Fahir Atakoglu’s Faces & Places

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Composer, Fahir Atakoglu, Jazz, Piano

“FACES and PLACES” – Available January 5 features Randy Brecker, John Patitucci, Wayne Krantz, Bob Mintzer, Romero Lubambo and Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez

Fahir Atakoglu, Faces and Places

A highly regarded figure in his native Turkey since the 1990s, pianist-composer-arranger Fahir Atakoglu is only beginning to make his mark on stateside audiences. His latest offering, the compelling world-jazz project Faces and Places, may be the breakthrough album to finally gain him widespread acclaim here.

Boasting an all-star cast of trumpeter Randy Brecker, guitarist Wayne Krantz, Yellowjackets’ saxophonist Bob Mintzer, Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo, bassist John Patitucci and Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez on drums, Faces and Places is a formidable follow up to 2008’s Istanbul in Blue (a ferocious fusion project that reached #1 on the JazzWeek World Music Albums chart and features guitarists Mike Stern and Wayne Krantz, tenor saxophonist Bob Franchesini, bassist Anthony Jackson, and Hernandez on drums).

Chiara Civello | The Space Between

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Biography, Brazilian, Female Vocalist, Latin Music

Chiara Civello | The Space Between – [Emarcy, 2007]

Chiara Civello, The Space Between

Originally from Rome but now based in New York City, Italian singer/songwriter Chiara Civello is an eclectic, far-reaching artist who brings a variety of pop, jazz, cabaret and Latin influences to the table. Although Civello has performed straight-ahead jazz in the past, she is not a full-time jazz singer or a bebop purist by any means; stylistically, much of the material she has recorded for Verve is closer to Sade, Basia, Norah Jones, Nellie McKay (minus the eccentricity and sharp-tongued humor) or Rickie Lee Jones than it is to hardcore jazz vocalists like Abbey Lincoln, Sheila Jordan and Kitty Margolis.

But the jazz influence is almost always present in Civello’s pop recordings — and since her arrival in the United States, she has crossed paths with major jazz musicians like alto saxophonist Phil Woods and guitarist Mike Stern. Listing all of Civello’s influences could be time-consuming; Civello gives the impression that along the way, she has listened to everyone from Joni Mitchell, Sade and Sting to Ella Fitzgerald, Julie London and Billie Holiday.