Tag Archives: Popular and Standards

Ray: how can we miss you when you won’t go away? Kidding – it isn’t Ray’s fault he made one of the most popular and successful albums of his career just before he died, or that his mastery of virtually every American musical form is perhaps unparalleled and has taken …

The multifarious and multitalented Dana Owens, aka Queen Latifah, will be hosting this year’s Grammys, telecast live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles (assuming it doesn’t wash away) on CBS, February 13. “Queen Latifah is an extraordinary Renaissance artist with unparalleled style and substance, and her passion, talent and …

The exceptional 28-song The World of Nat King Cole is a compact career retrospective and best-of package simultaneously celebrating one of the finest, swingingest jazz pianists AND pop vocalists of the 20th century. The collection, which benefits the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, is coming out January 25 to coincide …

Only those who are confident that their sweethearts would not dump them for this chanteuse should pick up a copy.

It's the nicest story of the year

Queen Latifah’s latest album, out September 28th, is an excursion into classic covers (and the cover above isn’t so bad either). Having conquered hip-hop, television, and film, the Queen is now taking on herself, so to speak, with The Dana Owens Album (produced by Arif Mardin and Ron Fair), wherein …

Mr. Costello, that is, lest you confuse him with that other Elvis. Angry Young Man Elvis Costello (born Declan MacManus on August 25, 1954) turns 50 today. There is little evidence to suggest that he’s turned into Mellow Middle-Aged Man, which puts him very high on my list of personal …

This is a reissue of organist Richard “Groove” Holmes’s 1967 LPs Super Soul and Soul Power!, complete with the original liner notes. Probably best known for his hit version of “Misty,” Holmes was clearly in his soul-jazz fusion prime when he made these recordings. His combination of groove (he was …

Received wisdom says that Ray Charles, who died in June at 73, did his greatest work between the mid-’50s and mid-’60s, and while this is undoubtedly true, it is also wrong to dismiss the final 40 years of Ray’s career out of hand. Ironically, one of Charles’s best albums of …

Katie Melua’s debut rides the Norah Jones pop-jazz highway straight down the middle of the road, but it’s a road with awfully nice landscaping. The 12-song release is filled with warm-hearted and accomplished singing, tasteful arrangements, and enough variety to make the album a good listen all the way through. …