GOOD COMPANY
Kerong Chok
(www.kerongchok.com)
GOOD COMPANY
WOW JAZZ 4
‘ARPANAM’ THE FINAL CUT
SINGAPOREAN musician-composer and counsel Kerong Chok’s entrance album, Good Company, is a delight of 9 years in a strain arena, both on a island commonwealth and in a United States.
Filled with a sound of a Hammond organ by Kerong himself, Good Company also boasts Lucas Pino on effort and soprano saxophones and flute, Jake Goldbas (drums and percussion), Michael Valeanu (guitars) and Matt Holman (trumpet on marks 3 and 8).
While a manuscript is a debut, a garb works a instruments into a parsimonious weave.
Good Company is a well-spoken smoothness of nu-jazz. From a opener Black Ice to Sounds From The Black Alley, pitch jazz rules, bringing a mood to that place of mellow coolness.
I favourite roughly all a 10 marks including a percussion-driven The First Day Of School, Incessant with a garb any carrying their say, For Kenny where a saxophone carries a tune with warmth, a musty Free And Easy and a edgier closer Rill Son.
The layering on Literacy is ethereal with an RB line to a track. Only a pretension lane was a bit too laidback for my funkier taste.
Kerong’s records states he started on a piano during 4, and during 18 had entered a strain stage personification with jazz, RB and pop-rock bands.
By a finish of his law degree, his jazz voice was honed and he got a grant to review for a Master’s in jazz opening during a Manhattan School of Jazz.
Since then, a NYC-based pianist-organist-composer has played during several venues including a Blue Note bar in New York City and with Steve Wilson, among other artistes in a US. Good Company is a superb debut.
WOW JAZZ 4
Various Artistes
Warner Music
THIS fourth book in a Wow array by Warner Music is a 2-CD gathering of singing legends and proteges. There are 30 obvious marks achieved by, among others, Willie Nelson (Always On My Mind), Eric Clapton (Autumn Leaves), a late Eva Cassidy (Yesterday) and zydeco artist Dr John (Satin Doll).
CD One has some-more contemporary artistes including Norah Jones (Sunrise), Michael Buble (Sway) and Rumer (Alfie), among others, while a second CD has some-more legends including Linda Ronstadt (I Love You For Sentimental Reasons) and Dinah Shore (It Had To Be You).
The interpretations are what make a manuscript interesting. For instance, essence thespian Bettye Swann’s delivery of a well-covered RB song, Tell It Like It Is, and Johnny Hartman’s My Favourite Things (from The Sound Of Music) is pristine jazz a la John Coltrane.
How Insensitive, loosely formed on Chopin’s Prelude No 4, gets a mellow feel from Sinead O’ Connor while Aguas De Marco by Cibo Matto, a rope comprising US-based Japanese women and Sean Lennon, among others, is samba-beat driven.
One Day In Your Life by Dutch pop-jazz thespian Trijntje Oosterhuis is a honeyed delivery that is a noted contrariety to a clarity in Natalie Cole’s Stardust.
An heterogeneous offering, accessible usually in Rock Corner outlets in Malaysia.
‘ARPANAM’ THE FINAL CUT
Mista G
Suara Network
THIS 11-track entrance studio manuscript by Mista G is a mostly a dance bar offering.
The former Lock Up cocktail rope member famous as Lock Up Guna sings in Tamil, English, and Bahasa Malaysia on many of a songs, along with guest artistes. These embody Aamigoz Sugu, Rabbit Mac, and Sasi a Don. Mista G has also created many of a songs, and a few with composers including Bob Nathan, MC Loga, and Licas Tony.
The manuscript is a excellent showcase of talent. Employing techno beats, a melodies operation from reggae and swat to hip-hop. But, they all have an trace of normal Indian ragas. For instance, Kuzhalladum, featuring a honeyed vocals of
Preeta Prasad, is a complicated Tamil hip-hop series given a normal Indian raga.
Another instance is Chal Chal, sampled from a strike strain Chal Chal Mere Haathi from a classical film Haathi Mere Saathi, that now gets a reggae twist.
The dual delayed stone ballads — Kathelley and Cinta Sepi featuring Alleycats’ Datuk David Arumugam — are memorable. Featuring David, a vocals harmonize good with a lyrics that are in Bahasa Malaysia and Tamil. Digital downloads for a manuscript are underneath Universal Music, and we can design to hear most airplay of Mista G’s familiar entrance solo album.
Get Arpanam — definition my loyalty in Tamil — to get into an upbeat mood.