Ulviyya in OK! magazine

Ulviyya is featured with other Baku jazz professionals in this month's OK! magazine in Azerbaijan.

Issues can be purchased at newstands throughout Baku.

Hurry and get your copy!

Ulviyya Marries in Baku

On September 25, Baku witnessed the marriage of Ulviyya Rahimova in a private ceremony to Jake Jones, and American democracy worker.

This link is one of the many media stories which covered the event attended by performers such as Azad Shabanov, Dilara Kazimova, Diana Hajiyeva, as well as guests from the United States, Ukraine, Latvia, Georgia, Czech Republic and many other places.


In addition to this big news, Ulviyya changed, or rather made an addition, to her name – Ulviyya Rahimova-Jones.

Required Listening - Gloomy Sunday

In 1933, Hunagrian composer Rezső Seress set a poem to music. The poem, by László Jávor, discussed the sadness and horror of a vapid modern culture. The melody was perfected to fit this sentiment. Listen to the original lyrics in this Hungarian video.


And the literal English translation:

Gloomy Sunday with a hundred white flowers
I was waiting for you my dearest with a prayer
A Sunday morning, chasing after my dreams
The carriage of my sorrow returned to me without you
It is since then that my Sundays have been forever sad
Tears my only drink, the sorrow my bread...

Gloomy Sunday
This last Sunday, my darling please come to me
There'll be a priest, a coffin, a catafalque and a winding-sheet
There'll be flowers for you, flowers and a coffin
Under the blossoming trees it will be my last journey
My eyes will be open, so that I could see you for a last time
Don't be afraid of my eyes, I'm blessing you even in my death...
The last Sunday

The haunting sounds were considered so melancholy, so expressive, that many felt driven into despair by listening to it. And the despair increased its popularity. By the end of the thirties the song had been recroded in Russian, French, Japanese, German, Spanish, and English. The most famous recording may be Billie Holiday in 1941.

The girl who inspired the song, later killed herself with her suicide note reading only, “Gloomy Sunday”. Seventeen other suicides took place in Hungary where references to Gloomy Sunday were made (in the note or left on the record player). It was considered so depressive, that the song, including Holiday’s recording, was banned by the BBC for being “not at all in keeping with what we feel to be the need of the public in this country’.

After previous attempts, the composer committed suicide in 1968. Since then the song has been recorded by Elvis Costello, Sinead O’Connor, Bjork, Marianne Faithfull, Sarah McLachlan, Portishead, Ray Charles and Sarah Brightman. Click on the artist's name to hear their version. Each singer lends their own impression of emotion and the causes of melancholy.

Ulviyya releases a new single - Turn Back (Geri Dön)

Ulviyya’s new single, Turn Back, (Geri Dön) isn’t her traditional jazz style. But any one of her fans who hear the song will recognize her signature warm tones, jazz influence, and the optimism typical of her. Even with the song Turn Back, pleading with a lover to reform, rekindle what was before, reunite broken fragments of a once united bond, Ulviyya manages to express the desperation of the text while accenting her own notes of desire and hope.


The line, ‘I haven’t filled on the days of life yet, I haven’t filled on my time with you’ shows a craving and desire that blends with the remorse and nostalgia of the song. For those interested, here is the original Azerbaijani text:

Son zamanlar üzünü görmədim, səsini duymadı heç
Yaşadığım günlərdən doymadım, səndən heç doymadım, heç
Yalvarıram bax mənə, dinlə bax sozlərimə, inansan hisslərimə
Gozlərində yuxu çox, ondan sənə fayda yox
Mənə garşı sevgin yox

Geri donsən o günlərə
Verdiyin sən o sozlərə
Bağışladığın hisslərə
Geri Dön
Geri donsən o günlərə
Verdiyin sən o sozlərə
Bağışladığın hisslərə

Geri Dön

Later the song speaks of her lover’s eyes full of empty dreams but with no real intention, with no action. Whether stuck in a morass of depression and sloth, or a whirlwind of parties, drugs, and illusions, Turn Back is a cry for return.

Required Listening - Potato Head Blues

Louis Armstrong was the innovator of many great steps forward in jazz. He changed vocal styles, recording styles, even the way solos are performed. A fantastic example of this is the 1927 recording of Potato-Head Blues.

The actress Talullah Bankhead said she played this song in her dressing room for it's‘invigorating effect’. In Woody Allen's 1979 film, Manhattan, his character Isaac Davis lists this recording as one of the reasons that life is worth living. That may be an exaggeration, but then again I’ve never needed to make a list to prove life is worth living.

In many ways it’s a perfect performance – fun for the audience, innovative and original, and a great showcase of talent. Really, what more does a song need?

Listen to it. The music races forward from the first second with Armstrong’s horn providing a swinging melody as the clarinet rises above to echo the feeling. Then the trumpet breaks off to perform a solo with only the banjo as accompaniment. The again clarinet in a higher register as the trumpet halts but the banjo continues its strumming rhythm. The trumpet comes back and the band gives stop-time backup. The trumpet solos shadow Armstrong’s famous singing style (or his singing shadows his famous trumpet style). The song comes together at the end as the ensemble joins to meld the parts together.

This song pushed forward trumpet playing, changed the way solos were recorded, was innovative in its use of time (using breaks during the clarinet solo, syncopated rhythm, and stop-time during the solo), and changed the way ensembles played with more focus on solos. Jazz ensembles were less like a mini-orchestra and more a collection of creative individuals who had their own voice and style.

This is one of the important points in the musical timeline where individuality and creativity won out over petulant pop preferences – and won big enough to keep jazz that way for decades.

What is Acid Jazz?

Listening to definition of acid jazz is like hearing someone describe what chocolate tastes like. It’s better just to get some yourself to know. It’s very fluid and can’t really be pinned down. In fact, one of the worst aspects of speaking about jazz is that it is music that defies categories. But academics and critics will still try to pigeonhole the trends. Rather than writing at length, I’ll just give some quick impressions and then recommend some music for your own enlightenment.

Acid jazz is a continuation of Jazz Fusion, combining elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. While the beats and occasional DJ additions are from funk and hip-hop, the chord structures come straight from jazz.

Acid Jazz moved jazz away from intellectual circles of experimentation, pedantic critics, and upper class entertainment and moved it back to clubs, streets, and parties, where jazz originally began and deserves to stay. While there will always be a field of academic criticism of jazz, it isa music about feeling and freedom, and that’s how it deserves to be received. It’s vibrant, exciting, passionate, and crazy sounds expressing the thoughts and feelings of the artist as much as any painting or sculpture.

In acid jazz, the funky beats and soul style are the canvas, but everything drawn upon it is pure jazz. It’s a jazz designed for dancing and expression. Many other elements of jazz – improvisation, live band performance, few rules, - still reign.

Here are a few things you may find in acid jazz - walking bass lines, some Latin accents, retro jazz organ touches, respect for jazz tradition, soul vocals, syncopated rhythm, wah-wah effects on guitar, tight brass sections, and some vibrant improvisations.

It can be hard to distinguish acid ajzz from funk or other music. jazz is a music which bleeds at the borders, taking influences from everywhere and not fitting in neatly anywhere. For example, on itunes the group US3 is classified as Jazz, Acid Jazz, Hip-Hop, and Rap depending on the album. What a range! Find out for yourself. A few well-known acid jazz groups are:

• Jamiroquai
• Brand New Heavies  
• Donald Byrd  
• Incognito  
• James Taylor Quartet 
• Ronny Jordan  
• Vibraphonic
• US3 

Jazz Profile - Charles Mingus

As a child, he heard only church music, but the sounds of Duke Ellington turned him to jazz. He toured with Louis Armstrong played with Lionel Hampton and was briefly a member of Ellington's band, but his explosive temper got him personally fired by Ellington.


In the early 1950s, Mingus played with Charlie Parker, who inspired and influenced him. Mingus considered Parker the greatest genius and innovator in jazz history, but hated his drug use and behavior.

In 1952 Mingus co-founded Debut Records to record young musicians. The most famous recording of his label, though, is the Massey Hall concert with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and Max Roach on May 15, 1953,

1956 was a breakthrough year for him, with the release of Pithecanthropus Erectus, a ten minute jazz poem about the rise and fall of man. Mingus then went on to record an amazing thirty albums in ten years.

Mingus couldn’t be labeled, as a person or as a composer. His music contained influences of classical music as well as gospel music. His pieces contained long solos of improvisation and were played differently each night. He was always exploring new areas of jazz. taking cures from bebop and building from there.

One of Mingus’ greatest contributions to jazz is his organizational genius. Mingus carefully cultivated his ensembles, usually 8-10 people. Mingus pushed his ever-rotating groups hard, insisting on dynamic interaction and on-the-spot creations. These groups became known as “University for Jazz”. Like Duke Ellington, Mingus would write pieces for specific members of his group. But, also, he could swiftly fire members, sometimes on stage in the middle of a performance.

As respected as Mingus was for his musical talents, he was sometimes feared for his occasional violent onstage temper, which was at times directed at members of his band, and other times aimed at the audience. He was physically large, prone to obesity (especially in his later years), and was by all accounts often intimidating and frightening when expressing anger or displeasure. Mingus was prone to clinical depression. He tended to have brief periods of extreme creative activity, intermixed with fairly long periods of greatly decreased output.

Mingus’ personality was as feared as his music was respected. Frantic periods of cerativity could eb followed by dark depressions. His anger could be directed at fellow musicians or even at the audience. Mingus would often tell listeners to stop eating and drinking or call for no cash register work during the performance. Mingus felt strongly about civil rights and spoke fearlessly from stage, channeling his anger into politics.

But he also had an ironic sense of humour which can be seen in such song titles as All Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother. Or The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive Ass slippers.

Epitaph is one of Charles Mingus' masterpieces. It’s 4,235 measures long, requiring two hours to perform, almost like a jazz opera and one of the longest jazz pieces ever written.

Mingus’ music is difficult to describe. Jazz is music to be lived and listened to and performed. So we suggest you listen to II B.S.  (one of my all-time favorites).

A jazz view of Eurovision

Every year European nations send representatives to sing blasting pop songs with elaborate shows in competition with each other. Residents of Europe vote with their mobile phones and in tandem with a panel of judges, a reigning pop monarch is selected.

Ulviyya was in Oslo with the Azerbaijan delegation for Eurovision 2010. She live-tweeted her impressions while there.

While Ulviyya is not pop, she was helping represent her country in an international arena. over the last three years, Eurovision has turned into an event to gain much media attention for Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan's entry, Safura, came in fifth after millions of votes throughgout Europe.

But what is the difference between pop and jazz at these types of events?
So, we can all describe pop and Eurovision certainly has its fans and critics. But what if it was a jazz competition? What would the differences be?

Pop is about competition. If it were a jazz 'competition', there would be jam sessions, and collaboration. While the pop camps send insulting tweets about each other, jazz musicians would express their competition through music. The musicians staying in the hotel together would be playing together, not worried about destroying the other participants.

Pop has rules. Jazz doesn’t. A pop song is around 3 minutes. Otherwise you don’t get radio and video play. Verse, chorus, maybe a bridge. Certain chords go together, certain beats can’t be used. Jazz is about freedom, so – no rules! 12 minute songs, improvisation, solos, performing the song differently each way, experimenting with chords and harmonies and rhythms - everything is allowed. It's the expression of the performer.

Pop is about the masses, not the individual. Pop is short for popular, after all. It’s about cutting down the music to be as comfortable as possible for as many people as possible. Often pop is a production goal, not an artist achievement. Jazz is all about the individual. Even if the artists didn’t write the piece, how it is performed is an individual expression of feeling at that time. Melodies are stretched and molded to mean what the artist wants.

Jazz is about music. And jazz holds festivals, not competitions

Ulviyya Rahimova at Eurovision with Azerbaijan Delegation

Ulviyya is in Oslo with the Azerbaijan delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest. While there, she will be attending the semifinals and of course the final concert. But also she will be at the receptions, press conferences, interviews, and after-parties.

The entire time she will be tweeting her activities and all the backstage happenings.

True, its not jazz. It is the ultimate example of teen pop music. But it is also an important moment for her country. Azerbaijan is strongly judged to win this year with the heartbroken ballad Drip-Drop and the elaborate show accompanying it.

Follow Ulviyya's tweets as she comments on the music, events, and, yes, politics of the event.

What is Bossa Nova?

Bossa Nova was a completely new variant of jazz created in Brazil in the late 1950’s. Literally meaning New Wave or New Beat, the center of Bossa Nova is the guitar. This makes a cooler, more romantic sound than the frantic horn-based bebop or the loose harmony of free jazz.


Bossa Nova combined its roots in samba with an influence from blues. But most famously, it used a soft, sensual singing style instead of a brassy or confident fashion.

The smooth sexy sounds of Bossa Nova were first created in Rio De Janeiro by João Gilberto. It was later popularized by Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim. Strongly rooted in Brazil, it may be the closest thing to folk jazz that exists. Centered around the songwriter, they first focused on love and longing. But later in the sixties many Bossa Nova hits expressed political frustration.

Bossa Nova, though, is usually easy music about an easy lifestyle.. In fact, “The Girl from Ipanema,” is a song about a woman walking down the beach, the way she moves and how beautiful she is.

You can listen to the classic of Bossa Nova here and here. You can also get the albums of the above mentioned artists. For a more modern take, closer to acid jazz, listen to BossaElectrica, or TecnoBossa.

Ulviyya regularly sings Bossa Nova standards and interprets current hits in Bossa Nova style. Links to come!

Ulviyya encores at the Caucasus Jazz Festival

On Sunday, May 9, the Caucasus jazz Festival held its final concert in the Tbilisi Philharmonic to an overflowing crowd. After the 300 seats filled, an additional 150 fans crowded into the back to view the performance. Fans also watched live online as the entire performance was streamed.


Singing with a multi-national group, Ulviyya provided vocals to one improvisation before providing the musical and philosophical finale to the evening with a funk version of ‘Come Together’.

But the grand finale occurred during the encore. As all the festival musicians poured onto the stage during the standing ovation, they spontaneously began to jam together, proving that applause can be fuel to musicians.

The evening finally concluded past midnight with Ulviyya singing ‘Mas Que Nada’ with all the Kavkaz Jazz Festival participants playing with her – multiple saxophones, trumpets, basses, drums, and other jazz instruments.

The concert was recorded and will be issued as a DVD in the near future.

Lena Horne 1917-2010

One of jazz’s pioneers, Lena Horne, died this week at the age of 92. She wasn’t a pioneer because of innovative style, a powerful voice, or groundbreaking technique. Rather, she was a breaker of stereotypes, one of the first black cinematic sex symbols, a fighter for civil rights, and a role model to millions. But just because of her personal struggles and heroic actions, her music shouldn’t be discounted.


Horne was born a light-skinned black into a middle class Brooklyn family.

At 16 she began dancing at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem. The Cotton Club was a swanky night club which was managed by mafia groups, catered to rich white clients, denied admission to blacks as clients, but had some of the biggest names in jazz come perform including, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, and Billie Holiday.

The Cotton Club became a symbol of mob wars, the rise of jazz, and also of the race situation in America. Only light skinned black girls were allowed to be dancers. The music was called ‘jungle music’ with actors performing voodoo dances and acting as savages in front of the all white audience.

In the mid 1930’s she was the principal vocalist with the all-black Noble Sissle Society Orchestra, marrying at 19, having two children, and divorcing after a few years.

In 1941 she began singing at the Trocadero club in Hollywood. It was there she was discovered by movie scouts. But blacks weren’t allowed to live in Hollywood. Her neighbours began to pressure her to leave and she was only allowed to stay after famous actor Humphrey Bogart intervened.

MGM signed her to a seven year contract.

She was cast in two films. “Stormy Weather,” was a musical with very little plot but a lot of music. The song went on to become famous, and Horne with it. The second film, “Cabin in the Sky,” the first film directed by Vincente Minnelli, she played a risqué temptress. A scene of her singing in the bath was removed by censors as too sexual.

She was the highest earning black performer with sometimes $10,000 a week. But in her films she never interacted with white actors, and her roels in films were often edited out for southern cinemas.

Horne became popular with US soldiers during the war. But the Army later shunned her performances because she criticized how black soldiers were treated.

Once returning from a performance, for white soldiers in a large auditorium at Fort Riley, Kan., she returned to entertain black troops in the black mess hall. But when she discovered that the whites seated in the front rows were German prisoners of war, she became furious. Marching off the platform, she turned her back on the POWs and sang to the black soldiers in the back of the hall.

"I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept," Horne once said. "I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked."

In 1947 she married a white band arranger. The pressure on them was so great, they kept the marriage secret for three years and moved to Paris.

In the early 1960s Ms. Horne, always outspoken on the subject of civil rights, became increasingly active, participating in numerous marches and protests. She stayed active both in speaking out as well as music. She continued Broadway shows and recording into her eighties.

Her voice has been described as, ‘honey and bourbon’. Her sultry and smooth voice made her the sex symbol for US soldiers and jazz fans. It also added her to the list of jazz divas of the era.

But Lena Horne’s friendship with Billy Strayhorn, the man Duke Ellington described as, “"my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine", is what defined her own style. He guided her singing technique pushing her from cinema symbol to jazz stylist. Horne claimed Staryhorn was the only man she ever loved, but because he was openly gay, their romance never began.

Horne was a pioneer in bringing black entertainers into the mainstream, like Miles Davis and Dexter Gordon, she was an exile from her country to Europe to escape discrimination, and she was a heroic soul and grand voice which will be missed.

Photo Tribute to Lena Horne 1917-2010

 

Ulviyya's Songs Available for Download

Ulviyya's music can now be downloaded into an album. Make sure you have bit torrent so you can access it.

• First, go to Pirate Bay.
• Second , type in ULVIYYA RAHIMOVA into the search
• Click on the album - LIVE 2010
• Finally, click 'Download This Torrent'
• Enjoy!

Or to go faster just click here.

Ulviyya's Performance at Caucasus Jazz Festival

On May 1, Ulviyya and other musicians performed at the Tbilisi Conservatory in the Republic of Georgia. A number of groups performed to open the Caucasus Jazz Festival, and the night ended with strong with a performance by Isfar Sarabski.

This week Ulviyya will be in collaboration and master classes with some of the best regional musicians. Then, the second concert this coming weekend will be with mixed mutlinational groups as the musicians jam with each other, combining styles and reportoires.

The concert will be broadcast live online at www.url.az/jazz. If you can't make it to the concert, then watch Ulviyya online next weekend!

Ulviyya to perform in Tbilisi

Ulviyya will be one of the opening vocalists for the Caucasus Jazz Festival this next week.

The premeire concert will be held at 1930 at the Tbilisi Conservatoire, located at Griboedov str. 8. (Tel: 997976).

Come see Ulviyya as she performs with her musicians including winner of the 2009 Montreux Jazz Festival, Isfar Sarabski, saxophonist Rain Sultanov, Ruslan Huseynov, Elchin Shirinov, and Elchin Huseynli and many others.

Ulviyya will be providing her impressions and updates of the festival every day via Twitter.

Come and see Ulviyya, show your support, and show what kind of fans you all are!!

Caucasus Jazz Festival

This month, the Kavkaz Jazz Festival will take place in Bazuleti, Georgia April 30-May 8. Musicians from Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia will participate. In addition to the regular jam sessions by the musicians, special concerts in Tbilisi will be held. The rehearsals and jam sessions will be mediated by Justin Dicioccio, from the well-known Manhattan School of Music. Ulviyya Rahimova is one of the main featured performers. Come see her live as she jams with the region's best!

What's the difference?

The varieties of jazz are endless. As each generation and culture of jazz take the music in new directions, the infinite possibilities continue to be explored.


The types of jazz, Avant-garde, Bebop, Fusion, Bossa Nova, Dixieland, Swing, free jezz, acid jazz, smooth jazz, are often used, but rarely defined. In the next few weeks we can explore what are these different styles and who were the famous pioneers.

But don’t hold on to these definitions too strongly. Jazz is still about freedom and defying definition and rules. As John Zorn has said,

"Musicians don’t think in terms of boxes. I know what jazz music is. I studied it. I love it. But when I sit down and make music, a lot of things come together. And sometimes it falls a little bit toward the classical side, sometimes it falls a little bit towards the jazz, sometimes it falls toward rock, sometimes it doesn’t fall anywhere, it's just floating in limbo. But no matter which way it falls, it's always a little bit of a freak. It doesn’t really belong anywhere. It's something unique, it's something different, it's something out of my heart. It's not connected with those traditions."

Jazz Album Reviews - Lightening Edition II

Masada Quintet – Stolas, The Book of Angels Vol. 12 (2009)

This is the only album of the Masada Quintet, another brainchild of avant garde composer John Zorn. The instrumental album features the quintet’s - Piano, drums, bass, tenor sax, trumpet – relaxed style with muted piano and generally comforting brass. An outstanding all-around album. Put it in the car stereo for your commute and lose the office stress .

Best Song: Serakel, but also listen to Haamiah

Sex Mob – Does Bond – (2001)
New York jazz band Sex Mob has an interesting shtick – a slide trumpet (a trumpet with a trombone slide).Their second shtick is taking popular pop songs, disassembling them and reassembling them anew, keeping the basic elements and making the rest their own. In this album, they take on the music of the James Bond franchise. Cool sixties sound seeps from every track making it a perfect album to play at the private bar of your bachelor pad.

Best Song: You Only Live Twice

Gretchen Parlato – In a Dream (2009)

Gretchen Parlato has the soul of jazz – musicianship, improvisation, soul, style and individualism (while paying homage to the past greats). With fans like Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, Parlato has the jazz foundation (she won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition ion 2004 judged by Quincey Jones, Al Jarreau and others) in case there would be any reason you would doubt her. But that won’t happen once you listen to the first track. Blending Brazilian influences with her understated soft voice and intricate rhythms, Parlato’s first album shows she can go further into pop, easy listening, lounge, or whichever direction she chooses. Is it obvious yet that we recommend this album? It provides high musicianship with a smooth ethereal feel. Put it on next time you invite friends over for after-party drinks.

Best Song: I Can’t Help It and Within Me

Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It (2008)


Formerly of the group Tony! Toni! Tone!, Saadiq went on as a producer of Joss Stone, Mary J. Blige, and others. His music goes back to the roots of old school R&B, and listening to this album brings back memories of Motown, Neville Brothers, Smokey Robinson, and other greats. Saadiq’s voice oozes retro seduction and nostalgic emotion. While there is great emphasis on style, nearly all of the tracks are outstanding, and the presence of a number of big hitters (Stevie Wonder, Joss Stone, Jay-Z) the album isn’t nearly as individualistic as, say, one by Ayo. The album garnered three Grammy nominations and is a great choice for your next house party, retro or not.

Best Song: 100 Yard Dash and Just One Kiss

Paloma Faith – Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful? (2009)


Definitely soul pop more than jazz, Faith credits Billie Holiday and Etta James as her influences. Faith pushes the brassy confident voice that has been brought back by Amy Winehouse and Duffy (though no one beats the original Shirley Bassey). The retro guitars, strong beats, and Faith’s angry lyrics create a funky and heated mix. If you like the new retro-soul comeback, you’ll need this album for your collection.

Best Song: Stone Cold Sober

 

Ingrid Michaelson – Be OK (2008)


Fans of Grey’s Anatomy will know Michaelson’s songs already. Like a lot of other artists we review, she isn’t jazz (though many of her songs are begging for jazz interpretation). ‘Open me up and you will see, I'm a gallery of broken hearts, I'm beyond repair, let me be, And give me back my broken parts’ is sung with such sweet sincerity, it doesn’t sound nearly as cynical as it reads. The simple indie arrangements and emotion-analyzing lyrics create a slightly melancholy album which provokes thought and brings back old feelings.

Best Song: Giving Up

Eva Cassidy – American Tune


Eva Cassidy wasn’t very well-known outside of Washington DC until after her death of cancer at 33. After her music was featured on a BBC program. After that her songs began topping charts. It can’t be said that the albums are stylistically unique or her voice is something unique. But it is very…attractive. The personal takes on popular covers, simple accompaniment, and warm American sound make you want to put your ipod on repeat.

Best Song: True Colors

Allen Toussaint – The Bright Mississippi (2009)


Allen Toussaint is a name you should know. If you don’t know the name, you definitely will recognize some of his funkier work from the 70’s. On this mostly instrumental album, he lets loose a lot of thoughtful New Orleans style. Warm, sensual sounds that make you want to close your eyes and drink it in.

Best Song: The Bright Mississippi

Ayo – Joyful (2006)

Born to a Nigerian father and Roma (gypsy) mother in Germany, Ayo brings a lot of her personal cultural background to her music. Ayo also has some slight reggae sounds, maybe influenced by her reggae singer partner. This album was released in 2006 and went gold and platinum in several European countries. It can be argued that it’s not jazz, but her swaying global rhythms, earnest, accented voice which is an amazing instrument in itself, and sincere,danceable and individualistic style would be welcome in jazz clubs anywhere. AyoJoy is a documentary about her life and music.

Best Song: There’s a lot but check out Watching You and Down on My Knees.

Alice Smith – For Lovers, Dreamers, and Me (2008)

The debut album of Smith, its songs span the breadth of Smith’s ability. The electic collection allows her to show off her wide array of influences (similar to how Alicia Keyes demonstrates her broad foundation). Because of that, it’s hard to pinpoint an “Alice Smith sound". It’s definitely more soul pop than jazz, though elements of jazz come out in almost every song.

Best Song: Love Endeavor, also check out Dream

Spencer Day – Vagabond (2009)

Spencer Day has passed over the classy and brassy style of Michael Buble for the sifter flirtatious sound of Harry Connick Jr. Certainly he has the smooth, charming voice, but the album goes in several directions. Till You Come Home is reminiscent of Connick Jr., he croons in I Got A Mind to Tell You, and in Maybe he could be a male counter to Doris Day. Overall, he tends more to slow emotional ballads with more focus on pathos than rhythm. His song Better Way is an idealistic look complaining that too many people think about money and power and we should find a better way. Strong but smooth vocals, wide variety of song styles, Day has a reputation as a hardworking musician, but all together this album doesn’t pull through well. Undoubtedly though, a talent we’ll be hearing from in the future.

What is Jazz?

We’ve never seen a strong need to define jazz. Part of the reason is that as soon as you mention a general rule, you can immediately find a dozen or more exceptions. The history of jazz spans Ragtime to fusion to acid jazz. Also, as result of jazz, soul, R&B, and Lounge developed. The fact that jazz is so individualistic means that the jazz greats each take the music in a new direction.

So, it’s easy to identify musicians who play jazz, but harder to exclude musicians who don’t play jazz. Is Norah Jones jazz? On the whole, yes. At least she started out that way. Alicia Keyes? Not really, but you can recognize a lot of jazz influence. Jamiroquai? Actually, yes, he comes from acid jazz. Duffy? Amy Winehouse? Actually they are soul, but soul music was a direct branch-out from jazz.

The best definition we can develop is that jazz music has the following points:

• Improvisation. Sometimes just a solo, sometimes the whole set

• Individualism. The musician deconstructs the music and then reconstructs it with the barest elements, the elements purposefully kept by the musician. A song isn’t just performed like karaoke, it’s stretched and molded to expose the emotion of the player.

• Musicianship. A lot of jazz pushes the limits of talent and ability.

• Freedom. Jazz is about self-expression and breaking borders

Jazz Photo of the Day

By Nick White

Jazz Quote of the Day

Music is my love. Probably the greatest love of all for me. Men are just my lovers

- Melody Gardot

Jazz Album Reviews - Lightening Edition

Because of the large number of albums we’ve been listening to recently, it would be too difficult to give all of them a proper review. So here’s a lightning speed run down of our recent playlist. Listen to them yourself and the write us at ulviyyajazz@gmail.com and give us your opinions of them.

Lizz Wright – The Orchard (2008)

Wright’s earthy bluesy voice reminds you of folk greats like Odetta as well as smooth jazz like Sade and pop- blues like Tracy Chapman. Her strong style and intense sincerity of voice make it hard not to dive into the songs. Definitely too involving to be background music. Simple arrangements increase the honest feeling. Best song: It Makes No Difference (also listen to Speak Your Heart and This Is)

Meaghan Smith – The Cricket’s Orchard (2010)

Smith’s slower songs sound like the slow dance at 3 am when you realize you’ve fallen in love. The toe-tapping numbers don’t work as well but still draw you in. A slight country lilt make the songs that much cozier. Best Song: A Little Love (also listen to 5 More Minutes)

Madeleine Peyroux – Half the Perfect World (2006)

Peyroux is our favorite discovery since Melody Gardot. A very relaxing style with an obvious influence from Billie Holliday. Peyroux does a great jazz version of Everybody’s Talkin’ as well as standards like Summer Wind. This album has a strong focus on jazz guitar giving it a warm sleepy feel and the smooth brushstrokes on the drums bring the percussion soft like snow falling. Best Song: Half the Perfect World (also listen to the bluesy A Little Bit)

Madeleine Peyroux – Dreamland (1996)

Peyroux does great covers of Walkin’ After Midnight and La Vie En Rose. While still using mostly jazz guitar, this album has more variety in arrangement and more piano. The album also includes more blues and a more jazz club atmosphere. Best Song: Muddy Water

Imelda May – Love Tattoo (2009)

Fun lyrics, a deep flirtatious voice, sexy horn section and occasional jazz organ and surf guitar make you want to go on a date and dance. Reminiscent of the fun filled band music of Lois Prima. Best Song: Big Bad Handsome Man (also listen to It’s Your Voodoo Working)

Esperanza Spalding – Esperanza (2008)

A great album that makes you feel like you’re in the jazz club listening live. Spalding doesn’t feel the need to dominate, giving plenty of time to her band and easily blends her voice into the mix, more of an additional instrument than the star. The band becomes the force of the music rather than just support to the vocalist. A great jazz style where you can almost smell the smoke and taste the scotch. Best Song: Cuerpo Y Alma

Emiliana Torrini – Fisherman’s Woman (2008)

Torrini’s voice has a sweet and honest indie jazz style with a Nick Drake/Camera Obscura/Bjork/Norah Jones feel to it (how’s that for a combo?). Her style is definitely melancholy, even delivering lines like ‘Nothing Brings Me Down’ like she took a mild sedative alone on Valentine’s Day. Best Song: Nothing Brings Me Down

Kings of Convenience – Declaration of Dependence (2009)

Not really jazz, but if Simon & Garfunkel can play the New Orleans jazz festival, I can cover these guys. Laid back super cool acoustic duo have a romantic/melancholy view towards all things mundane and beautiful. They have the best song and album titles. Best Song: Riot on an Empty Street.

Robin Thicke – Sex Therapy (2009)

Thicke has a great ‘Barry White sings Bossa Novva’ style and in this album he plays it up. The album has a constant leitmotif of seduction and lovemaking with a definite tip of the hat to White. The lyrics though, could have come from a 70’s b side with Thicke playing a sexy love doctor who arrives with rose champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries. Surely satire, right? Best Song: Mrs. Sexy

Julide Ozchelik – Jazz Istanbul (2008)

The jazz organ and electric bass create a jazz lounge feeling while the lyrics heavy numbers draw attention to the feelings being expressed. Best Song: Kara Toprak

Shin – Adio (1995)

Mixing fast paced Caucasian rhythms with electric funk, this album is not for the faint of heart. The only vocals consist of Georgian polyphonic chant evolving into jazz scat. The free style mixed with the pattering drums which never let up act as a shot of Benzedrine to those expecting a straightforward jazz set. Best Song: Adio

Nellie McKay – Get Away From Me (2004)

The unmistakably unique point of McKay’s music are her lyrics. Very honest about feelings and sometimes edged with bitterness, they can remind you of Lilly Allen. But often her lines about simple actions feeling make you think she simply singing whatever she just just said like she was a cast member on Flight of the Conchords (God I’m so German, I have to have a plan, please Ethel Merman, help me from this jam). Her style and arrangement are completely tailored to whatever lyrical style she has chosen (and not always jazz!). Best Song: I Wanna Get Married