Music & More

On first encounter at Rockwood last November, Annekei seemed almost too good to be true. Having heard nothing and knowing nothing about her, I was completely knocked out by her soulful jazz singing (or was it her jazzy soul singing), and her superb band. So a return trip to Rockwood was in order at the next opportunity to find out if she was really as great as she seemed, and I'm here to say that based on last night's Rockwood show, Annekei is all that and more. Annekei is originally from Denmark, moved to New York City in 2002 at the age of 19 to pursue a music career, won a talent competition on the Showtime at the Apollo television show, and while she still remains mostly unknown in this country, Annekei has a successful recording career in Asia and Europe, with two excellent albums released in Japan. When she's not off performing in the aforementioned continents or singing for the King of Thailand as she recently did at the Bangkok Jazz Festival, she can be found playin...

10/12/07 Susan Enan is a gifted singer-songwriter who, if I'm reading her bio correctly hails originally from England, and spent several years living in Northern Ireland before moving in 2005 to her current home in Brooklyn. We, here in the states are the beneficiary of her current address, in that we can see her perform at venues like the Rockwood Music Hall, where I was lucky enough to catch her twice in the past half year. 10/12/07 Looking back on my notes from that first show last October, my first thought hearing her sing was of a British/Irish Melanie, strong voice with great presence on the microphone. Over the course of the set, it was clear that her voice is beautiful, her music is very haunting and emotional, and her lyrical content was somewhat dreary and depressing, but even still I noted that it was a riveting performance. 10/12/07 Jump to 2008 and a trip back to Rockwood last night to see Annekei (see separate post), only to discover that Susan was also on the bill, s...