Tom Poster - From Brighton to Brooklyn - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Here is a review from a local paper on a performance by Mark Kanter; 'Over at Sips Cafe there was a little more breathing and leg room, plus the option of a enjoying a good dinner while listening to their musical act of the week, which I did last Wednesday. Mark Kanter, whom I hadn't heard perform in years, and his new wife Jill were performing, along with a couple of other local guitarists who rotated into the bluesy mix. Kanter is as much a showman as a musician and he sings his classic blues tunes in a classic Sonny Terry or Muddy Waters style sounding like he was born and bred on a sharecropper farm in Alabama or Mississippi, which is a bit disconcerting coming from a six-foot-four or so white guy from the northeast. He does know his stuff, though, and his guitar work and most especially his harmonica playing are terrific.' When I told my wife I wanted to write a blues opera she gave me one of those long slow eye rolls. Believe me, there are far worse things that you can get from a woman than an eye roll. So, I proposed my idea to my friend John, who is a brilliant producer, AND I told him I wanted to write it as we recorded it. He said WTF, let's do it. Thus was born The Drifter. I was aided greatly in my writing by the deadlines my producer (John Kurgan) imposed on me and the think tank sessions with my wife once she came on board. Halfway through the project, I realized that it was as much John's record as mine, and I asked him if he had a problem sharing the credit for the record. The role John played as producer was essential to the outcome. The making of the album was quite an amazing experience for me and working with John was a huge gift. Mark Kanter started playing the blues shortly after hearing The Paul Butterfield Blues Band perform in the 1960's. Mark has been performing the blues ever since both as a solo artist and band leader as well as a sideman (

Elena Urioste and Tom Poster return for their second recital on Chandos, focussing on French repertoire. The performers write 'The three sonatas on this album were all published during the decade 1916-26, a musical period to which we often find ourselves drawn, when the world - and the artistic landscape - was changing beyond recognition. Fauré lamented to his wife that his Second Sonata, composed under the shadow of the First World War, had never achieved anything like the popularity of his First; having fallen under the Second Sonata's spell, we wanted to help to right this continuing imbalance. Mel Bonis, whose life story reads like the plot of a Hollywood film, wrote more than 300 pieces, and all those we have explored so far have been wonderful (she is our hot tip for the next composer due a major renaissance). Her only violin sonata is a rhapsodic work with a Greek folk melody at it's heart, which we were enraptured by the moment we encountered it. Reynaldo Hahn is generally better known to singers than to instrumentalists, though his chamber music is as exquisite as his songs. His Violin Sonata was the last work on this album to be composed, but where Fauré in his Sonata looks forward to modernist developments, Hahn (with the exception of his short middle movement, inspired by a fast car ride!) looks back nostalgically to a gentler time. The earliest of the works here, and possibly the most often heard these days, is the Nocturne by Lili Boulanger, an exquisite miniature from a composer whose life ended far too soon.'

Born in East London to Jamaican parents, 28 year old Tiana Major9 was immersed in music from an early age, influenced by jazz, praise and worship, and the neo-soul sounds of Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill. Their journey into music saw debut releases establishing their soulful voice as one of the UK's most enticing, featuring with Stormzy, Bryson Tiller, Smino and Unknown T, support slots with Victoria Monet, Jazmine Sullivan and Adele as well as a GRAMMY nomination for InchCollideInch from the Queen & Slim soundtrack. After two years of self-discovery, Tiana is set to their long-awaited debut album in 2025; a rich tapestry of love, loss, and growth, recorded in LA, the UK, and Jamaica, filled with luxurious melodies, featherlight floating production and raw, grounded storytelling. As a queer Black femme artist, Tiana reclaims the term InchdivaInch on the project, embracing it with pride in the spirit of icons like Beyoncé and Whitney Houston, and approaches this next chapter with a focus on classic artistry, longevity, and self-expression