Dee Dee Bridgewater

I've been interested in most kinds of fusion and cross over music for quite some time. From Buena Vista inspired albums like Rhythms Del Mundo, through Salsa Celtica, Paul Simon's Graceland, Gloria Estefan's Mi Tierra and many others. So I was delighted to be given Dee Dee Bridgewater's Red Earth album. Dee Dee is a long established jazz singer, however, Red Earth represents a new direction for her, fusing western jazz influences and african inspired rythms, tones and harmonies. It's a very interesting experience. Most of the african musicians are from Mali, whose musical tradition I'd not explored before. Which made the recording fresh and new. It's exciting and original music and some of the tracks feel as much influenced by the asian scene as the african one. It's an album that deserves to be listened to, not as background music, but as a performance. Enjoy.

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement

I heard these guys on the Jonathan Ross show the other night and thought I’d try the album. Interesting. Has elements of Sixties retro in the orchestration, and the boys voices on several of the tracks are resonant of the mainstream groups from that era. I’m a fan of British pop from the Sixties, and maybe because of that, I think this is a good album and well worth listening through. The songs are belted out – not in the same league as The Proclaimers, but then who is?

Melody Gardot

I love soft jazz. Singers like Eva Cassidy and Madeleine Peyroux can be found on my iRiver. I would have loved to have gone to hear Billie Holiday in her prime. And having had a musical education, I particularly a good melody. So it was great to come across Worrisome Heart - the debut album from Melody Gardot (You can hear Melody sing the title track on NBC here). It’s smooth, well crafted, with an acoustic-bluesy edge. I especially like the fact that she wrote all the songs herself. I don’t think there’s a stand out track – they’re all good – although I love the feel on Quiet Fire. Enjoy!

Caetano Veloso

The Caetano Veloso CD finally arrived from Play.com over the Christmas period. The first CD seems to have been lost in the post, but Play’s no quibble policy soon had another copy on its way to me.

My first reaction was of disappointment. Probably foolishly, I selected the ‘Definitive Collection’ album, which seems to be an odd mix of material, from his earliest to his latest. As an album it doesn’t really work, but then ‘best of’ albums seldom do.

Having listened to it a few times now though I’ve found it has grown on me. Veloso has an interesting voice, not quite perfect in the way we’re used to our manufactured and highly produced music being and some of his interpretations of the Bossa and Samba rhythms are truly original. My preference though is for the later, more mellow songs, such as Odara and Coisa Mais Linda which suit Veloso’s voice much better.

If only I could speak Portuguese! Here's the critically acclaimed version of Cucurucucu, Paloma which Veloso sang in 'Hable Con Ella', the Pedro Almodovar film which first brought him to my attention.

All in all though I’m glad I stumbled across this guy.

Ibrahim Ferrer

For a good few years I was married to a Cuban. As a result, I have a great love and interest in Cuban culture and, in particular, the music. I had quite a collection of CDs and albums from this genre which all (unfortunately) were a casualty of my rather expensive divorce settlement. It's taken me some time to build the collection back up again and it was only recently I got hold of the debut self titled album from Ibrahim Ferrer. I'd been meaning to buy more of the Buena Vista Social Club series for some time, but this was top of my list.

This album, with the smooth, almost perfect voice of the old man sums up the 1940s and 1950s era of Cuban music so well. And if you've seen the man perform you'll know that he is a real Cuban, with a unique interpretive style. Ferrer is one of those men I would dearly loved to have met and listened to his tales of the old days and the struggles during the tough times is Cuba. Ry Cooder and the production team have done a great job with the production. The music has a certain raw, almost live, edge to it which is so refreshing in comparison with the over produced plastic music churned out by the mainstream labels.

The highlight of the album for me is the semi-popular Aquellos Ojos Verdes - Green Eyes - which would be a candidate for one of my desert island disks.

This album is an easy to listen to introduction to the lighter romantic ballads and boleros of the Cuban style. But it's not Easy Listening. It'll make the hairs on your neck stand up - Go listen.