Friday, April 07, 2006
On Mark Sholtez's Real Street
It was delayed for a few months, but Mark Sholtez's debut Real Street was worth the wait. A bit jazzy, a bit laid back, a bit latin, all cool.
I first heard Sholtez play when he supported Diana Krall last year:
Mark Sholtez, a Brisbane boy about to release his first album on the Verve label later this year, kicked off the show. Judging by the songs he played, I'd pitch him as a bit to the jazzier side of John Mayer; perhaps Mayer with a hint of Jamie Cullum or Lior. His jazz arrangement of U2's 'All I Want Is You' was the only cover he performed. Krall mentioned during the show that it was Scholtez's birthday today; touring with Krall would be pretty good present I reckon.At that show he mentioned that Verve had scheduled the album's release for September & when it wasn't around in November I sent him an email. He was good enough to reply and let me know that the release had been pushed back to March 2006. I picked it up yesterday after spotting a review & I have to say it's a great chill-out album for unwinding into the weekend. If you're after a taste-test, Sholtez has a MySpace site up & running with a few tracks available to listen to.
Unsurprisingly the Brisbane reviews are working the local angles; the album was named after the street in Annerley where Sholtez lived, wrote the songs and recorded the demos. Apparently he had to pull off the Gold Coast motorway to be told that Verve boss & uber-producer Tommy LiPuma (who also did Krall's last couple of albums) wanted to sign him.
If you want to see him live, Sholtez is currently touring around the country with Jamie Cullum and - for Canberrans - will play Tilley's on the 3rd, 10th and 17th of May.
UPDATE: Mark Sholtez in conversation with Richard Fidler courtesy of 612 ABC Brisbane. Story and audio available.
[Tags: Music, Mark Sholtez, Australia]
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