We’ve been gone for a minute but we are now back in full effect. Will be updating on the 1st and the 15th of every month. A feature on classic Bill Withers welcomes us back. From Sweden, chanteuse Natalie Gardiner gives us a taste of Ghana/Scandanavia blue/folk/soul. We conclude with a jazz survey of a show tune classic featuring Ahmad Jamal, Fay Victor, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Tito Puente, Henry Franklin, Carmen McRae, Sonny Rollins, ella Fitzgerald, Terell Stafford, and Cassandra Wilson & Jacky Terrasson. Enjoy—and tell your friends to check us out!
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I’ve thought about Natalie’s magic. Born of a father from Ghana and a mother from Sweden, Natalie is a deep blues singer who did not grow up in a traditional blues culture and does not sound like what we mostly think of when someone says blues. But if you listen to Natalie’s themes, most of the time she is talking about loss—missed moments in emotionally broken lives: revealing the realities when the light has faded, sweetness has soured, unforgettable times have contracted into blurred and indistinct memories.
Listen closely and you can tell she is flying the flag of the survivor, the person who has spent a lifetime wading through the muck of disappointment, swimming against the tide of reoccurring unconsummated relationships, nevertheless she manages and celebrates life. She glories in carrying on; her themes may be of loss and loneliness but ultimately this is triumphant, optimistic music.
—kalamu ya salaam