Category Archives: CD Reviews

CD Review: Daniel Tarrab “Otra Mirada”

Daniel TarrabArtist: Daniel Tarrab
Title: Otra Mirada
Label: Silva Screen Records
Genre: Tango
Music available from: Silva Screen Records; Amazon; Spotify

Review by Fiona Mactaggart

Buenos Aires based, award winning film composer and double bassist Daniel Tarrab composed, conducted and played on this short (25 mins) but sweet album of tangos, Otra Mirada (meaning Another Look). Composed for tango trio and channeling maestro Astor Piazzolla, esteemed bandoneonista Nestor Marconi is prominent throughout. However, Tarrab (double bass and piano) with Pablo Agri (violin) are superbly cohesive co-conspirators, further aided and abetted by sumptuous string orchestra.

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Jeanne Gies & Howard Alden

CD Review: Jeanne Gies & Howard Alden “Window”

Jeanne Gies & Howard AllenArtist: Jeanne Gies & Howard Alden
Title: Window: The Music of Manu Lafer
Label: Tratore
Genre: Brazilian jazz

CD Review by Dawoud Kringle

Manu Lafer is an interesting man. A prolific and accomplished musician and composer with over 300 songs to his catalog, and a discography of over 15 CDs, he studied guitar with Luiz Tatit, Cezar Mendes Nogueira, and Ítalo Perón; and studied singing with Ná Ozzetti, Fernanda Gianesella and Wagner Barbosa. In addition to his extensive experience as a producer, arranger, and composer, Lafer also studied medicine at Escola Paulista de Medicina in at São Paulo. He earned a doctorate in pediatrics, and has worked as a visiting researcher at Columbia University in New York and with the Food and Drug Administration in Maryland.

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CD Review: Peter Wetzler’s Solo Piano “Falling Awake”

Peter WetzlerArtist: Peter Wetzler
Title: Falling Awake
Label: Sound Forms
Genre: solo piano/nu classic/improv

CD Review by Dawoud Kringle

When I was asked to write a review of Peter Wetzler’s 2009 CD Falling Awake, I was expecting (for reasons I can’t explain) a classical pianist whose CD contained the usual standards of the genre, and one or two pieces by a living composer. My assumption was wrong, and pleasantly so.

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