December 2008

Vocalist Rebecca Parris has won fans and critical praise for her impeccable phrasing and classic sense of swing. Her rich and sultry voice has spawned comparisons to Rosemary Clooney and Dinah Washington, but Parris’s sound is very much her own.

A pianist hammers out a jaunty intro that sounds familiar, yet seems hard to place. There are octave runs and an insistent bass line, as well as repeated chords that conjure up “Heart and Soul.” Wait, could it be? It sure could, as Bobby Lounge begins yelping like Jerry Lee Lewis and singing words that everyone knows by heart: “Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer / Ow, he had a shiny nose…”

When KEXP broadcast from Chicago this past summer, the station was turned on to a local gem. The Occidental Brothers Dance Band International brings rock- and jazz-trained American musicians together with Ghanian musicians in a cross-cultural throwdown. Hear the session.

The famed virtuoso commanded the entire keyboard with incredible dexterity, drive and precision, while performing around the world for more than 50 years, accruing countless honors, awards and critical accolades.

Born in the ’60s, soul-jazz is a groove-oriented style built from the bottom up. You take a strong bass line, establish a steady groove between the bass and drums, and then embellish that groove with riffs and melody lines that draw heavily from gospel, blues and R&B.