Created in her mind on balmy evenings on a sunny balcony in Paris, German vocalist LAURA is proud to present her sophomore album, ‘Sunset Balcony’, set to release on May 5th on GLM Records.

Pre order here

Well known within the jazz scene of Stuttgart which she calls home, Laura has already gathered a reputation for herself by attracting the attention of the likes of Quincy Jones, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Jacob Collier. Taken aback by her musicality, her voice, and her charisma, Michael Jackson’s revered producer felt moved to say, “This young woman doesn’t need to worry about her career, she is amazing and I’m sure we will be hearing more from her in the future”.

Inspired by her fourth floor Parisian apartment, Laura views her balcony as a nexus of safety and freedom, as for her it provides the feeling of being at home whilst being exposed to the outside world. With strong undercurrents of Norah Jones-esque contentment and positivity, the record embraces a number of varied styles and textures with confidence and joy.

From the country/pop-tinged title track, to the hip-hop influenced ‘Poke Bowl’, blues/funk energy of ‘Johnny the Fly’ and folky mood of ‘Bartender’, the 14 tracks are united by Laura’s universally relatable storytelling and captivating melodies.

Whilst the core ensemble is a quartet of close friends and long term collaborators (the same team responsible for Laura’s 2021 release ‘Quiet Land’), the album sees welcome additions from some of Germany’s leading instrumentalists including guitar, percussion, horns and strings. Lush orchestral arrangements, comforting soul guitar parts, and passages of playful improvisations from trumpeter Jakob Bänsch and baritone saxophonist Eric Séva open up new textural contexts to showcase the diverse array of styles up Laura’s sleeve.

‘Sunset Balcony’ is an album whose music moves toward the future, but along the way nostalgically glances back over its shoulder, into the real and emotional contradictions between melancholy and optimism that we all have to live with now more than ever.

Laura| Vocals Jens Loh | Bass William Lecompte | Piano, fender rhodes Eckhard Stromer | Drums        

Artist website

The mood is jazz. The icon is Rickie Lee Jones. The voice just keeps getting better. Rickie Lee Jones’ latest album Pieces of Treasure (BMG Modern) is a reunion with her lifelong friend, legendary producer Russ Titelman, who co-produced Jones’ star-making albums, her 1980 debut Rickie Lee Jones and the seminal Pirates. Available everywhere April 28, on vinyl or streaming, experience the sensual, elegant, groundbreaking spirit that is always Rickie Lee.

Great jazz never imitates what has already been done. Throughout her career, the Grammy-winning singer songwriter has interpreted an extraordinarily wide range of songs, often on the same album (David Bowie publicly praised her take on “Rebel Rebel”). She has recorded celebrated jazz-leaning albums including Girl at Her Volcano and Pop Pop, but until now, she had never devoted an entire album to the American Songbook.

“This album is as much about being human, the view of surviving—which means aging, and loving relentlessly— as it is about anything,” says Jones, now 68 with an acclaimed memoir, Last Chance Texaco. “We love ‘til the day we die, love our lives, our families, and finally ourselves.”

Recorded over five days at Sear Sound in New York City, backed by the quartet of Rob Mounsey on piano, guitarist Russell Malone, bassist David Wong and drummer Mark McLean, Pieces of Treasure— the title a callback to Pirates —is elegantly simple, a deeply emotive set pulled from Jones’ own life and experience. “This is an album Russ masterfully picked players who are exceptional musicians, who listen and respond,” says Jones. “And that’s partly why this sparse thing sounds so totally complete, because everyone responds to each other and builds this perfect room.”

 Hear the first single and opening song “Just in Time” (written by Jule Styne, Betty Comden, Adolph Green), featuring Mike Mainieri on vibraphone. “I am flirting with the microphone, sexy in a kind of “grown-ups in the 1960s” way, like Dean Martin might have been with his sweetheart,” says Jones. “I try to keep tape running every time I am behind the microphone, because you never know? I just slipped in there and started to sing. So, no one is thinking too much. And that’s the way to sneak up on a performance.”

On April 6, 7 and 8, Rickie Lee Jones will be playing special preview shows at Birdland in New York City, backed by Russell Malone, Rob Mounsey, Mark McClean and Paul Nowinski.

“This American Songbook recording shows Rickie's artistry in full bloom,” says Titelman. “Her voice has always sounded a bit younger than it ought to (that may be a function of her ability to inhabit the character who is singing the song so masterfully that you believe every word) but on this recording the aging voice sounds even better to me than the youthful one. There's a resonance and warmth in her lower register that wasn't there before. I adore the young Rickie Lee but I love even more the Old Dame.”

Pieces of Treasure

Just in Time (Jule Styne, Betty Comden, Adolph Green)

There Will Never Be Another You (Harry Warren, Mack Gordon) Nature Boy (Eden Ahbez)

One for My Baby (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer)

They Can’t Take That Away from Me (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) All the Way (Jimmy Van Heusen, Sammy Cahn)

Here’s That Rainy Day (Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke) September Song (Kurt Weill, Maxwell Anderson)

On the Sunny Side of the Street (Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields) It’s All in the Game (Charles G. Dawes, Carl Sigman)

Rickie Lee Jones website

It’s All We Have is a reflection on the beauty of the world and humanity in contraposition to the power which is exercised in multiple forms on people through extremism, economy and politics leading to denial of rights and environmental threats.Sabino’s compositions create a file rouge through themes from slavery (Whisky) to capitalism (The Extra Something); the women’s condition (Melodia), particularly referring to the actuality in Afghanistan, and the wars led by economical profits but disguised behind good intentions (Cuba Libre); the desperate conditions of children in some areas of the world (Sonhos de Marcelo), the climate change due to human behaviour (A Little Road Not Made Of Man), the uncountable nature magnificence (It’s all I have To Bring Today) and the beauty and power of the unseen in the world (Who Has Seen The Wind?).

The voice of women has been chosen to tell these stories through poems by Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti. These poems bring positivity and hope (Hope) which connects to an inner and more intimate way of interpreting the album title “It’s All We Have” which represents the urge, as artists, to produce music, express ideas, value human beauty against the struggle that everyone goes through in the everyday life. Within this vision, Diana contributes, as an interpreter and as a writer of the lyrics of two songs that offer a further reflection on human relationships (Beyond Clouds) and the opportunity coming from unexpected experiences than can totally lift you up and transform us and our existence…“In Spite of Everything”.

Diana Torti and Sabino de Bari started their musical path in 2006. Over time, they have been exploring musical boundaries through composition and improvisation, merging their wide experience and skills in various genres and styles of music (from contemporary classical, to jazz and early music). Since their first album, “Voices”, sextet, to the most recent, “On a Cloud”, as a duo, they have been successfully navigating musical territories where the exploration of sounds and timbre possibilities were mixed with rich harmonies and refined melodies as well as recall of Mediterranean culture and sounds.

All tracks composed by Sabino de Bari

Lyrics: Emily Dickinson (tracks 4,6,10), Christina Rossetti (track 3), Diana Torti (tracks 2,11), Sabino de Bari (tracks 1,8), John Hay (track 5)

Sabino de Bari - compositions, lyrics, guitar

Diana Torti - vocals, lyrics

Recorded at Four Walls Studio in Giovinazzo (Italy), in December 2022

Mixing & Mastering by Sabino de Bari

Photo by Monika S. Jakubowska

Graphics by Cristina Lombardi

Links to buy here

Composer, violinist and vocalist Claire Victoria Roberts releases the first single Swooping of Swallows from her upcoming album Inconsistent on April 6th 2023.

When asked to describe her music, the Barcelona-based artist, whose melodic jazz sound is steeped in classical textures, describes her effort to move away from boxed-in genres:

 “Composers are constantly pushing the boundaries of contemporary classical music to new extremes… but I wanted to pull the classical compositions I write in a new direction, towards something more intimate, improvisatory, lyrical, telling a story…approaching contemporary classical, orchestral and choral writing as a jazz singer-songwriter.”

Alongside young jazz improvisers James Girling on Guitar, Tom Harris on piano, and Jeremy Brown on bass, Roberts presents her musical smorgasbord in an original E.P. of 4 songs and 4 instrumental interludes, aptly titled Inconsistent. Special guest trumpeter Alexandra Ridout joins for 2 songs, and an orchestra of friends and colleagues in Manchester perform her lush, Hollywood-esque orchestral arrangements.

The release of Inconsistent follows a host of awards for her writing in the contemporary classical sphere, including a Jerwood Arts composer award, a Royal Philharmonic Society Composition prize, and a Young Composer award from the Welsh Music Guild. Critics have regaled her accomplished, sultry vocals and assured stage presence, at performances in Brecon jazz, Wall2Wall jazz, and Begues jazz festival (Catalunya).

The original compositions make up eight tracks which focus on the inconsistencies and inadequacies which make up our being, from Jealousy to Bad Decisions, to our distance from nature and distorted sense of time in the track Swooping of Swallows with its whimsical lyric: “a thousand stars which could be ours each night, But we can’t find the time.”

Four wordless pieces come in the form of an intro, finale and interlude, showcases of Roberts’s skilful and dynamic scoring, and the musicality of David Coyle’s production and mixing (Coyle’s credits include orchestral recordings for Classic FM and the BBC as well as production on work by Everything Everything). The intro throws wide open the stylistic gambit, taking us through microtonal soundscapes to sweeping melodies and straight back to the raw and intimate setting of agile vocals and Girling’s guitar accompaniment. Hard-driving swing on the bonus track Bad Decisions sees Roberts at home in the traditional scat and pizzazz of American songbook-style vocal jazz, a fast-tempo, tongue-in-cheek tune which unites effortlessly with Ridout’s horn solo.

More divergent in its origins from the rest, Jealousy encounters a singer speaking directly with her emotions, in a stripped down verse of guitar, harp and cello, before branching into layered vocals in a haunting choral finale. The piece is influenced by her much-loved singers and composers she encountered in the diverse jazz scene of Barcelona that continue to inspire her work, Rita Payes and Silvia Perez Cruz, as well as singer-songwriters who move freely between jazz and acoustic styles, the likes of Melody Gardot, Esperanza Spalding, Joni Mitchell.

“I wrote the songs and interludes during lockdown, when I was also working on several classical commissions, an operatic work and a piece for Radio 3. It was a time when people were so focused on self-improvement. I felt like I wanted to write songs which acknowledged the inescapable contradictions and inconsistencies we all have within us, and to do so musically too… when I receive a classical commission, do I have to treat it differently, as though I don’t listen to a million other genres, as if I don’t feel moved by the artistry of Laura Marling, Lianne la Havas, Laura Mvula…if I’m making a plea to my emotions as a singer-songwriter, why can I not include a reference to renaissance polyphony - who gets to decide which styles fit in which boxes? I am as inconsistent in my everyday thoughts and feelings and listening habits as I am in my compositions”

For further info Claire Victoria Roberts

Billie Bottle’s Temple of Shibboleth are delighted to announce the release of their eponymous debut on March 31st.

Born in lockdown, The Temple of Shibboleth started life when Billie Bottle ran away from Gifford’s Circus in 2020, and started caring for a wise woman in deepest Devon. Here, she was taught the ancient art of traditional housekeeping – it eventually became this melodic, deep and gently humorous music.

It tells the story of The Week, the most commonly and widely practiced mantra for a good few thousand years! It is a celebration of the Home and beyond. An opportunity for ritual transformation and a means to deal with the grief of these difficult times. It also features toe-tapping tunes and in-depth sonic experimentation - it's all going on!

The album is produced by hitmaker, George Shilling (Blur/Primal Scream/Yazz) and features the voice and bass of the Canterbury Scene, Richard Sinclair. Billie Bottle continues to incorporate a scintillating blend of jazz and pop in her work and The Temple of Shibboleth go in deep with a fine balance of mythic prog and psych-folk.

Billie Bottle’s Temple of Shibboleth is released worldwide on double vinyl and digital download on 31st March 2023.

Billie Bottle Bandcamp

Billie Bottle Instagram

Billie Bottle Facebook

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE FOR TOURING PROFESSIONALS

‘I wish this book had been around when I first started touring … It should be the first thing we all pack when we head out on the road.’ Philip Selway, Radiohead

This comprehensive manual will help musicians and those working in live music to identify and cope with the various physical and psychological difficulties that can occur during, or as a result of, touring. It covers topics including mental health, peak performance and performance anxiety, addiction, group dynamics, relationship problems, dealing with the media, physical health, diversity and inclusion, crisis management and post-tour recovery.

Written by health and performance professionals, this timely and essential book provides robust clinical advice, cutting edge research, practical strategies, resources and detailed illustrations. Each chapter is underpinned with personal recollections from musicians and prominent touring personnel, including Nile Rodgers, Justin Hawkins, Philip Selway, Charles Thompson, Katie Melua , Kieran Hebden, Jake Berry, Tina Farris, Taylor Hanson, Trevor Williams, Lauren Mayberry, Pharoahe Monch, Jim Digby, Will Young, Angie Warner, Dale ‘Opie’ Skjerseth and many more.

Touring and Mental Health is designed to be picked up, put down, read at length and passed around the tour bus.

‘This book can add decades to a career, give wisdom to the most exhausted mind, and offer encouragement to every burdened heart.’ James Ainscough, CEO Help Musicians UK

‘[it’s] like having a therapist in your back pocket. It helped deepen my understanding of myself as a performer and how the demands of the music business can take a toll’ Siobhan Donaghy, Sugababes

‘The perfect book at the perfect time.’ Marty Hom, Tour Manager Fleetwood Mac, Shakira, Beyoncé

‘A remarkable encyclopaedia of wisdom...  This impressive book needs to be read by every single artist and every single psychological worker as well.’ Professor Brett Kahr, Senior Fellow, Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology

Publication Date: 23.03.23
ISBN: 9781913172343
Extent: 640 pages
Format: Paperback

Tamsin Embleton is an attachment-based psychotherapist and the Director of the Music Industry Therapists and Coaches (MITC). She worked as a music promoter, tour manager, and artist manager for ten years.

Link here