Jacqui Naylor Is A Lucky Girl

Singer – Songwriter Jacqui Naylor’s new album may be titled Lucky Girl, but we are the lucky men and women who have the opportunity to enjoy another very good recording from Jacqui Naylor, as she collaborates again with multi-instrumentalist and co-writer - husband Art Khu. The duo became known a few years ago for their smash-ups and as Ms. Naylor explained during a previous interview with Riveting Riffs Magazine, “The band plays the groove of one tune, while I am singing a whole other song.” This album features six smash-ups, “”The Surrey With The Fringe On Top,” Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” the Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini song classic “Moon River,” Earl Brent and Matt Dennis’ “Angel Eyes,” “Close The Door,” penned by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff and “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” (Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin).  It is however Jacqui Naylor and Art Khu’s original songs that will create a buzz among music fans.

Recently, Riveting Riffs Magazine, caught up with Jacqui Naylor in her west coast home, as she talked about her fabulous new album, one that opens with the title track “Lucky Girl,” which sets the tone for the rest of this musical journey.

Ms. Naylor acknowledges that Lucky Girl may be her most personal album to date, “I think that the album Shelter was very personal at that time in my life and it was the first album that I did when I wrote songs and I wrote them with Art (Khu) and that started that whole process. I think that Lucky Girl is another personal leap.” Read More

Jessy J Dishes Hot Sauce

Jazz saxophonist – songwriter and singer Jessy J was in the third grade and she was signing up for the elementary school band when she started to play the saxophone and she laughs at this writer’s suggestion that the instrument must have been bigger than she was at the time.

“It was. It was huge and it still is huge for me, but I love it. I played the alto sax and I really enjoyed the sound that it made. For me it was a fun hobby and I never thought that I would be a musician until I was 15 years old. It was a fun way to have time with friends. It was kind of like fate. It was my destiny,” she says. 

“I originally wanted to play the flute as my primary instrument in elementary school. There were too many people playing the flute, so my band director asked me to play the saxophone. At the same time, my best friend was playing the flute and my sister was playing the clarinet. I learned how to play the flute from just being in band. It was the same with the clarinet, I learned how to play it, by listening to my sister play it. Music to me is one big element and as soon as you can figure it out, you can basically learn any instrument.”

Hot Sauce, Jessy J’s new album from Heads Up International, a division of the Concord Music Group demonstrates her singing and songwriting ability in addition to her playing and she collaborated once again with Grammy Award winning producer Paul Brown. This is the third album that Jessy J has released under the Concord Music Group banner, her first being Tequila Moon, which was released through Peak Records and her second album, True Love, both of which also had Paul Brown’s fingerprints on them as the producer.  Read More

Triple Threat Melanie Stace

British singer – songwriter and actress Melanie Stace, who has been lighting up the Metropolitan Room in New York City, is in the midst of recording her second album, The Key Of Me, which in many ways is a more personal album than her debut How Lucky, as all of the songs are originals from Ms. Stace and as the title suggests, touch upon the key or various keys to facets of her life and experiences. For her new album, Melanie Stace is collaborating with Wayne Brown.

 “I had a charming meeting in London with a guy named Wayne Brown and he said, come to my studio and hang out and let’s see what happens.  The first day that I left his studio, I had (already) written my first song, which is called, “Living Without Your Love.”   I wrote the lyric and the tune, but Wayne does all the lovely chords. The influence is from Wayne, but what came out is very interesting. Another song, “Closing In On You,” came out very R&B. It is like west coast R&B and who knew that was coming? We did an up-tempo one called “Fever,” and the song “The Key,” came out. They are starting to be fully orchestrated now.  The people to whom I played them were very encouraging to me and I am going to continue with it. Once I start, it comes very quickly.  Since I have been in New York I have written a couple as well. I have written on the backs of match boxes and things,” she says.  Read More

Jane Monheit

During a recent performance at The Old Mill in Toronto, Canada, New York City’s Jane Monheit’s powerful interpretation of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” had many in her audience shedding a few tears. It is in a sense what defines Ms. Monheit, as one of the best vocalists, if not the best Jazz singer on the music scene today, because she permits herself to be so vulnerable on stage, so emotionally naked before her fans, that she evokes powerful emotional responses. 

“I do that all of the time. I am such a weeper. I need to be that vulnerable and that is my therapy. It is very, very cathartic and I do not know what I would do without it. I am sure a lot of people think that I am just plain crazy, but for me it keeps me sane. Well I am not saying I am sane, no artist is sane, but (she laughs) it helps me to stay closer to sanity. I am just a really emotional person and if I didn’t give that to the songs and the performances then what is the point and why am I doing this?

Why would I sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” which everyone has sung and it has already been sung better than anyone can ever do it again, by Judy Garland? What would be the point if I didn’t have some intense personal  Read more 

 Karrin Allyson

Three-time Grammy Award nominated artist (for Best Jazz Vocal Album), and in our opinion, the words Grammy Award winner should be attached to Karrin Allyson’s name, took time to speak to Riveting Riffs Magazine from her home in New York City, while taking one of the few breaks from a heavy touring schedule which sees Ms. Allyson on the road usually two out of every three days of the year.  Responding to this writer’s question concerning her comfort level with living in New York City, now that she has been there for eleven years, she replied.

“New York does feel like home for me now, but I just bought a house in Massachusetts and it is a retreat, so I go there as often as I can, which is every other month.  That feels like home too. I also have about five different places that people kind of claim me, which is nice, when I travel and I work. Minneapolis where my sister and my mom are and I have been playing there for years and years. Another one would be Kansas City, another would be Omaha, and Seattle, because I have been going there for so long, LA, because I have been going there for so long and New York, as well, because I play in New York two or three times each year. I am really lucky. (she laughs as she says) I am a local wherever I go.”   Read more

Gretchen Parlato - Interview

“The goal of art is to reflect who you are and to reflect your life. It has been a process for me to get to that place and to realize that it is okay to not try to sound like anyone else or to try to be like anyone else. It is just being completely honest, and open and vulnerable. I want to be versatile, but I always want to sound like me. Every artist should be very distinct and you should be able to hear that first note and know who that is and to know that no matter what style they are doing that it is that specific artist. Every note that comes out is very reflective of me. It is about being in the moment. It is not only about me, but it is about the most effective way that this is going to become beautiful music and how I can connect my own life to that,” says contemporary Jazz vocalist and songwriter Gretchen Parlato.

Parlato is set to release her new album The Lost And Found on the music label OBLIQSOUND on April 5^th, a collaborative project with pianist-composer Taylor Eigsti who was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2006 for his album Lucky To Be Me, bassist Derrick Hodge (Kanye West, Jill Scott), drummer Kendrick Scott, Alan Hampton (guitar) and saxophonist Dayna Stephens (Wayne Shorter, Salvador and Carlos Santana, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones). The album takes its name from one of Stephens’ compositions and it promises to be the most personal collection of songs from Gretchen Parlato yet. Read more