Ledisi is a very good (jazzy) R&B singer, and at first blush the Atmos mix of Pieces of Me seems pretty good.Badu is the only artist I'm only slightly aware of in these barrages![]()
Alan Broadbent has been around forever; he's a jazz pianist and first-call arranger who cut his teeth with Woody Herman. (Among other things, he played in and arranged for Charlie Haden's Quartet West.) Spot-check: the mix sounds full and spacious.
The one I have highest hopes for is the album by Aki Rissanen. Rissanen and his bandmate, trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, are two of the biggest names on the Finnish jazz scene, heirs of a rich legacy that stretches back at least as far as ECM artist Edward Vesala. (Pohjola's father, Pekka, played with Mike Oldfield and was co-founder of the prog band Wigwam.) Seems like British label Edition Records--which also released the Donny McCaslin album that people were rightly impressed by a month or so ago--has committed to Atmos. That's a great sign; I'm down for more adventurous jazz Atmos mixes!