Monday, June 10, 2019

Rio Montreux Jazz Festival: sucesso total em quatro noites mágicas e inesquecíveis

O primeiro Rio Montreux Jazz Festival chegou ao fim. Infelizmente. Durante quatro dias, um (re)canto do Rio – o Pier Mauá – se transformou num local representativo das qualidades que fizeram a cidade ser chamada de maravilhosa. O Rio, ali, voltou a ser um local onde reinaram a cordialidade, a segurança, a amabilidade, a cultura, o lazer. E onde reinou a música, obviamente. Em altas doses. Retratando uma diversidade condizente com a fama do Montreux Jazz Festival suíço, embora isso não seja de agrado dos chatonildos puristas e tradicionalistas.
Com a expertise de quem programa a noite brasileira de Montreux há décadas, Mazzola montou um elenco que atraiu não apenas os jazzófilos ardorosos, mas também os simpatizantes do gênero e seus influentes afluentes. Encaixou bossa nova, MPB, rock e r&b num cardápio tão variado quanto apetitoso. Uma decisão fundamental para o tremendo sucesso do evento, organizado & executado com admirável competência em todos os quesitos.
Seguranças gentis, banheiros químicos mantidos em condições satisfatórias de uso, quantidade ideal de ótimos food trucks e bares - muitos bares! -, dentro e fora dos “palcos” fechados; mas sem nenhum caso explícito de exagero alcoólico, deve-se frisar. Tudo isso num cenário apaixonante. Quão frequentemente o respeitável público carioca se depara com um “tratamento” desses em grandes eventos? Não foi somente um Festival de música, mas também de civilidade. O público atraído pela excelente divulgação na imprensa e redes sociais, não se decepcionou com o que encontrou. Muito pelo contrário. São Pedro também ajudou: nenhuma gota de chuva em noites de clima agradabilíssimo. Nada flopou, tudo deu crush.
Como escrevi ontem, em uma das dezenas de postagens no Facebook sobre o Festival: “Último dia de um evento maravilhoso no Rio de Janeiro: Rio Montreux Jazz Festival. Lotado todas as noites! Se há bons eventos, os patrocinadores se interessam, há geração de empregos, as pessoas saem de casa, prestigiam, consomem, se divertem. O Stanley Clarke compartilha fotos tiradas pelos fãs, o Paulinho da Costa canta ‘Toledo Bagel’ especialmente para você ao sair do camarim, a gente reencontra amigos queridos (Wayner Nascimento, Red Sullivan e até o ídolo do Stanley, Jorge Oscar), desfruta do X-Belga, toma um bom vinho ou uma cerveja gelada, revê antigas namoradas desfilando com os atuais companheiros e fica feliz em ver que tomaram um novo rumo. É preciso fazer acontecer e aí a fila e a vida andam, a roda da economia gira. Reclame menos, produza mais!”
A música? Ah, sim. Para quem acompanhou quase todos os shows nos três palcos (batizados Ary Barroso, Tom Jobim e Villa-Lobos) montados no Pier Mauá – vários outros shows gratuitos aconteceram em pontos de Ipanema, Tijuca, Largo do Machado e Madureira –, a alma está lavada e enxaguada. Na primeira noite, pontificaram Diego Figueiredo (seguindo a linha evolutiva de Baden Powell, liderando um grupo abrasador com destaque para o baixista Eduardo Machado), Amaro Freitas, Maria Rita cantando lindamente com o Quarteto Jobim, Steve Vai estraçalhando com canjas virtuais (Joe Satriani, Mike Petrucci) e presenciais (Andreas Kisser), e principalmente um tal de Al Di Meola, que ofereceu um concerto sublime, marcado pela combinação de influências da música flamenca (fruto da longa convivência com o saudoso Paco de Lucia) e do nuevo tango criado por Astor Piazzolla.
Ao lado do pianista cubano – radicado em Miami – Kemuel Roig e do acordeonista italiano Fausto Beccalossi, Di Meola desta feita dispensou a guitarra, concentrando-se no violão. Um nível impressionante de virtuosismo, que incautos às vezes confundem com exibicionismo. Mostrou vários temas de discos recentes, mas no bis não se furtou a relembrar a mágica “Mediterranean Sundance”, originalmente gravada em duo com Paco no álbum “Elegant Gypsy”, um divisor de águas em sua carreira. Antes, saiu do palco para buscar o celular no camarim, justificando que precisava registrar e postar aquele momento. Ao final do recital, surpreendeu a todos aparecendo para autografar CDs e vinis vendidos por membros do seu staff. Conversou e posou para fotos com fãs que vieram – conforme ouvi nas conversas – até de cidades do interior de São Paulo, Minas Gerais e Bahia! Numa quinta-feira! Não se constrói um “following” desses sem motivo. Por isso, antecipadamente agradeceu ainda no palco: “thanks for keeping the attention for many generations”.
Na sexta-feira, me surpreendi com o fenomenal jovem guitarrista brasiliense Pedro Martins, que já abriu estraçalhando com “Olhos Nos Olhos” de Chico Buarque, e seguiu firme – ainda que confessadamente tímido no palco – em temas próprios e de Pat Metheny (“James”), com destaque para o baixista Pipoquinha, de impressionante fluência nos solos. Ouvi muitos elogios também às apresentações do grupo Choro Na Rua e de Yamandu Costa com a orquestra Camerata Jovem do Rio de Janeiro.
Um amigo de longa data, Stanley Clarke, simplesmente um dos maiores baixistas da história da música, fechou a minha noite com uma performance monumental. Liderou um quinteto completado pelos ultra-extraordinários – sim, é importante usar todos os adjetivos possíveis nessa hora – Beka Gochiashvil (pianista nascido na República da Geórgia, pequeno país na Eurásia que já foi parte da União Soviética), Cameron Graves (teclados), o afegão Salar Nader (tabla), Shariq Tucker (endiabrado baterista a quem Stanley se refere como “o espírito do grupo”) e Evan Garr (violinista a ele recomendado por ninguém menos que Jean-Luc Ponty).
Stanley abriu o show com um samba de George Duke, “Brazilian Love Affair”, em um arranjo de mais de 20 minutos. Não apenas os solos impressionaram, mas também a coesão, a energia e o swing da banda, a interação telepática. Em seguida, um tema belíssimo de Joe Henderson, “Black Narcissus”. No bis, é claro, “School Days”, quando trocou o baixo acústico pelo elétrico. Atingiu uma dimensão sobre-humana.

Ovacionado, estava feliz da vida no camarim. Recebeu amigos brasileiros, como o baixista Jorge Oscar e o artista gráfico Wayner Nascimento, a quem mostrou um vídeo no YouTube no qual toca obras de Bach, conversou sobre modelos de instrumento (“viajo agora levando um baixo fabricado na China, porque todos os meus melhores baixos foram danificados em viagens”, revelou), recordou a amizade com Luiz Bonfá (com quem gravou o cultuado álbum “Jacarandá”) e ficou pasmo quando relembrei a data de sua primeira vinda ao Brasil, em 1980, para um show com uma formação de all-stars – George Duke, Ndugu, Airto, Raul de Souza e Roland Bautista – no Maracanãzinho. “Estou ficando velho”, disse, pensativo. Está, mas tocando cada vez melhor.
O violinista Ricardo Herz abriu a programação de sábado, seguido pelo encontro do bandolinista virtuose Hamilton de Holanda com Paulinho da Costa, mestre da percussão radicado desde 1973 nos EUA, onde gravou com os maiores nomes do jazz e do pop, incluindo Michael Jackson (sim, no “Thriller” e também em “Off The Wall” e “Bad”). No repertório - após vários temas de Hamilton valorizados pelas atuações de Thiago Espírito Santo, Daniel Santiago e Edu Ribeiro - surgiram inusitadas releituras de sucessos aos quais o genial percussionista adicionou um tempero especial em gravações antológicas com Madonna (“La Isla Bonita”) e o grupo Earth, Wind & Fire (“Brazilian Rhyme”). Depois do show, Paulinho – a personificação da saudação “Salve Simpatia” – recebeu amigos na beira do palco, deu autógrafos e ainda cantou seu cult-hit “Toledo Bagel”, quando a ausência dessa música no repertório foi sentida pelos fãs.
Andreas Kisser, conhecido principalmente pelo trabalho com a banda Sepultura, colocou sua guitarra a serviço do heavy-metal, com direito a sucessos do Metallica e do Iron Maiden. O ensurdecedor volume de som chegou a provocar marolas. Já o bruxo genial Hermeto Pascoal provocou um terremoto de aplausos, sendo ovacionado ao entrar e sair do palco, quase emendando uma música na outra. Só deu para respirar quando tocou a singela balada “Montreux”, composta poucas horas antes de seu primeiro show na Suiça há apenas quarenta anos, em 1979. Corinne Bailey Rae, uma fofa, fechou a noite com um longo show que os fãs adoraram, e recebeu flores de Mazzola.
No domingo, Allyrio Mello, o encontro de Davi Moraes, Jr. Tolstoi e Pedro Baby no conceitual “A Guitarra e o Tambor”, e Carlos Malta com sua banda Pife Muderno precederam o Combo 66 de John Scofield, um quarteto que inclui Gerald Clayton (piano acústico e órgão Hammond), Vicente Archer (contrabaixo) e o infalível Bill Stewart (bateria). Usando e abusando de efeitos de distorção, mostrou temas próprios do disco mais recente e uma composição de título ousado, “F U Donald”, escrita por Stewart. Mas o ponto alto foi o bis: “But Beautiful”, balada escrita em 1947 por Jimmy Van Heusen, uma aula de delicadeza.

O encerramento do Festival aconteceu em clima de festa, no encontro de Ivan Lins com o pianista Chucho Valdés e o grupo Irakere, expoentes do jazz cubano. Surpreendentemente, em grande parte do show, Ivan dispensou a banda e soltou a voz em sucessivas baladas num set intimista apenas com teclado e o cello (às vezes guitarra) de Mario Manga. A música e o Rio precisam de muitas outras edições do Rio Montreux!

Rosana Eckert collaborates with Peter Eldridge on her forthcoming album

Rosana Eckert offers a diverse, accomplished array of song stylings on"Sailing Home," set for June 21 Release by OA2/Origin Records

Vocalist-Composer-Arranger collaborates with celebrated singer & songwriter Peter Eldridge, from the New York Voices quartet
CD release shows at Kitchen Cafe, Dallas, 6/21-22

Rosana Eckert Sailing HomeVocalist-composer Rosana Eckert channels her eclectic musical influences into a similarly eclectic collection of tunes on her long-awaited fourth album, Sailing Home, set for a June 21 release on OA2/Origin Records. The album is a collaboration with Peter Eldridge, the highly sought-after vocalist, songwriter, and keyboardist, who in addition to producing and playing keyboards on the album cowrote three of its 11 tunes. Eckert (and Eldridge) also wrote with her husband Gary Eckert, a poet, composer, and multi-instrumentalist who plays percussion on three tracks.

Sailing Home is Eckert's first recording since 2010's Small Hotel. The lifelong Texan has spent the past nine years since then raising her young daughter but also working as a live performer, as well as behind the scenes as an arranger, clinician, studio singer/voiceover artist, book author, and principal lecturer of vocal jazz in the prestigious Jazz Studies program at the University of North Texas. "Rosana is so known and honored as an educator, and rightfully so," says Eldridge, a longtime friend of Eckert's. "But I wanted her to also see herself as a major artist, shaking off the educator title a bit while recording this project."

Eckert Eldridge Nagella"I had some songs I'd been performing for a while and I knew they needed a fresh ear to make them special and different," says Eckert. "Working with Peter was inspiring, natural, and very fun. . . . It was his idea to make this a guitar-driven album rather than piano-based, which had always been my approach before." (Eckert at left with Eldridge and engineer Tre Nagella.)

That concept, combined with Eckert's omnivorous musical inspiration, creates a bright spotlight for guitarist Corey Christiansen. Its shifting directions -- from the gentle but steady swing of "Garby the Great," to the tender wistfulness of "Someone Else's Life," to the hard-edged New Orleans funk of "Coriander Stomp" -- provide him both ample solo space and opportunities to demonstrate his remarkable stylistic versatility.

Not to be outdone, the other core members of the band (Eldridge, bassist Young Heo, and drummer Steve Barnes) also submit superlative performances throughout. So do guests Daniel Pardo, whose beautiful alto flute work illuminates the ballad "Empty Room" and bossa nova "Lovely Ever After"; Brian Piper, who dives into the gutbucket with his piano solo on "Coriander Stomp"; and Ginny Mac, whose accordion provides the secret sauce for the Tex-Mex shuffle "Waiting."

Rosana EckertEckert, however, is the one who ultimately embodies Sailing Home. She wrote or cowrote all of its songs save one ("Empty Room," which Eldridge and Gary Eckert wrote together) and imbues them with her combination of powerful instrument, vast palette, and infallible technique. It is her performance that ultimately defines each song, bringing the sweet contentment to "Sailing Home," brash confidence to "For Good," exquisite warmth to the haunting "Meant for Me."
Rosana Calderon Eckert was born in 1974 in El Paso, Texas and grew up on the singers that her Mexican-American parents loved. Living on the U.S.-Mexican border, she was also immersed in the musical traditions of both countries, as well as their cross-pollinations. She studied French horn in high school, winning four all-state honors -- as well as the scholarships that allowed her to enroll at the University of North Texas's (UNT) highly respected College of Music as a classical theory and French horn performance major.

"On a lark," Eckert auditioned for the University of North Texas Jazz Singers, the school's premier vocal jazz ensemble, in her junior year. She was accepted and eventually became section leader, lead soprano, featured soloist, and arranger, later singing with the school's One O'Clock Lab Band and various other ensembles; chosen to tour with the Sisters in Jazz Collegiate Sextet; and selected for the Thelonious Monk Aspen Jazz Colony. She completed this shift in her musical trajectory by becoming the first vocalist in UNT history to earn a master's degree in jazz studies. The school then hired her as its first private jazz voice teacher.

Meanwhile, Eckert began a parallel career as a working musician in nearby Dallas, performing with her own jazz band and doing commercial singing and voiceover work. She also began writing her own songs, which ultimately led to the creation of her 2003 debut recording At the End of the Day. It was followed by Two for the Road (2007) and the acclaimed Small Hotel (2010).

Rosana Eckert will perform CD release concerts at the Kitchen Cafe, 17370 Preston Rd. #415, Dallas, on Fri. 6/21 and Sat. 6/22.

Photography: Teresa Jolie

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Faltam menos de 24 horas para o Rio Montreux Jazz Festival!

Faltam menos de 24 horas para a abertura do Rio Montreux Jazz Festival! O acontecimento musical do ano! Meu amigo Stanley Clarke (um dos maiores baixistas da história da música), os guitar heroes Al Di Meola, John Scofield e Steve Vai, a lenda viva Hermeto Pascoal, o mestre da percussão Paulinho da Costa com o bandolinista virtuoso Hamilton de Holanda, a supercantora Maria Rita com o Quarteto Jobim, e muito mais! De 6 a 9 de Junho no Pier Mauá!!!

The Stanley Clarke Band no Rio Montreux!

Stanley Clarke - que gravou com Luiz Bonfá, Eumir Deodato, Flora Purim e Airto Moreira - ama o Brasil. E ele jura que vai provar esse amor promovendo, com sua banda, um show especial e inesquecível no Rio Montreux Jazz Festival.
Dia 7 de junho, no Palco Tom Jobim. Vai perder? Claro que não, né? 😏
Ah, e aproveite: com seu ingresso para esse palco, você também terá acesso aos shows do Palco Ary Barroso, além da área do Village, com bares e food trucks.

Ingressos promocionais a partir de R$ 50,00, sujeitos a disponibilidade. ⠀
Ministério da Cidadania, Mastercard e Claro apresentam:
Rio Montreux Jazz Festival
Lei de Incentivo à Cultura

Apresentação: @mastercard e @clarobrasil
Patrocínio: @StellaArtoisBrasil
Apoio Institucional: Governo do Estado do RJ - Secretaria de Cultura e Economia Criativa (@sececrj)
Apoio: @fairmontrio
Parceiro de Mídia: @FolhadeSPaulo, @JBFM.oficial, @Otimaooh, @jornaloglobo
Realização: @DreamFactory_brasil , @gael.ag, @mzamusic
Ministério da Cidadania, Pátria Amada Brasil / Governo Federal.

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Big Band CD of the Month - "Marcus Shelby Orchestra: Transitions"

Big Band CD of the CD
Marcus Shelby Orchestra Featuring Tiffany Austin & Mads Tolling: "Transitions"
Rating: **** (musical performance & sonic quality)

Bassist, composer, and bandleader Marcus Shelby brings together three of his greatest passions -- African-American history, baseball, and big-band jazz -- on Transitions, the latest work by his 15-piece Marcus Shelby Orchestra, set for a June 7 release on his own MSO Records. While the album offers Shelby's lush arrangements of classic tunes by Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, and Cole Porter, its centerpiece "Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues" is an original four-part suite inspired by the history of Negro League Baseball. It also features superb work by two special guests, violinist Mads Tolling and acclaimed vocalist Tiffany Austin.

Shelby's work to date has established his penchant for deep musical dives into African-American history and culture. Transitions is not a full-length opus like his 2007 oratorio Harriet Tubman or 2011's Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but it is unquestionably on the same ambitious path as those two works. It's also a natural choice of subject matter for San Francisco-based Shelby, a self-described baseball aficionado who (when he's not on the bandstand) can often be found cheering on his beloved San Francisco Giants.

"I did a whole theatrical project that premiered last September at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival," he explains. "It re-created the environment of a Negro League baseball park. This suite was inspired by the research I did for that project. But it's more about these four cities -- Pittsburgh, New York, Chicago, Kansas City -- that were very central to the Negro Leagues."
Those were also central to the development of jazz, and Shelby's pieces reflect the parts they played in that development. The suite's opening "Transition 1 (Pittsburgh)," a nod to two powerhouse teams (the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays), also reflects the city's blues tradition and the hard swing generated by native-son drummers from Art Blakey to Jeff "Tain" Watts. Its finale, "Black Ball Swing (Kansas City)," celebrates the Kansas City Monarchs -- "the best known, most respected team of all time in the Negro Leagues," Shelby says -- with both the riff-driven style of the Count Basie Orchestra and the supercharged bebop of Charlie Parker, both Kansas City exports.

Transitions also includes one composition each by Charles Mingus and George Shearing, along with two by Cole Porter and three by the grand master of big band writing, Duke Ellington. It's "an album that mirrors a live performance," he says. "It's like seeing one of our concerts. It felt good to break away from doing programmatic music to playing some straight-up blues and swing and standards." The Duke's gorgeous but rarely played "On a Turquoise Cloud" is a feature for guest violinist Tolling, while his "Mood Indigo"and "Solitude," along with Shearing's "Lullaby of Birdland"and the two Porter tunes, are vehicles for Tiffany Austin's vocals.
Marcus Shelby was born February 2, 1966 in Anchorage, Alaska, moving to Sacramento, California at the age of five. He played the bass as a teenager, but his real passion was for baseball and basketball, earning a college scholarship in the latter. At 22, however, a concert by the Wynton Marsalis Quartet reignited his love of music, and he returned to school at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia, where he studied with Charlie Haden and James Newton.

First gaining attention in Los Angeles as a cofounder (with drummer Willie Jones III) of the hard-bop band Black/Note in the early 1990s, Shelby relocated to San Francisco in 1996. He quickly established himself as an essential creative force on the Bay Area arts scene, leading both the Marcus Shelby Trio and the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra and earning increasingly prestigious commissions from dance companies, theatrical productions, and presenters.

Shelby opened a new chapter with the release of 2006's Port Chicago (Noir), a major orchestral work inspired by the World War II incident that saw 50 young black seamen convicted in the largest mutiny trial in U.S. naval history. Since then he's focused his creative energy on a series of meticulously researched, hard-swinging works exploring African American history, like 2007's Harriet Tubman (Noir) and 2011's Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Porto Franco).

Marcus Shelby will perform as Resident Artistic Director at SFJAZZ, 201 Franklin St, San Francisco, Thursday 5/23 through Sunday 5/26. The four-night run will feature the artist in collaborations literary (with Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket), political (with Angela Davis), and Ellingtonian (with Faye Carol, Kenny Washington, and Mads Tolling), along with an evening dedicated to the performance of "Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues."

Web Site: marcusshelby.com

Vocal CD of the Month - "Lauren Desberg: Out For Delivery"

Vocal CD of the Month
Lauren Desberg: "Out For Delivery"
Rating: ****

What a thrilling, highly creative and surprising concept album! Produced by Drew Ofthe Drew and Will Wells, "Out For Delivery" is brought to fruition by the gene-defying songstress Lauren Desberg and some of today’s leading contemporary jazz musicians: saxophonist Braxton Cook, pianist Kris Bowers, drummer Jonathan Barber, guitarist Andrew Renfroe and electric/acoustic bassists, Ben Shepherd and Russell Hall.

Blending melodies reminiscent of the American Songbook with modern, innovative production, Desberg continues to foster her own unique style on "Out For Delivery." A culmination of a musical journey, delivered with a seemingly effortless ebb and flow, the album features sound effects that translate Desberg’s aural elements into visual and visceral components. "Out For Delivery" truly embodies this artist’s own personal philosophy - music can transcend genre.

Co-written by executive producer Will Wells and actually recorded in 2017, "Out For Delivery" touches on a myriad of existential and personal topics, ranging from self-care and reflection to the existence of free will to reincarnation. Comprised of ten originals and two reimagined gems, which encompass all styles of jazz from swing to modern to more popular-influenced sounds, this 12-track collection perfectly reflects the musical ethos of this rising star.

The album’s opening track, “The Way You Feel Inside” evokes a strong sense of individuality.  Featuring a dynamic solo by guitarist Andrew Renfroe, the track culminates with the sample of a rewinding tape recorder, leading seamlessly into track two. With bluesey overtones, “Yes Unless” spotlights a solo from pianist Kris Bowers, and is one of three tracks which features upright bassist Russell Hall.

The lead single from the album, “Something Wrong With Me” serves as a reminder that a lack of discussion should not allow for ignored or forgotten issues. While “Falling Dominoes” introduces listeners to just one of Desberg’s many philosophical theories, “Alone - In Love” reflects on the solitude one feels when faced with unrequited love. Originally written in a 4/4 time signature, the final product features Jonathan Barber’s unique drum groove. Exhibiting the unmistakable musical chemistry between Desberg and Renfroe, the duet, “How Could I Have Pain” grapples with the stark unfairness in life and the fact that apparent equals can live such drastically different realities.

The band bring a timeless classic into the 21st century with their transcendent take on the 1935 tune, “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself A Letter”, while Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sweetest Sounds” is treated with an intricate modern-jazz spin - an arrangement courtesy of pianist James Francies.

Taking the advice of Kris Bowers, album pianist and Emmy and Oscar award winning film scorer, Desberg includes four interludes (tracks 3, 5, 9 & 12). Providing a cinematic appeal to the project, these intertwining pieces feature a guitar-driven, “Come With Me”, a homage to the imperative perseverance of musicians in “Hold On” and an exploration into the mystery of reincarnation in “Start Out Again”, which interestingly features the singer’s parents on backing vocals!

The fourth and final piece, "The Choice" draws the album to a close. Encapsulating Desberg’s diverse musical journey, "Out For Delivery" is the elegant embodiment of millennial jazz.
Lauren Desberg’s sonic palette simultaneously pays homage to traditional jazz while displaying her own contemporary feel—she embodies the spirit of her generation yet defies expectations. Growing up in Los Angeles, CA, Desberg’s younger years were filled with choirs and musicals, while her radio played jazz and 90’s teen groups alike.

While attending the prestigious Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), she sang with LACHSA’s jazz ensembles along with the Gibson-Baldwin Grammy Ensembles, the Brubeck Summer Jazz Colony as well as performing at the Monterey and Playboy Jazz Festivals. Lending her vocals to the Beantown Swing Orchestra, during her time at Berklee College of Music, Desberg’s talent has certainly not gone unnoticed, receiving the ASCAP Foundation Leiber & Stoller Music Award.

Her debut EP "Sideways" (2012), produced by Gretchen Parlato, and featuring Taylor Eigsti and Dayna Stephens, attracted attention from NPR and jazz stations worldwide. The songwriter began to bridge the gap between the jazz of yesterday and the popular music of today on her first full-length album, "Twenty First Century Problems" (2015), which also featured Taylor Eigsti, as well as Walter Smith. Her modern favorites, such as Frank Ocean and Kimbra, influence her sound as much as jazz greats of the past.