamy set of smooth jazz instrumentals that merge with just enough electronica to land firmly on my good side.

Sammut is from Malta and Vazquez is from Mexico, and what they've done for Gravity is enlist the help of jazz and fusion musicians from their respective countries. The two bassists bonded on social media and eventually planned a project, this project, to fuse the two cultures musically. Together they worked on eight distinct and original compositions, and just a few weeks ago they performed Gravity live in Mexico. They released this album on the same day, April 12. A separate performance will be scheduled for Malta as well.

That's always a good idea for a musical project, bringing together ideas from around the world--just look at the Zoho Music record label and how they create such rich and diverse recordings from the collision of two cultures. Gravity succeeds for the reasons you would guess, because the exotic combination of Maltese and Mexican sensibilities creates a wonderful sound that deftly jumps between world music, jazz and fusion.

In a way this album reminds me of that exquisitely odd album from Somesh Mathur late last year, Time Stood Still, and how there are giddy discoveries around every corner. In particular, both Sammut and Vazquez have recruited two amazing drummers--David Caspeta and Melchior Busuttil--to play the same astonishing role as Gergo Borlai on Mathur's album. While Gravity is mainly about the bass players and how they've developed these compositions around this pairing, you may walk away thinking primarily about the wonderful drumming, the globally inspired rhythms, and the way the two bass players stretch this out into a succinct and fascinating exploration of two rich musical cultures.

Lauren White's Life in the Modern World

On her last couple of albums, jazz singer Lauren White has developed ideas and themes that are uncommon--on Out of the Past she covered songs that were linked to the Film Noir era, and Experiment was a tribute to singer Irene Kral. Now she's releasing Life in the Modern World, which focuses on both new compositions and radical new arrangements of standards from Hoagy Carmichael, Lionel Hampton and Ella Fitzgerald. She relies heavily on her longtime associations with pianist/arranger Quinn Johnson and producer Mark Winkler, and she's assembled top players from both LA and NYC because she performs on both coasts. She sounds like a jazz singer who's doing very well for herself--Life in the Modern World is a polished, professional and big-budget jazz production that cuts no corners.

Lauren White has another life, however, one that's intriguing. She's a TV producer--you might even have heard of her current show, Homeland. That almost conjures up a particularly snide phrase--vanity project--but just listen to that voice. It's smoky and sultry and all those adjectives we typically use for women jazz singers, but she's also so clear and deliberate in her phrasing that she uncovers a layer of emotional expression that's often neglected in contemporary jazz. Her voice goes up, it goes down, it growls a little, and there might be a touch of a laugh, and often all within a single line. White is definitely one of those singers who consider every word carefully, parsing I suppose, and she realizes that each one of these words were concocted out of thin air by a songwriter who had a reason to do so.

That's why White's fans often speak of her skills as a storyteller. I feel as if the last few jazz singers I've reviewed have touched on this and listed it as a major motivation for adopting their craft. Perhaps this goes back to Sinatra, who received so much of his acclaim due to his ability to treat every word with careful consideration. While White is surrounded with fantastic arrangements and compelling performances from her varying ensemble, it's fun to just zero in on her voice and let her tell you that story. Close your eyes, and by the end of the song you'll feel as if you know so much more about her.