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Don Preston and Andrea Centazzo

By Susan Ferrari

Master percussionist Andrea Centazzo and pioneering jazz pianist and synthesizer player Don Preston joined musical forces on Saturday night at the South Pasadena Music Center and Conservatory for the first time in a night of electronic and acoustic improvised music that was an ear-opening experience for the small audience of friends and new music aficionados in attendance. Centazzo has been touring in New York and Europe for the past year, and is on his way back to New York next month for concerts with composer / saxophonist John Zorn and guitarist Elliot Sharp. Preston has played the piano with numerous jazz artists including Charlie Haden and Paul Bley and he is well known for his many years of collaboration with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

The performance space was a large loft-style room with brick walls and exposed ceilings. The setup for each musician....

Band: Davidson Brothers/ Album: Born To Play / Bluegrass - Country

Reviewed by Cheryl Phipps

Just as the album title advises, Australian bluegrass - country music artists the Davidson Brothers were Born to Play, and play they do on their current album. They exude a the youthfulness of many of today’s new crop of bluegrass bands, as the Davidson Brothers play fast and hard, while mixing in plenty of drums and percussion.  They are backed by a superb group of musicians and vocalists including, guitarists Bryan Sutton and Randy Kohrs (also dobro), Kevin Grant (upright bass) and drummer / percussionist Kenny Malone, who serve up first class performances with songs such as; the title track “Born To Play,” “Life’s Gonna Have a Little Talk,” “Fox On The Freeway,” and a cover of the Bill Monroe classic “My Sweet Blue-Eyed Darlin’.”

Daniela Nardi & Ron Davis - Oh So Good!

Some bands have good singers and some of the musicians are good, but not all, while other musical ensembles have so-so vocalists and have stellar musicians, however, on February 27^th at The Old Mill in Toronto R&B / Pop vocalist-songwriter Daniela Nardi and pianist / composer Ron Davis, put in a strong performance at the Home Smith Bar, while being backed by an incredible group of musicians, consisting of electric bassist Rich Brown, drummer Rakesh Tewari and James Robertson (electric guitar). Nardi who is riding the success of her last two albums, The Rose Tattoo (2008) and One True Thing (2003) and Davis fresh off an Asian tour, opened the first of three sets with “Azzurro,” by one of their favorite artists Paolo Conte, an Italian pianist, singer and composer.

Without the aid of the electronica that creates a unique and incredible sound for the Nardi original “Fugitive Kind,” on the album The Rose Tattoo, the musicians did a good job of recreating a similar feel as Tewari played with brushes on his snare drum, made ample use of his kick drum and lightly used his high-hats, while Davis paced the band with a right hand rhythm and Robertson teased us with what lay ahead from this superb musician.  It is however, Nardi’s emotive phrasing and her alto vocals which make “Fugitive Kind,” work so well and give it a sensual attitude.

Nardi then moved into a lazier tune “Cry,” a beautiful meandering song, before introducing her audience to “Still Asking,” which possesses edgier lyrics and tackles the subject of a love gone wrong or as the she referred to it, “a love gone bad song.” Dressed in black knee-high boots and a black multi-zippered dress Nardi danced to the music......

Album: Make Room For Me / Artist: Brigitte Zarie / Jazz Vocals

When musicians such as Grammy Award winning trumpeter Randy Brecker and guitar virtuoso Jeff Golub agree to play on your album, that serves as significant validation for you as a jazz vocalist, and when you are able to collaborate on the songwriting with bassist and producer Neil Jason (John Lennon, Billy Joel, Bryan Ferry, Hall & Oates), then people better heed jazz chanteuse Brigitte Zarie’s advice to Make Room For Me, which is the title of her new CD. Dubbed by this writer as “The Voice,” only to discover that her close friends had already applied that moniker to her, Zarie, possesses big vocals that fill up a room, in a great way, and without a conscious effort to reflect the past, she has created original

 

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A Tale of Two Oscars Parties

Barry Benintende, Film Editor for Riveting Riffs Magazine

The 82nd annual Academy Awards were full of firsts and things that I never thought I would see such as;  Kathryn Bigelow took home Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker, Sandra Bullock won a Best Actress trophy and George Clooney looked stone-faced most of the night (he was joking). It was also the largest viewing audience since 2005, with 41.3 million viewers, and co-hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were off camera more than on. The show moved swiftly, right up to the moment Tom Hanks came out to announce the Best Picture winner, and he came off like the adult rushing the teen-agers out of his house because the party was over.

After seven years in Missouri, my wife Sharon and I have returned to our home, lovely San Diego, and we expected that we would enjoy the festivities

 

Album: Rockin' In Rhythm: A Duke Ellington Tribute / John Pizzarelli Quartet / Jazz Vocals

Mike Barbara, Jazz Editor for Riveting Riffs Magazine

Rockin’ in Rhythm:  A Tribute to Duke Ellington is singer / guitarist John Pizzarelli’s ninth release with Telarc International, and his first ever Duke Ellington recording.  An accomplished master of The Great American Songbook, Pizzarelli puts his personal touch on twelve of Duke’s charts, with arrangements ranging from solo guitar, to the “mini-big band sound.”  The elegant arrangements of Don Sebesky for the Swing Seven horns, combined with the incredible tight interaction of Pizzarelli’s arrangements for his Quartet (pianist Larry Fuller, bassist Martin Pizzarelli and drummer Tony Tedesco) make for a seemingly effortless swing style that will have you

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Holly Conlan Serves Up Spunky Vocals

By Susan Ferrari

The Hotel Café is located a few blocks away from the iconic Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood. During a week when most of the music industry buzz was about the relative merits of the live performances at the Grammy Awards, it is nice to see that this comfortable venue for singer / songwriters continues to thrive, consistently showcasing good music with no added frills, just a great sound and a studio upright piano.

Holly Conlan’s nine song set on the evening of February 4^th, was no exception. Conlan, a Los Angeles native, and her band consisting of; guitarist Phil Krohnengold, bassist Joe Karnes, and drummer / producer Al Sgro, have played this venue regularly for the past year and they casually set up their gear on stage, while the crowd rearranged themselves between acts. As the band members from the previous act left the stage, Ms. Conlan, without any introduction, launched into her first song, as her voice and the piano instantly hushed the noise from the audience. Conlan’s piano accompaniment wove hypnotically through the vocal melody, setting the tone for the rest of the set, before the band joined her for the second song, “OK,” a bouncy tune with an amusingly defiant message. Between songs, Conlan’s banter with the audience and her band mates reinforced the personality that came through her music.

 

Lost Inside A Moment by Katie Cole

Artist: Sass Jordan

Album: from Dusk 'til Dawn

The album from Dusk ‘til Dawn is the latest salvo from former Billboard Female Rock Artist of the Year Sass Jordan and it opens with her signature hard, edgy vocals on “What I Need,” which make it easy to understand why she once portrayed Janis Joplin in the off Broadway production of Love Janis.  The song is introduced with percussion, eventually accompanied by an electric guitar with simple up-tempo chords, leaving the listener completely disarmed, for when Jordan’s explosive vocals arrive on the scene proclaiming, “It’s time for me to shout out what I need / What I need from you.” At her Canadian album release concert in the fall, Jordan's performance of the song sent an immediate buzz through the packed out venue.

 

Shutter Island

By Film Editor Barry Benintende

About halfway through Shutter Island, I leaned over to ask a friend "When did Leonardo DiCaprio become a great actor?" I answered my own question; during the opening scene of Shutter Island when DiCaprio was getting seasick and the movie was unfolding brilliantly right before my eyes. The actor stars as Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels, a tough as nails federal marshal who gets called out to a remote island / psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane off of the New England shore. Set in 1954, Shutter Island has plenty of unsettling mood music and creepy imagery throughout. There is also more cigarette smoking than a Fellini film. Shutter Island is directed by Martin Scorsese, the man who has movies coursing through his veins. Scorsese has been hit or miss in recent years, but he hits the nail on the head this time out.

From the initial shots of the institution, to the chronic exhaustion on DiCaprio's face, Island is nearly note-perfect. There are too many twists and turns to the plot to try and explain it without giving things away, but suffice to say that there is an island populated with maniacs, a questionable Dr. Cawley (the always watchable Ben Kingsley) and his staff of physicians, nurses and heavily-armed corrections officers. Daniels arrives on the island with his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), determined to get to the bottom of a case involving a female inmate named Rachel Solando, who vanished from her cell without a trace. Solando was sent to the island after drowning her three children and arranging them around the dinner table for her husband to find and

 

Acrylic portrait of Johnny Cash by San Diego celebrity artist Patrick Carney. Please visit Patrick's online gallery by clicking here

Underneath A Vincent Van Gogh Sky

Award winning singer / songwriter Angela Kaset’s album Underneath a Vincent Van Gogh Sky is a tidy booklet of eleven acoustic piano based stories from the heart. The organic deportment of the Nashville artist’s songs, allow her beautiful vocals and sensitive phrasing to be showcased. The songs touch upon many facets of life, including the second track “Damned If I Am,” which lays bare the passions and the vulnerability of one who falls in love, as Kaset draws upon Dutch post-impressionist painter, Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night for further inspiration, “Underneath a Vincent Van Gogh Sky / I fell in your starry, starry eyes / I quivered and I blushed / The blood in my head rushed /And every word I meant to say was swallowed in the hush / Well, I’ll be damned if I am / Fool if I am not in love.”

Fans of country music will recognize Angela Kaset’s song “Something In Red,” recorded by Lorrie Morgan for her album of the same name in 2002; a song which went to # 14 on the charts, one of many hit tunes that Kaset has authored, and which have been recorded by the likes of; Suzy Bogguss, Linda Davis, Wynonna Judd, Aaron Tippin, Jessica Andrews and Amy Dalley. Kaset strikes a more seductive

 

Bostock and Taws Amazing in Footloose

Staging musicals which require large casts, especially ones where the actors, actresses, singers and dancers are for the most part young and in many cases may not have a lot of experience, can be challenging at best and risky at its worst, and on February 19^th the Meadowvale Music Theatre, engaged in such a venture. The theatre company which is located in Mississauga, a city adjacent to Toronto Canada, presented Footloose, based on the original screen play by Dean Pitchford and the stage adaptation by Pitchford and Walter Bobbie. The musical runs until February 27^th.  To be honest the first fifteen minutes or so of the opening night, did not seem to bode well for the rest of the evening, as the choreography was not tight, the singers seemed like they were stretching to hit their notes and the acting was mediocre, but then something magical happened and the cast and the dance ensemble seemed to find their groove or perhaps opening night jitters simply disappeared, as the audience was treated to a solid performance for the rest of the evening, in addition to some memorable moments from individual members of the cast.

While the lead male actor Ryan Gauvin as Ren McCormack was good, he was overshadowed by three other members of the cast who were superb; Alana Bostock as Arial Moore, the daughter of the Reverend Shaw Moore (Bill McBride) and Vi Moore (Elizabeth Bell), the aforementioned Elizabeth Bell who was outstanding and Heather Taws as Rusty.  All three actresses trumped their male counterparts in this musical, because they demonstrated the ability to believably convey to the audience heartfelt emotions that originate from an

 

Reflections With Liz Callaway

By Joe Montague

It is not often that you get to interview some of the world’s favorite fantasy characters, Grizabella, the glamour cat from the Broadway musical Cats, the animated Anastasia, or Princess Jasmine from The Return of Jafar and Aladdin and the King of Thieves, but recently the very gifted Broadway actress and singer Liz Callaway took time out from her performances in France and in the United States, to talk to Riveting Riffs Magazine. Callaway spent the better part of five years as part of the cast for the Broadway production of Cats and she provided the singing voice for Meg Ryan’s Anastasia, as well as providing the vocals for Princess Jasmine.  Callaway also appeared in the original casts for the Broadway productions of Miss Saigon, The Three Musketeers and The Look of Love and she was nominated for a prestigious Tony Award for her role in Baby.  Liz Callaway received a Drama Desk nomination for her performance in the Off-Broadway production of The Spitfire Grill and she has appeared in numerous other Off-Broadway productions, including; No Way to Treat a Lady, Marry Me a Little and Godspell. Although, she is approaching iconic stature as a stage actress and singer, Liz Callaway remains grateful for

he opportunities which have come her way, including her part in the Follies in Concert at the Lincoln Center. 

Liz Callaway, who grew up in Chicago, reflects upon how she started down this path to what many would refer to as stardom, even though, she might be

 

Celebrate Spring with Sporty Couture Silhouettes

By Fashion Editor Natasha Mayinda

Spring has always been a season marked with a sense of optimism and exuberance and this season will not be any different and in fact may give more cause for optimism and enthusiasm, as the spring collections that are just now hitting the stores are connected by a universal and underlying theme of celebration. Sexy, sensual dressing, soldierly styles, and sporty, surf- inspired looks bursting with energy are just some of the key trends that will instantly inject a sense of cheerfulness into your wardrobe.

One of the stronger trends is the surf inspired look, boasting marine prints and shapes, which are combined with sporty couture silhouettes that simulate travel to exotic destinations. Alexander McQueen’s aqueous print creations are directional, but irresistibly inspirational. Curvilinear cuts and organic forms make the dresses simply breathtaking. Proenza Schouler’s collection is all about scuba chic with its youthful, acid tie dye tops and tank dresses in aquamarine tones and textures. If this is the image that you want to create and you do not want to break the bank, then Gryphon Vein’s sequined tank top in blue marine is a great buy, and then you can match it with a pair of low slung pants for downtown cool. Another great selection would be the wetsuit inspired body conscious dress from Alexander Wang’s Ponte stretch dress, teamed with a neon hued clutch.

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This spring season also features the dynamic energy and military look of the urban warrior and clothes that take charge are included in dozens of

 

Artists: Gypsy Soul

DVD: Live at the Triple Door

The DVD An Evening with Gypsy Soul Live at The Triple Door recorded in Seattle Washington, on May 23^rd, 2009, offers music fans the opportunity to see guitar virtuoso Roman Morkykit and his lovely wife, singer Cilette Swan up close, for those who are often unable to get front row seats in venues across the Pacific Northwest, California, Arizona and Utah, because their concerts regularly sell out.  The duo who always provide a nice blend of original material and some cover tunes were backed on this evening by cellist Traci Hoveskeland, whom this reviewer has had the opportunity to listen to in concert and she is always a treat to

 

 

Diana Catherine and the Thrusty Tweeters

Barbara Porteus in concert at Feinstein's@ Lowes Regency New York City. All photos are the property of photographer Lynn Redmile and are protected by copyright ©  Please visit Lynn's website by clicking here

By Joe Montague

People are using Twitter to tweet about just about anything these days; what they had for lunch, earthquakes, their favorite movies and a hot new song or singer, but now there is a band that you can feel completely justified about including in your tweets, Diana Catherine and the Thrusty Tweeters, a rockabilly – southern rock group from Toronto Canada, whose music is being played by radio stations across the southern United States and they have become a favorite of numerous radio stations in Florida. The band’s name is not an attempt to leverage technology, but instead originated as a result of a concert, but not one of their own.

Lead vocalist and songwriter Diana Catherine explains, “We (the band) are the type of people who are big jokers and we are all very sarcastic, people that like to tease and just have a good time. We were at a show and the guy performing said, ‘This song is the emotional thrust of the album.’  We all started giggling and after that we started saying things like, ‘Why don’t you thrust me anymore,’ and ‘the emotional thrust,’ as we started making up words like thrusty and thrustable. When Nic DiSanto (the bass player for the band) rolled in the next day, he said, ‘the thrusty tweeters,’ and I thought that is brilliant. It made me think instantly of the Traveling Wilburys and their song “Tweeter and the Monkey Man.” I love the Traveling Wilburys and they are one of my biggest influences. I just thought from that time on, “Thrusty Tweeters,” was the name for the band. 

In its current form, the band Diana Catherine and the Thrusty Tweeters is barely more than one year old, but this is not

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The rock band YES in concert at the House of Blues in New Orleans, copyright © for all photos held by Pam Hendrix, photographer and graphic artist in New Orleans, LA, To view Pam's graphic designs click here.

Byron Fry From Combustible to Symphonic

By Joe Montague

I can remember many years ago, while I was vacationing in Glacier National Park which is shared by the state of Montana and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, that I came around a bend in the mountain, and there sitting off to the side and without a shirt, was a man playing the bongos.  It would seem to me after several conversations both on the telephone and through correspondence that it would be easy to imagine finding guitar virtuoso and superb composer Byron Fry in a similar situation. The affable artist, who appeared in Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell, as well as The Elizabeth Taylor Story, and who has written or arranged music for a variety of television programs and who appeared as a sidelining musician on both Melrose Place and California Dreams, lives in the tiny community of Mammoth Lakes, nestled in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range of California.

Byron Fry can play shredder guitar like few others and yet he recently composed a beautiful symphony, simply titled Fry’s 1^st Symphony, while at the same time releasing his rock album Combustible and producing a rock opera for another artist.

 

Diary of a Beverly Hills Matchmaker

“Sometimes as we get older, we get burned out and we get bitter about dating and I tell people to take a break. You don’t have to be constantly on the hunt. You can take a nice little break. Dating should be fun and shouldn’t be like a chore and you shouldn’t be thinking, ‘I have to do this again.  I knew a guy who went on over one hundred dates, between the service that I worked for and (other dating services) and he only had two second dates out of all of those.  He was so bitter, burned out and angry. This was a young, successful guy and he was already burned out. He would go into the date expecting that it wasn’t going to work out. (His attitude was) why even try. Sometimes on the phone, he couldn’t even get on the date, because on the initial phone call the girls would be so turned off by his negative attitude, energy and comments. For him dating was hard and it was a drag,” says noted author, relationship guru and Beverly Hills matchmaker, Marla Martenson, who is set to release her third book in April, Diary of a Beverly Hills Matchmaker. Her earlier books Excuse Me Your Soulmate is Waiting and Good Date, Bad Date, thrust her into the national spotlight with appearances on The Today Show, the San Diego Living Morning Show, WGN Chicago Morning News and numerous radio programs.