We love Adele’s poise, her earthy attitude, the roiling emotion in her voice. So why don’t we love the newly crowned six-time Grammy winner’s album 21? Blasphemy, right? Read on as we share are thoughts on several of those who walked away with 2012 awards last night, including Tony BennettRead More

By Tom Johnson Corinne Bailey Rae is one of those unexpected interests for me, a pop-chanteuse making the kind of music I typically wouldn’t really find much interest in. But, for some reason, I fell for her simple, emotive voice. My only problem with her eponymous debut album was thatRead More

by Nick DeRiso Corinne Bailey Rae isn’t the same singer, maybe isn’t even the same person, that she was at the time of her celebrated 2007 debut. Three Grammy nominations, including one for best new artist, couldn’t shield her from this world’s knifing truths: Her husband, 31-year-old saxophonist Jason Rae,Read More

by Tom Johnson Every year I start out thinking that I have a feeling what album is going to ride high on my year end list, and more often than not I’m surprised by so many other things that the album in question may not even register. This year’s victimRead More

by Nick DeRiso Herbie Hancock almost didn’t pull off “The New Standard.” This High Concept offering from 1996 found Hancock, with varying degrees of success, adapting songs by popular artists like Peter Gabriel, The Eagles’ Don Henley, Paul Simon, The Beatles and Prince. You had to give him credit —Read More