THE NILSMEN : LE WINSTON b/w SANDSTEP

The superb Brigitte Bardot picture sleeve was a very smart idea to attract young people to watch that promotional adverstising as a support for Winston and Camel cigarettes.

Jasmine Kara was born 1988 in a small Swedish town to an Iranian father and a Swedish mother. Even as a little girl she knew that music was her calling. Jasmine started performing at talent shows and took every chance she could get to get up on the stage. Singing and exploring new music was exciting and life ahead seemed beautiful for the young Jasmine.

Then her life took a very dramatic turn. In her mid-teens she fell in love for the first time. But this love soon turned out to be everything but an innocent teenage love affair. Jasmine quickly found herself trapped in a most abusive and totally destructive relationship and she started sinking deeper and deeper. This very dark period almost took her life.

When she was completely down and out, way down at the bottom a miracle happened. Someone gave her a guitar. And she remembered how good music used to make her feel. How music can heal.

Shortly thereafter Jasmine decided to break up and leave. She left the town she grew up in, the relationship that almost killed her – and her old life, in search for a new. She started travelling the world, determined to find a way to make a living as a performing artist.

When Jasmine arrived in New York she immediately knew she had come home. The city’s music scene in general and it’s jazz, blues and R&B clubs in particular made her realise that this was where she belonged. She started performing all over town and took every chance she could get to sing to anyone who’d listen. Gradually she started noticing how her powerful voice could move her audience, making her even more certain that this was what she needed to do for the rest of her life. However, that dream of a recording contract kept eluding her, depsite promises and close calls.

Eventually she was picked up by new indepenent label Tri-Sound. One of it’s founders was legendary record man Marshall Chess, who ended up as Jasmine’s Executive Producer on her debut album ”Blues Ain’t Nothing But A Good Woman Gone Bad”. A collection of classic old school blues and R&B-numbers, but with Jasmine’s trade remarkable voice, the album was recorded during 48 hours in the well-renowned Cosmos Studio in Stockholm, Sweden for a 2010 summer release.

Ever since her troubled teens, Jasmine had kept a diary, written notes and letters and a blog to document her dramatic roller coaster journey to where she arrived today. This material makes for very fascinating and captivating reading. SO much so, that her label decided to turn it into a autobiographic novel to be launched in conjunction with the album release. So far only printed in the Swedish language, the book is called ”Hälsa Henne Att Hon Ska Dö” (”Tell Her That She Is Dead”) and this debut marks the start of yet another creative aspect of the much talented and versatile artist that is Jasmine Kara.

www.jasminekara.com

Vintage Trouble, based in Los Angeles, is the brainchild of Ty Taylor (vocal) and Nalle Colt (guitar). Combining their love for original soul and rhythm & blues, the two set up a basic home studio in Venice Beach and started crafting the beginnings of Vintage Trouble.

Already a friend of both, Rick Barrio Dill (bass) came along and added his shared bass influences and energy into the newly formed project. To make the band complete, Richard Danielson (drums) was recruited not long after to add the authentic and edgy take that was needed on the drums.

With these collective energies and inputs in place, a new kind of soul band had been born with unlimited creativity and force. 
The power foursome then moved to commune, create and rehearse amongst the famed musical lore of Laurel Canyon. Within two weeks of rehearsals in early 2010, the group quickly began playing local shows and late night speakeasies. Led by timeless vocal tone and presence, small tweed amps, and a mission to move as many people as possible, the band quickly gained a reputation as a high energy and truly mesmerizing live act whose performances feel like down-home revivals with an uptown edge. Sticking to their roots of mid-century original soul music and recording techniques, the band used a lean three-day recording session with full takes and no-frills to turn out 12 new songs a mere two months into the project. With singles like « Gracefully », « Nancy Lee », « Still & Always Will » and « Blues Hand Me Down », the resulting sound brings you back to the days of vinyl records, sweaty juke joints, and the feel and essence of the original soul movement. 
Vintage Trouble. Get into it. And be prepared for the awakening.

www.vintagetrouble.com
photo by Lee Cherry

Missing Andy are a five-piece indie rock act that are riding on the crest of a wave, having performed at the renowned SXSW festival alongside the likes of The Wombats, Pigeon Detectives and Lightspeed Champion among others, the band have also been asked to be part of a soundtrack to the forthcoming Hollywood movie Chain Letter (featuring Nikki Read of Twilight fame).
With tracks such as The Way We’re Made it’s easy to see why Missing Andy are gaining so much attention, the song is a stunning combination of driving rhythms, potent riffs, soaring instrumentation and an infectious mix of spoken and crooned vocals (kind of like a bigger, louder hi-fi version of Milk Kan and yes that’s a very good thing) that’s equally rousing as they are soulful.

Tour Dates:
Oct 12 The Black Flag Wakefield, UK
Oct 13 Moho Live Manchester, UK
Oct 16 O2 Academy 3 Birmingham Birmingham, UK
Oct 19 Barfly, Camden London, UK
Oct 28 Bridgehouse 2 London, UK
Oct 29 Joiners Southampton, UK
Nov 04 Kasbah Coventry, UK
Nov 26 Essex Rockz @ Brentwood Leisure Centre Brentwood, UK
Nov 27 MADNESS House Of Fun Weekener Minehead, UK

http://www.missingandy.co.uk/

Kicca, the stunning Italian singer could have been the muse of fashion designer André Courrèges…and it’s no surprise! Her style, her electrifying presence, attracts us immediately. Her voice reminds us of Eartha Kitt, Nancy Wilson and Diana Ross, but from this she creates her own style. She is unique ! and these references soon vanish to make way for this incredible singer, totally original and in every way addictive. With her band Intrigo, led by the unpredictable Oscar Marchioni on keyboards and joined by the frantic Hervé Sambe on guitar with the powerful Salah Khaili on drums, they captivate their audience and immerse them in an « intriguing » world where their original compositions travel between soul and jazz .. Their latest album « Senso Contrario » released in april 2011.

The musical encounter between Kicca and Oscar, two sensitive soul-loving artists, is not just a stroke of luck and is nothing short of extraordinary either. Her playful voice is a happy breath of fresh air, full of intense emotion accompanied by his firey fingers prancing across the keyboard. Irreprochable rhythm and harmony flow from Oscar’s imposing left hand while never-ending melodies seep out from under the right in response to the alluring kaleidoscope of sound that is Kicca’s voice. 

Their natural curiousity and insatiable drive to produce led these artists to form the trio Intrigo in 2003 with Italian drummer Paolo Mappa. Bursting with jazz passion, boogaloo and the energy of 60′s soul, their first self-producted album Bollente released in 2004, was followed by performances throughout Italy, France and Belgium.

Kicca and Oscar have since made their home in Paris and where the influence of so many cultures has brought them new opportunities to explore other musical traditions and new languages. That is why Intrigo is today made up of a variety of great jazz artists like Salah Khaili, Hervé Samb, Blue Lou marini, Francesco Bearzatti, Juan Sebastien Jimenez, Felipe Cabrera and many others. 

In March 2009 Intrigo will release its second album under the label ADN Music distributed by Universal Music France with new tracks in English, French and Italian. This album truly captures the originality, spontaneity and exhuberance of Intrigo, with its sinous melodic curves, devilish groove…

This saturday 23 juli, Amy Winehouse, the soul singer, has been found dead at her home at the age of 27.

Miss Winehouse, who came to fame with her debut album Frank in 2003, was found at her flat in north London this afternoon, the Metropolitan Police have confirmed.
They say that they received a call at 3.54pm calling for help for a woman in Camden. Paramedics arrived at the scene, but she was pronounced dead. A spokeswoman for the London Ambulance Service said: « Sadly the patient had died. »
The death is « unexplained » but not thought to be suspicious. An overdose of drink and drugs is the suspected cause of death.
Last month, Miss Winehouse cancelled her entire European tour, after an on-stage breakdown in Serbia. A statement on her website said « Amy Winehouse is withdrawing from all scheduled performances. Everyone involved wishes to do everything they can to help her return to her best and she will be given as long as it takes for this to happen. »
Friends of the singer had reportedly voiced fears that she was drinking herself to death. They said earlier this month: « Her drinking is totally out of control. Amy is constantly out of control on vodka…

Source and further Telegraph.co.uk

Just for fun to replay a track (made in 2009)… better than the original?

The Third Degree’s Mercy: modern classic gets a makeover.
A cover version of Duffy’s hit single Mercy is the calling card for a band who hope to revive the sound of vintage soul.

…The track was masterminded by a trio of éminences grises from the world of vintage soul. One of them, Eddie Piller, founded the label Acid Jazz in the late Eighties, and is a revered northern soul DJ. Another is a like-minded Swede named Fredrik Ekander. But it’s the third who is most intriguing…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

RAY LUGO & THE BOOGALOO DESTROYERS: Mi Watusi – Album

I had the chance to listen to a promo copy of this new Latin Boogaloo project from Ray Lugo, New York City Afrobeat/Funk producer, composer and instrumentalist (guitar, bass, percussion, keyboards, vocals), founder of the Kokolo Afrobeat Orchestra and Ray Lugo’s L.E.S. Express. The result is a wonderful piece of 60s boogaloo ala Willie Bobo, Ray Baretto and the likes. Their 45 single « Swingy Boogaloo » is already out on Freesstyle records.

10-piece Milwaukee combo featuring 3 lead vocalists. Includes ex (and in some cases current) members of Highball Holiday, The Pacers, International Jet Set, The Essentials, De La Buena, and many more. We started writing and rehearsing in early 2007. ….

Kings Go Forth signed to Luaka Bop in mid-2009. Our debut album, « The Outsiders Are Back, » was released on the label in April 2010,