Izabella Effenberg comes from Poland. She lives in Germany. The title of her very first album is in Spanish. A few lyrics are in English and Hebrew. Which leads to the conclusion that a strong multi-cultural scent perfumes her life and her musical world. The lady plays vibraphone, an instrument that was brought to the fore in jazz by Lionel Hampton, and in rock by Ruth Underwood. The plain fact that Izabella is the first Polish woman to make a professional use of the instrument reminds us how rare it is in music in general. On 'Cuéntame', the Polish vibraphonist is backed by a team of skilled German musicians, and this first effort is the opportunity for her to highlight her talent not only as an interpreter, but also as a composer.

The musical world unfolds in a quite versatile way actually In fact, joyfulness (embodied by sunny and rhythmic numbers) alternates with melancholy (when the brooding incantations of Israeli vocalist Efrat Alony are set to a reflective accompaniment). Where the "Fuga" and "Nocturne 2" present the flamboyance of pieces of Baroque era, especially in the solemn notes escaping from vibraphone and saxophone, it's rather a wind of humour that blows on the other "happy" tunes. First, with "El Vaive Del Verdes" and "Raton Chacha", drums gallop down a sloppy road, while the two saxophones play amused notes without paying much attention to each other (they tried to discipline themselves on the groovy opening track, but it didn't last long!). Then, when the closing piece "III. Teil Three Pictures" comes, drums are all excited, like a dog seeing his master back home after a long day spent alone. On the other hand, and quite conversely, a haunting atmosphere envelops "Crescent Moon" and "Cuéntame", when the slow and mournful wind instruments (clarinet and saxophone respectively) move like in a funeral march, while the plaintive voices share their fears and pains. On "Like A Child", it's the drumming that evokes the funeral march, Izabella contributing this time also to the sad ambiance by rubbing a bow on the pads of her vibraphone. All along the album, the Polish musician stays moderate in her use of vibraphone, far from the exoticism of Dave Samuels, yet close to the syncopation of Bobby Hutcherson. Another rarely heard instrument, the chromatic harp, lends its delicate and pondering touches to the elegant musical canvas. It sounds in turn like an introspective spanish guitar ("Like A Child") and a shining kora ("El Vaive Del Verdes").

All in all, 'Cuéntame' is a pleasant collection of jazz-oriented pieces, where colours are in turn vivid and faded, yet always brilliantly laid out on the pictures. Let's hope that it's the beginning of a great career for the very first female vibraphonist coming out of Poland.

This review is also available on Prog Sphere webpage: http://www.prog-sphere.com/reviews/izabella-effenberg-cuentame/

Jazz-rock...and so much more!

Jartse Tuominen is an accomplished finnish guitarist who played with a host of renown artists: Joe Satriani, Jackson Browne, Doobie Brothers among others. With 'Time Of Change' he recorded a bunch of instrumental songs (except two sung ones) in a melodic jazz-rock approach, throwing in elements of shredding guitar, pop, heavy prog, southern rock, blues, space rock, funk, organized as described below in the track-by-track review.

"Midnight Express" is a dynamic track where drums are excited like the boiling magma of a volcano ready to explode, and with excursions into southern-rock/heavy-prog (the sabbathian guitar and the strange keys in the chorus)

"Seven Seas" features aquatic (see the title of the song!) and echoing rhythmic guitar together with floating keyboard layers like a breeze blowing, and aerial guitar solos. Drumming is complex and retains the same hypnotic effect as the rhythmic guitar loops with its repeated pattern. The song builds slowly into more aggressive territories when drum chops go to prominence and guitar solos go faster and devoid of any clear direction. The control is not completely lost as the echoing guitar and the regular pattern of drums remains. The expression ?calm before the storm" takes all its sense here : the waves of the "seven seas" keep quiet before becoming turbulent.

"Texas Roots" : one immediately thinks of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Texas blues, and ? bingo - this is the case with the bluesy opening guitar theme, which is repeated all over the song. Drums are in a funky mood. Hammond reinforces the vintage 70's funk side. A Vai-esque and anthemic guitar solo bursts in the chorus. Crazy guitar soloing and soaring Hammond interpserse the choruses.

The title track is a ballad with its lulling rhythm and gentle picking in the first part : a kind of mix ? when you listen carefully ? of slowed down spanish flamenco, a bit of slowed down country/bluegrass, and echoes of shredding guitarists like Satriani. Electric guitar then bursts together with Hammond and gives a taste of Gary Moore's "parisienne walkways" to the song. As the song progresses, the lulling air of the debut comes back and even offers a wink to Pink Floyd in the passage with aerial/anthemic guitar and soaring Hammond.

"Out there" is a song with strong echoes of Steve Morse's melodic lines in the main guitar theme and an overall jazz-funk mood. The "impossible guitar part" at 1'49 is reminiscent of Steve Vai at the time he was with Frank Zappa.

Except for, once again, the Steve Morse aerial and melodic approach in the chorus, "one of these days" is in an even more jazz-funk tone than the previous one, with nice hypnotic guitar picks. Towards the two thirds though, the dynamic jazz-funk has been traded for a short hazy jazz-rock passage with a bass solo, then the hopping jazz-funk comes back after the melodic solo of the chorus.

"Weird Timing" is a briliant heavy/jazz rock tune with energetic playing. Zappa comes to mind with the eccentric guitar solos, but the blasting guitars give also a southern rock feel to the whole. On a par with the title of the song, a drum solo punctuates the music.

In the beginning, "Dreamer" starts as a sunny folksy balad with some echoing pastoral rhythm guitars and lulling guitar solos. It soon turns to a shredding affair, with the virtuosic and punchy solos of Jartse, alternating between weeping solos and more acrobatic ones.

The album ends with two sung tracks, with the beautiful voice of Yvonne Charbonneau. The first of these two songs, "Love And The Perfect Game" is a positive pop song with solid rhythmic base. Guitar solos are in a Gary Moore's bluesy tone.

The second song, "the longest mile" retains a sadder atmosphere, with a slower pace, echoing guitars of Jartse, the suspended Hammond, and more tremolos in Yvonne's vocals.

Overall, this album is very enjoyable with great dynamics, the right balance between guitar acrobatics and melodic themes, and a great diversity of influences.

When top-notch musicanship meets catchy and memorable melodies

Jartse Tuominen is an accomplished guitarist who started his solo career at the end of the 1990's. 'Northern lights' is his second record, and the material proposed here (AOR [read "melodic rock"] declined in several styles ' see detailed review further on) contrasts with another record, aptly entitled 'progressive' (a progressive and complex musical tour de force) released by Jartse around the same time. On to 'Northern Lights': we have here a collection of songs that overall give a flair of AOR to the album, but that are covered with different musical sauces : - Instrumental rock/jazz-rock with the 3 instrumental tracks (the opening track, "Introducing", in the vein of Simon Phillips' projects with Steve Lukather or Derek Sherinian, "the loner", which is a little tribute to Gary Moore ' without looking at the credits you recognize instantly Phil Lynott's long-time friend's phrasing, and finally the light and jazzy closing track "northern lights", with its first and last quarters lead by bass (Patrick O'Hearn comes to mind with his ambient stuff) and guitar touches reminiscent of Joe Satriani's "I believe", a song which had, what a coincidence!, Simon Phillips on drums. - Pop, first on "ghost of love" with its superb and delicate female vocals and memorable chorus. Then on "on the other side", with intonation of vocals reminding Joey Tempest of Europe. - Hard rock/southern rock on "Over", an upbeat midtempo song with male vocals reminiscent at times Glenn Hughes, at others Danny Joe Brown of Molly Hatchett fame. - Folk-rock on "Inca Princess" with theatrical male vocals. - Arena rock/AOR, first on "Hearts on parole" where strong male vocals alternate with raspy Bonnie Tyler'esque female vocals. The guitar line in the chorus is reminiscent of TOTO's "hold the line", a liquid Hammond B3 comes in the bridge. Then on "Love me, hate me" with female vocals that could be placed somewhere between Janis Joplin and Doro's aggressive singing styles. - Soul in "Never enough" with funky guitar picks, brass section, saxophone, Hammond B3 all along, congas, and vocals praising like in a gospel song. - Prog-rock on "Miracle Man", with processed vocals not far from the Beatles ("blue jay way"), and Genesis ("grand parade of lifeless packaging") in the introduction and Pink Floyd ("waiting for the worms") in the conclusion, and the right balance between straightforward rhythm and more tortuous ones, like on Spock's Beard albums.

What strikes in the album is the diversity of material but also the diversity of vocals (4 lead vocalists in all). Jartse's guitar can be heard all along the album, but is never overwhelming, rather always giving directions to the song and in harmony with the band.

This album is full of catchy melodies, and lifts the spirits. This would be a shame not to listen to it.