Jordan's Sister ~  Kendall Payne / Audio CD / Released 1999 - It's such a cliché to call any record a "stunning debut," but how else is one to respond to the first release by the frighteningly talented 19-year-old singer-songwriter Kendall Payne? Payne's music career is a fairy-tale success story: granted a third-stage gig at Lilith Fair's unsigned-acts showcase, she was offered soon thereafter a deal by Capitol Records and a song on the popular Never Been Kissed soundtrack. Payne's melodic, empowering songs deliver endearing there-are-big-problems-in-this-world-and-they-really-do-bother-me words that consistently avoid the banal trappings of her more cash-infused music-industry mates. The beautifully sung lyrics will appeal to most any teenager: they concern a teenage friend who lost her father, the societal pressures on women to look like supermodels, being compared with one's older sibling, and one's personal relationship with God. Payne's work fits easily into the late-'90s softer-sounding chick-with-a-guitar genre (Sixpence, Jewel) and displays a keen melodic sense (she wrote or cowrote all the songs), which, by any right, will bring future success. With a nondidactic yet powerful spiritual bent to the songs, Jordan's Sister will also please contemporary Christian music fans. --Mike McGonigal (amazon reviewer)

 

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Introducing...Ruben Gonzalez  - Ruben Gonzalez / 1997: Cuban pianist Rubén Gonzáles has lived through this century's greatest musical windstorms, from the emergence of son to salsa to Latin Jazz and more. Born in 1919, Gonzáles also retired from playing professionally years before this, his debut CD, was even recorded. He reemerged in 1996 when World Circuit stopped in Cuba to record for several days. He ended up making a thrilling debut. This impromptu CD was cut in a day, and its limber vibe shines for all its uptempo looseness. Gonzáles plays a rainbow of Cuban rhythms and prods his percussionists and lone trumpeter to great depths of conversation and great heights of flash. --Andrew Bartlett (amazon reviewer)