ECHLO (aka Chloe Charles) initially launched her music career in 2010, releasing a series of jazz- and folk-infused albums and EPs. She toured extensively, performing upwards of 1000 shows across ten countries, and garnered acclaim from high-profile publications including Rolling Stone and Billboard Magazine. While the path of least resistance would have meant she continued happily travelling that road, she felt a deeper yearning to shake things up. “When I first started playing music, it was the guitar I experimented with, and that led me down a wonderful path that brought me all over the world,” she says. “I arrived at a point around 2018 where I felt a bit restless and that I wasn't growing artistically. That led to me starting to write with keys and synths, which opened up a seemingly endless realm of musical possibilities.” It was amid this musical evolution that Chloe assumed the ECHLO moniker and released the single “Head High”, which reached #1 on the CBC Music Top 20 Chart. “ECHLO, in general, evolved from Chloe, who was a bit more introspective. ECHLO is a bit further reaching, a bit more outspoken, generally less reserved and unapologetic about certain concepts and feelings,” she says. Inspired by the likes of Sade & Massive Attack, Chloe’s combination of electronic sounds and live percussion create a minimalist sea for her soulful vocals to float upon.

City of Strangers, the debut album by A Sondheim Jazz Project, (purchase: www.sondheimjazzproject.com) takes on no less a task than rebuilding the lost bond between Broadway and modern jazz. Its leader, Bobby Hsu, has set the  beautiful melodies of Broadway’s great master—Stephen Sondheim—to the compositional language of Wayne Shorter, Terence Blanchard and others while maintaining a deep respect for the dramatic and emotional heart of Sondheim’s stunning lyrics.
In Alex Samaras, ASJP has a singer who strikes a balance between perfectly placed jazz phrasing, tasteful improvisation, and something often neglected in jazz: a dynamic performance of the lyrics as story and character. 
Available on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/city-of-strangers/id658069524

Interested in socially engaged art, soundscapes, radio storytelling/journalism, acoustic ethnography/ecology, podcasting.

Drummer, Composer, Canoeist.
Currently living in Toronto, ON, Canada,
from Nova Scotia, Canada.

Info:  http://www.willfisher.ca

Mack Longpre is following