Natalie Cressman and Mike Bono – Etchings In Amber (2016/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:35 minutes | 800 MB | Genre: Jazz, Vocal Jazz, Crossover Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Cressman Music
With its mix of jazz with folk and indie rock, the genre-bending music on this album is complex yet very approachable. Fellow red-head and sometimes boss, Trey Anastasio has said of Natalie, “I first met Natalie when she was 18, and I was instantly floored by how melodically and naturally she played and sang. Natalie is the rarest of musicians. Born into a musical family and raised in a home filled with the sounds of Brazilian music, jazz, and Afro-Cuban rhythms, she is seeping with innate musicality. Musicality is in her DNA.” On ETCHINGS IN AMBER, Cressman’s voice has an alluring smoky quality, and her singing style comes out of the tradition of vocal jazz but with a distinctly contemporary feel. Bono is an accomplished arranger and improviser. Several of the tunes on this CD were originally written as solo guitar pieces. “I usually start writing music by following a melody that I’m hearing and then search for interesting chords that reflect the meaning of the song and support and enhance the melody,” says Bono. He wrote “Dusk,” the opening song, for solo acoustic guitar tuned down a whole step to get a rich and lush timber. Cressman’s sensitive lyrics capture the poignancy of a deep and long-term relationship.
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Mike Bono – Familiar Places (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 43:12 minutes | 780 MB | Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © La Reserve Records
Mike Bono’s name may be unfamiliar, but now I realise that, unknowingly, I’ve already heard his guitar playing on recordings by Erykah Badu, Julian Lage and Michael Blume. His 2019 album Visitors with pianist Christian Li was well received (LINK HERE), but there’s so much new music you just can’t hear everything!
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Mike Bono – Other Worlds (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 36:18 minutes | 718 MB | Genre: Jazz, Fusion
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © La Reserve Records
“Other Worlds” is yet another testament to Bono’s inventiveness as a guitarist and composer. Ever present are his sensitive, virtuosic ideas. What’s new is the electrified edge — especially in his guitar and in Li’s keyboards, and the interstellar places they take these songs. “I wanted it to be a floaty, dreamy, ethereal soundscape,” explains Bono, who began composing the album after reading Alan Lightman’s surrealist science fiction novel Einstein’s Dreams. It is exactly the sort of creativity listeners have come to recognize in Bono across his previous four albums.
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