MYBLOG by Ouriel

Stop Talent: Jose James, the new voice you have to know

I listen to lots of music, but it is very rare i stick to a new discovery and keep listening to the disc over and over. Like love at first sight, Love at first listening is very rare. It happened to me with Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett more recently with Eliane Elias, Raul Midon and a few others. Jose James is the recent addition, i discovered via my musician friend Yaron Herman (actually they are friends..)

Jose James is a new young american singer that has a amazing control of his voice. His first album "The Dreamer" is a total knock out and i really strongly recommend you to find it and buy it. He reminds me a lot of Gil Scott Heron but with a softer more delicate tone. He can sing awefully complex songs and make them sound just like they were children songs (listen to NOLA coming from an old great Spike Lee movie). He can also take a dead simple, nearly boring melody and bring all the sophisticated nuances out of it (listen below to BlackEyedSusan for example).

I already take a bet, Jose James will be one of the most popular pop/jazz singer of the new generation in a couple of years taking up on Kurt Elling and Al Jarreau. It is very rare you hear this kind of talent. I think my bet is not very risky.

Listen below the track BlackEyedSusan or here more extracts and here his last.fm page

Jose James

Technorati Tags: josejames voice jazz pop music

JazzCast: Great version of Round Midnight

Sometimes on youtube you can find better stuff than on iTunes. for free. and legal. Check this out

Technorati Tags: jazz piano roundmidnight

Super Talent - Raul Midon

Raul Midon is probably one of the top 10 most talented musician of the new generation. Watch him at TED sing, play. Blowing. I forgot to precise: he's blind and will remind you a lot of Stevie Wonder

Jazz Talent Alert: Lois Mahalia

The wonders of Youtube. Just Stumbled upon this great song and great voice: Lois Mahalia (her Youtube Channel here). The song is called "Smile" but has nothing to do with the Charlie Chaplin composition. The pianist is not bad either (although a bit classical). I never heard about her before. Probably would not have without Youtube and the related features. Is she famous? will she be one day? Hope you like it anyway

10 ideas to make an iPod Killer

I love the iPod and will probably switch to an iPod/iPhone. Everybody is trying to run after Apple but no one really made it. From my modest user experience there are a few things that combined together would be the killer product (meaning a much better compelling user experience and usage value) i would buy instead of an iPod for the same price

• Wireless Sync with rules. I hate to sync my ipod by having to connect it to my PC i want to tell my iPod to sync according to rules i set. Make it Bluetooth and Wifi for the same price 
• Player sold with a cradle. I can't believe Apple does not sell the iPod with a cradle make it stand nicely on your desk 
• No need for special soft. i Hate iTunes (specially the fact you need to create a library to import your tunes). already said it. I want to be able to manage my files just like i do on a regular explorer 
• Open to all main sounds formats: not just AAC and Mp3 but all of them (Ogg, Wav,...) no more need to encode. 
• Does not require video encoding: reads all main formats natively including Divx and automatically encodes to fit the screen 
• A back stick.When i travel i need to hold my iPod to see what's on it. I want a small back stick to make it hold right on the go 
• Display the number of songs by album/artist. This is a stupid details but i never remember the music i have in my iPod and even less how many songs are added per artist/album. this would be helpful to know if i want to hear this artist/album without having to click in the file 
• Exploration mode within shuffle: I most of the time use the shuffle mode. but sometimes i like a song/artist and i want to access more of this artist or album. I want to do that VERY often. 
• Regular USB connector. I want to have one connector for everything. Of course apple does not use any standard connector. 
• A smart protective skin with control access for moving/traveling. The first thing your iPod will suffer from are scratches. this is inevitable, from day 1. Specially the screen. This is not a gadget but a must have: something that protects my screen (that is sold lots of money separately). or even better a anti scratch screen. 
• bonus: the iPod headset is really crap. no noise reduction and no remote control. 
• bonus 2: a simple embedded fm tuner and microphone.

I am assuming here this new device would have the same killer features the iPod already have including battery life, user interface and great design. Since we all know we pay a premium on the iPod because this is an apple product, i am sure that you can make most of those for the same price. Most of those do not need special R&D or imagination. This is just repackaging of existing and even cheap stuff

Someone listening?

update: someone took that story to DIGG and it looks like at this speed it will end up soon close to the homepage. i must have touched a sensitve subject :)

Technorati Tags: ipod, mp3

"Mas que Nada" like you never heard

Michel Petrcuciani and Al Jarreau in one of the most famous brazilian songs in their own style. Stunning

Discovered via Alain

Hot Jazz Pianist Talent: Hiromi Uehara

I was so surprised that i stopped walking in the street yesterday as i was discovering the incredibly talented Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi Ueahara via a NPR jazz podcast (i recommend by the way).

I never heard about her before and i was totally blown by the level of energy and creativity of this young pianist. I went to youtube this morning to find out more about her. Check out below one of her composition, the tom and jerry show (tribute to the cartoon) and observe how she really "plays" with the piano this complex piece of music. Everything looks easy and totally under control.

I thought her territory would be more traditional-revisited (you feel the influence of Tatum/Peterson/Garner). But if you dig more you can see she knows how to explore new modern fields, like on this memorable version of summertime in duo with no one else than Chick Corea himself...

 

In addition she's very pretty and sounds very nice (you need to listen to her podcast on NPR jazz). I can only anticipate a massive success for this young artist.

I did not know really any international jazz musician until that day. I am already a great fan of Ruychi Sakamoto who is a great music film composer (mainly for Takeshi Kitano and Hayao Miyazaki cartoons) and has a strong jazz background. but Hiromi is the first true jazz artist i know coming out of this country

She's from now on at the top of my hot list of talented jazz musician to keep track of.

Technorati Tags: hiromi, jazz, piano, japan, npr, podcast

On My Shopping List

Will try to get those 2 promising Jazz CDs on iTunes as soon as they appear there.

ELIAN ELIAS: SOMETHING FOR YOU (here)

Eliane Elias playing Bill Evans can only be great

KEITH JARRETT: SETTING STANDARDS (Here)

Keith Jarrett's re-edition of  the standards that launched him. But what can i say? Impossible not to buy it. Weird because his last CD is less than a few weeks old...More here

Setting Standards brings together three classic recordings; Standards Vol. 1, Standards Vol. 2 and Changes. Music brought to life in a sustained burst of creativity in 1983 at New York's Power Station. Presented now for the first time in a specially priced 3-CD box set. Having wrapped up two volumes of standards, the trio then moved on to improvisational areas resulting in the album, Changes. Three top flight albums recorded in one day! Not only that, the musicians had mapped out the area - from the Great American Songbook to free play - that they would continue to explore for the next quarter-century, making them perhaps the most widely-admired jazz group in the world today. This re-release celebrates 25 years of the "Standards Trio" It includes historical session photos by Deborah Feingold and updated liner notes by Peter Rüedi. 

Technorati Tags: eliane elias, keith jarrett, something for you, setting standards, jazz, piano

Israeli, Daniel Barenboim takes Palestinian citizenship. What do you think?

I still do not manage to digest the news: World famous Israeli pianist/ conductor Daniel Barenboim accepted the Palestinian citizenship (his wikipedia page is already updated). On one side he claims this is a symbol of peace on the other side this is seriously provocative. How do you read this?

Technorati Tags: DanielBarenboim, israeli, palestinian, citizenship

WOW Effect of the day: idiomag

Sometimes a new service makes you just say WOW. this is what happened to me today when i re-discovered idiomag (they need to change that name cause in France it sounds like "suckermag"). This is a beautifully automated music magazine designed just for you in a matter of seconds. The experience is so simple and the magic funnel works perfect. You only need to enter your Last.fm/pandora/iLike profile (no need to register) and they swallow your profile information to build a superb music magazine composed of posts/picks and sound file (they make the smart aggregation of data).

The browsing experience is also great. you have all the fine tune/sharing features possible. The magazine gets smarter over time and learns what you liked and did not (reminds me of our portfolio company outbrain). I wish they had an embed version so i can put it on my blog (but they have a facebook app)

A must try

ps: thanks to ReadWriteWeb for the write up this am.

ps2: if the founders of Idiomag read this you guys need to change in the registration form the default options for birth date otherwise most users will be born in 2008...

ps3: the facebook app does not seem to work right now...

ps4: indeed the founders of idiomag read my blog :) thanks for the answer. below an embedded version

Technorati Tags: idiomag, music, magazine, recommandation