The album was produced during the lockdown in 2021 and the trio took their time to write and arrange the songs. The music covers different styles and genres, from Bossa Nova, Samba to Foxtrot, Blues, Swing and Gypsy music. The instrumentation of this trio is also quite versatile, we hear acoustic and electric guitars, different saxophones and clarinet, which makes the album diversified and entertaining.

And I have to add another comment: The combination of guitar, double bass and saxophone (especially alto sax) or clarinet is from own experience a perfect combination, the instruments cover different ranges in frequency and create a full but transparent sound.

The album starts with ‘Just The Two Of Us Again’ a composition of Mulo Francel. He says of his composition: “I’ve always found it exciting to combine elements of tango, Latin jazz and Italian canzone with improvisation, which for me personally can border on the kitschy as well as the slightly weird.” Mulo plays the soprano saxophone and guitar and bass create a transparent rhythmic and harmonic layer for him.

In ‘Smalltown Girls’ we hear Paulo Morello on acoustic guitar and what I like here is Paulo relentlessly playing the background groove. I have experienced that he has so much fun in playing the guitar and so he doesn’t mind comping if it helps to create a good atmosphere.

‘One For Nieb’ is a homage to German guitar hero Helmut Nieberle who died in February 2020. In this virtuous song we hear Paulo Morello on his gypsy guitar.

With ‘Entre As Ondas’ we escape to an endless summer feeling with a cool and easy Bossa Nova. This fantastic composition is one of my highlights on this album.

‘Living Is Easy, Mostly’ the title song comes next. Another great composition with a pushing guitar and a moving bass.

‘One More Gin For Elizabeth’ is dedicated to Queen Elizabeth and her mother who are famous for their tendency to drink gin every day. A song that is inspired by afternoon drinks background music with Mulo Francel on clarinet.

The next song ‘Letter From The Heartland’ is a beautiful ballad., followed by ‘Chateau Plagne’ a Jazz waltz.

‘Tender Melody’ and ‘Oh Spring!’ are two easy and fluffy swinging tunes.  Best Kaffeehausmusik comes next with ‘Anna’, a regular waltz with Mulo Francel on clarinet.

‘SAD Blues’ is a homage to Sven Faller and his hometown Schwandorf in Northern Bavaria. Cars from this city have a license plate that starts with SAD. The trio plays this standard blues relaxed but with the necessary moving beat.

The album closes with ‘With The Poet In Italia’ an atmospheric song with Paulo Morello on classical guitar.

Paulo Morello, Mulo Francel and Sven Faller have produced a fantastic album, mixing various styles and sounds and their experience from countless concerts and recordings in different settings and from writing songs and arranging them for many years is obviously present in every song.

The result has style and taste, the trio manages the different genres virtuosic and it is a lot of fun to listen to their music.

In June 2018, UK based session singer and concert artist Sarah Eyden has released a beautiful album called “Love Is In The Room”.

It is a collection of original songs written by English award-winning composer, singer and actor Denis King and arranged by Denis and Sarah for small ensemble – piano, bass, drums and Sarah on vocals.

Denis King began his musical career at the age of thirteen with his two older brothers, Mike and Tony, in one of the most successful pop groups of the 1950s and 1960s, The King Brothers — considered to be Britain’s first boy band. Denis played the piano, Mike the guitar and Tony the double bass.

In the 1970s Denis studied orchestration and had his first success writing the music for “The Adventures of Black Beauty”, a television series which I remember from my childhood. He has continued to work in the television business and to date, he has created themes and incidental music for over two hundred television series. He also worked as a theatrical composer, musical composer and performing artist.

Sarah Eyden is usually the person who lends her voice to produce the perfect film soundtrack. The list of appearances on those productions is endless and includes basically all blockbusters like “Harry Potter”, “Pirates of The Caribbean” and “Shrek”. She is also a performing artist but typically with larger ensembles like symphony orchestras.

Sarah explained to me: “Denis and I met in 2017 on a Saga Cruise. We were both performing separately, and met up in the bar to sing songs around the piano. We found an instant connection musically and when we left the ship kept in touch.”

Sarah created a small video with some more details:

Out of this loose connection grew a collaboration where Denis King literally started digging in his bottom drawer to rescue songs which seemed to be waiting there for Sarah to sing them and they decided to do an album.

Sarah adds: “Then as we progressed musically we thought it would be great to invite some amazing players to join us. But to keep it small so easy to tour.” The result is “Love Is In The Room”, Sarah Eyden on vocals, Denis King on piano, Dave Olney on bass and Mike Smith on drums. The album contains 14 songs in total, the title song comes in an English and as encore in a French version.

The album is like an unplugged song book, really back to the basics of a song, its harmonies and lyrics, no wrapping in fancy arrangements has been done, this album captures the essence of each song. The booklet that comes with the CD gives some additional information about each tune, the lyricist, when and for which occasion it was written and when it was recorded before, so a lot of material to discover.

The album starts with “Here And Now” a very energetic swing tune, that prepares us for the things to come with Sarah singing: “Let’s get the party started here and now.”

“The Joke’s On Me” is a sad song about the end of a relationship presented in a humorous way, nice and easy swinging.

“By The Way” is a soft ballad, another sad love song, with sweet rhymes, a pleasure to listen, my first highlight on the album.

“The Crazy Part” is arranged in Latin-style and gives a lovely variety after the three swing tunes.

“Who Would Have Dreamed”  is a freely played ballad with piano and vocals introduction, later with bass and just a little bit of drums accompaniment. This ballad has quite complex harmonic changes which are mastered perfectly by Sarah.

“Something You Learn To Live” is a groovy pop song, very entertaining, my second favorite on the album.

“Love Is In The Room”, the title song of the album comes next. A ballad, starting with piano and vocals only. The song has great dynamics and we can enjoy Sarah’s clear voice and impeccable intonation.

The band returns to straight swing style with “I’m Nobody’s April Fool”. Witty lyrics, and very relaxed sung. Excellent swinging by bass and drums during the piano solo.

“How About” is another ballad this time with piano and vocals only which gives Sarah Eyden another opportunity to deliver a brilliant performance.

“Never Feel The Same Again” might make a great pop song, we hear backing vocals from Sarah Eyden and Anna Ross, surprising and a nice soul-topping for this song.

“The World Was Changed This Morning” is a relaxed swinging tune. It was written for a musical and it has this special musical-touch, a wonderful entertaining tune with a committed and convincing Sarah Eyden.

“The Lady’s Still Around” starts as a soft ballad with piano and vocals. Bass and drums support Sarah when she reaches the peak of this song. Great dynamics and another opportunity for Sarah to show her mastery.

The last highlight of the album is “Two of A Kind”. We are surprised by Sarah Eyden and Denis King in an amusing duet.  Perfect entertainment and big fun for singers and audience.

As an encore we hear “Love Is In The Room” in French as “L’amour bienvenue chez nous”. The arrangement is identical to the English version but it is a nice homage to all the French chanson singers.

As said before, this album is an excellent unplugged songbook with music from Denis King who is an experienced and inventive composer, very much based in the tradition of musical composers like Cole Porter or George Gershwin. The songs on the album are all perfectly played and presented. As you can see from the cover, this music requires a special classy ambiance, but it is more than just background music in hotel bar. You should listen to these songs in a concert, because Sarah Eyden is able to sing clearly and precisely and that allows you catch the funny or profound lyrics.

If you’re out looking for new and undiscovered songs, here is your chance to find another treasure box.

Sarah Eyden and Denis King have produced a nice promotional video:

This project has it’s own website. I guess any public appearances will be listed there. Sarah told me that there are plans to go on tour in 2019.
https://www.loveisintheroom.com/

Denis King has a website where you find audio samples of many of his songs including some lovely big band arrangements of some of the songs from the album:
http://www.deniskingmusiclibrary.com/showContent.aspx?id=69

And finally a playlist on Spotify:

I am also very busy making music and today I have the pleasure to present a new album I recorded with my fellow musicians from the DannyJazz Quartet.

Four years ago we released our first album as a trio and since 2017 we play with a drummer as a quartet plus a singer. The result of this reorientation is an album with 13 originals, all written by our saxophonist and bandleader Daniel Gaggioli. All the lyrics have been written by Mandana, our singer.

The album is called “Sunday” and refers to a line in the song “Only Time For Us”:

Sunday morning in bed, nothing to get up for
Blue sky and sun, only time for us

The start of this album goes back to February 2017 when we played very successfully a new program of originals from Daniel Gaggioli. This was also the first performance with our drummer Nicolas Baechler. Some weeks later we had Mandana showing up in our rehearsal room (which is, as quite common in Switzerland, a bunker built for a nuclear war with extra massive doors where no noise goes through and you can rehearse during the night without bothering anyone). She liked the songs and promised to write lyrics to Daniel’s melodies and four months later we went on stage as a quintet. These concerts with Mandana have all been very successful and people loved the songs and Mandana’s singing and that’s where we started to think to make an album.

In January and February of this year we went into the recording studio. We booked again the Splendorstudio in Bern. Big thanks to Sandro Hässler and Martin Kissling for their support during the recording sessions.

Martin made a a nice little from these sessions and posted it on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/splendorstudio/videos/1820355394661785/

It took a little bit to finish the mixing and mastering but finally today, September 1st, 2018, the album is available on Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.

In the next few weeks we will play this music live in the western part of Switzerland. We have several concerts between September 14 and October 6.

Here are the details:

• September 14: Restaurant Entre Terre & Mer in 1673 Rue
• September 20: KRAN in 3186 Düdingen
• September 22: 20h de musique in 1680 Romont
• September 28: Dorfhus Bistro in 3700 Spiez
• October 6: Hotel Belle Epoque in 3011 Bern

I hope to see some of you there.

Here comes a playlist on Spotify for those who want to listen to the album right away: