jazz

For her sixth release, Australian singer Janet Seidel continues to mine gems from the huge lode of popular music, this time focusing on tunes with a Gallic bent. Several of the tunes on the play list have a French origin, such as "A Man and a Woman" from the 1966 classic French film of the same name and "I Will Wait for You" from the soundtrack to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Virtually all of these, including the American pop tunes, are sung in French (like a native) and English. For those who need translating help, the lyrics are printed in both languages in the liner notes.

Norah Jones, born on March 30th 1979 in New York City, is one of the most popular contemporary jazz and jazz-influenced singers of our time. She was a member of Wax Poetic before her debut album Come Away With Me. She can still be heard singing with them on two tracks of their release, Nublu Sessions. Her debut album Come Away With Me was released in 2002 and sold 22 million copies worldwide. It won 5 Grammy Awards in 2003.

Kirk Degiorgio was born in Stepney, East London in the late 60's. Raised in a family who loved a wide range of music - and one which could claim a hugely famous pop-star cousin in Marc Bolan of T-Rex - Kirk got early exposure to music from artists such as Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Sly Stone, Roxy Music, etc. His mother Janet Feld was a young 'mod' who devoutly followed The Kinks, The Who, etc around the venues of London.

1) Panta Rei was an early Swedish progressive rock band. They released a self-titled album in 1973. Not to be confused with the similarly named Panta Rhei. The band played psychedelic rock/blues. The setting on the record was as follows: Leadsinger Georg Trolin, Cary Wihma on bass, Tomo Wihma played the drums, Thomas Arnesen on guitar and Leif Östman also on guitar and Göran Freese on sax. Panta Rei was considered to be even better live...