Since Vodka found Thing Of Gold back in 2012, I’ve been a fan of Snarky Puppy. Though it doesn’t fall neatly into the philosophy of shining a light on music that is mostly hidden from view, Snarky Puppy’s live ecosystem of music performance is a thing to marvel at (see video). Take It! (seen/heard here) from their new LP, Empire Central (coming October 2022) falls squarely in the jazz-funk fusion category as far as Vodka is concerned. …
Read MoreVodka doesn’t often get terribly excited about instrumental-only music. It happens though, and quite a lot more often than it used to. It’s not that I don’t like instrumental music, I do. Listening to instrumental music is a pleasant experience, I just have a tough time getting my mind into it enough to review much of it. Some notable exceptions are Lydian Collective, Snarky Puppy, a handful of others, and now Carlos Eiene. Carlos Eine has been a big force…
Read MoreHailing from Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast of Sudan, Noori & His Dorpa Band perform music reflected in the current state of the revolution there. Through their musical successes, the band tries to draw attention to the plight of the people, whose government over many iterations has denied the people the profits of one of the country’s natural resources, gold. The results for the listener are…
Read MoreLydian Collective is not new to Vodka, but I’m not-so-patiently waiting for the follow-up to the absolutely fabulous Adventure LP, named Return, due out in almost exactly one month (May 27, 2022). November (seen/heard here), which is not new compositionally to the band, will finally have a home on an LP, and that is a very good thing indeed! Vodka coined the phrase “joyful jazz” to define the music that Lydian Collective creates. In truth,…
Read MoreGround UP artist Michelle Willis succeeds with Trigger (seen/heard here), not only creating a marvelous song but proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that David Crosby can still carry a beautiful high tenor harmony and provide more than adequate backup vocals. Sure, he’s aided here with a nice group of female backup singers, but I’ve always loved David Crosby’s voice. To be clear, this review is not about David Crosby. Michelle Willis is a consummate singer, songwriter,…
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