Michael Kaeshammer - Tell You How I Feel (1998)

What sort of strange, cross-cultural jazz hybrid do we have here? This twenty-one-year-old whiz kid was born in Germany, moved to Vancouver and tickles the ivories like old time stride/boogie-woogie legends Fats Waller, Pete Johnson and Meade "Lux" Lewis! The eleven tracks on Tell You How I Feel, Michael's second release, run the stylistic gamut from Horace Silver (Doodlin'), Duke Ellington (Caravan), Benny Goodman (Airmail Special), to country legend Hank Williams (Move It On Over). Michael has enlisted the aid of some top-notch sidemen for this project. Guido Basso (trumpet), Doug Riley (organ), Phil Dwyer (saxophone) and Carol Welsman (vocals) all contribute Class-A accompaniment throughout the set. A pair of Kaeshammer originals, I'll Always Love You and the barrelhouse swing of Jivin' With Dal, show that this lad is not only a fleet-fingered pianist, but a talented composer as well. Tell You How I Feel captures the sheer joy of a maturing artist gleefully st! rutting his stuff. This one is a lot of fun. ~John Sharpe