MUSIC: The Imagine Project

Many people outside of the music business don't know Herbie Hancock. For those of you in this boat, let me introduce you to him. The man is a genius. He has a collection of Grammy awards and is pretty much deified in the jazz community. He has worked in front of the crowd (as a mutli-talented instrumentalist) and behind the scenes (as a producer).

His most recent series of projects has been to record with a variety of artists, usually on a particular theme. The best part is how Hancock brings people together in these recordings that you would not expect to 1) record jazz and 2) sing together. If this all sounds intriguing to you, then check out The Imagine Project featuring songs of hope and peace by an international and diverse recording community. Relying heavily on African instrumentation and voices, much of the album fuses American jazz grooves with African beats and sounds.

Not to say that that is the whole album though. A unlikely duet, "Don't Give Up", between pop bad-girl P!nk and R&B pianist John Legend is all class and quality. Likewise the Juanes performed "La Tierra" and the James Morrison version of "A Change Is Gonna Come" will have you hitting the repeat button.

Play this in the background the next time you have people over or even quietly at your office and you will have an audio conversation piece. This is a must-own album if I ever heard one.

Buzzy

MUSIC: Gin Wigmore

I love me some Joss Stone. It could be said that we have a history together. The smokey groove of her voice and its ability to drip off of every single soulful note it touches is masterful. Which is why I was intrigued when an advertisement on the side of my Facebook account invited me to check out New Zealand's own Gin Wigmore, comparing her to my favorite British soul singer.

While the two of them sound nothing alike, they both choose intriguingly pieces of music and bring heartfelt meaning to them. Sounding like a cross between Macy Gray, Bonnie Raitt, MoZella, and Missy Higgins, Wigmore's songs are inventive in the way they combine elements of pop, jazz, soul, and folk music into one beautiful heap. Born Virginia Wigmore, her most recent album, and first full-length, Holy Smoke, includes the infectious single "Oh My" as well as the rousing "Hey Ho" and the jazzy piano bar ballad "Dying Day".

Wigmore's EP, appropriately titled Extended Play contains some of her more tender and emotionally charged material like "These Roses" and "Hallelujah" about her father's death from cancer when she was a teenager. It's not easy, but I'm hoping this Kiwi makes it across the ocean into the earbuds of the American conscience; if Joss can do it, surely Gin can too!

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: "Baby, I'm A Fool" video

Britney, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, and all the other singing starlets who like to get a little naked in their videos should take one simple note from jazz chanteuse Melody Gardot: nothing is sexier than library glasses and an updo.

Gardot oozes passion with no trashin' in her video, "Baby I'm A Fool", a self-penned tune off her sophomore album My One And Only Thrill. Although Gardot's specs are vision and health related, she owns them in this video; even soaking in a bubble bath surrounded by dancing tuxedoed men seems acceptable in this classy take on what will be sure to become a new-generation jazz standard.

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: The Hard Way

I've been listening to one of my favorite British singers, James Hunter, quite a bit lately. By "lately" I mean a week ago when the shuffle mode on my iPod decided to play "Carina" from Hunter's 2008 album The Hard Way.

I love the bluesy and sad swing-like vibe that drifts throughout this song about basically begging someone to love you. The plucking strings, popping horns, whiney saxophone, and occasional swelling of the orchestra, coupled with Hunter's soulful and cracking vocals pleading "don't let me wait to long" make you feel as though you need Carina's love too. This is my most consistently favorite track off this album.

Other highlights include "Don't Do Me No Favors" and "She's Got A Way", which, with it's jazzy rhythm, has one of the most fun music videos of any of Hunter's singles. This is one of those records you could play in the corner of the room and by the third track people will be asking who the singer is. A throwback to the old blue-eyed soul music of the 1960's combined with some new-age R & B riffs, The Hard Way, is sure to be the ZONINO! of your party.

Buzzy

MUSIC: Anjulie

I don't know much about Anjulie, to be honest. I know she is British* and that her self-titled debut album is amazing and on unhealthy rotation at both home and work. I learned the former piece of information from some article I read reviewing the recently released CD and the later from purchasing it on an optimistic whim.

This was the best optimistic whim I've had in awhile. You are definitely gambling when you go all in on an artist no one this side of the pond has heard of, with no air play, on a music label unknown to you. Actually, those might be the keys to finding a really great album, come to think of it!

With a sound that has hints of pop, jazz, and folk all mixed together, this is the album I imagine Duffy, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, and Sade making, if they became one phenomenally talented being. Highlights for me include "Rain," about a misguided love, the toe-tapping "Addicted2Me," and "Colombia," which captures complete and total bliss; making you want to grab that one you love and hit the road, leaving it all behind for awhile.

The piano-driven and orchestrally-backed "Love Songs" throws it's sappy subject matter and infatuated feelings of first loves right under the bus, without giving in to cynicism. While all Anjulie's songs have insanely creative lyrics, this one is one of my favorites for it's simplicity and honesty.

If you buy one disc this fall for yourself, let it be this one. If you want to give the gift of music to anyone this who year, you will be touted as the one with much musical foresight for giving this one. Hopefully the rest of the world outside of Britain recognizes the talent of Anjulie.

Sergio del Limónar

* It has been brought to my attention by one of our own ZONINO! readers and confirmed by Wikipedia that Anjulie is actually Canadian and not from England. Born and raised right outside of Toronto it seems...

MUSIC: My Sweet Song

I live for those moments when you discover a song when you least expected it. Walking through a store, at a friend of a friend's party, on an elevator (heaven forbid). I was watching the movie, "PS: I Love You" recently and during one of those time-is-passing sequences in the film the featured song clip caught my ear.

The song, "My Sweet Song," by Toby Lightman, is a jazz-tinged melody about a once forgotten love that has returned unwanted. It can be found on both the soundtrack to the aforementioned film as well as her 2006 album, Bird on a Wire.

I don't know much about Lightman, except that she did a beautiful duet with Marc Broussard on his SOS: Save Our Souls album that I really over-played. I think this is a good sign I need to check out more of her stuff. Future "Toby Lightman" themed Zonino...?

Sergio del Limónar