soulmamabay

Quickly, Quickly - The Long And Short Of It

2021-06-22T15:18:00.002-07:00

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GHOSTLY INTERNATIONAL RECORDS ( 2021)

01. Phases

02. Come Visit Me

03. Interlude

04. Shee

05. Leave It

06. I Am Close To The River

07. Feel

08. A Conversation

09. Everything Is Different (To Me)

10. Wy

11. Otto's Dance

Olli Ahvenlahti. - The Poet

2021-06-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

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LOVE RECORDS ( 1965)

A1. The Poet

A2. Sunday's Stuff

A3. Aura

B1. Sambatown (Rock Ridge)

B2. A Day At The Zoo

B3. Grandma's Rocking Chair

Olli Ahvenlahti Born in Helsinki, 6 August 1949, Olli Ahvenlahti, a pianist, composer, and conductor, has been one of leading Finnish Jazz artists since the 70s. He has recorded with several artists and groups, like UMO Jazz Orchestra. In the 1990s, he conducted the orchestra for all Finnish Eurovision Song Contest entries

Sean Khan, Hermeto Pascoal - Palmares Fantasy

2021-06-22T06:08:00.002-07:00

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FAR OUT RECORDINGS (2018)

A1. Moment Of Collapse
A2. Palmares Fantasy
A3. Waltz For Hermeto
A4. The Blonde
B1. Montreux
B2. Said
B3. Tudo Que Você Podia Ser (All That You Could Be)
B4. The Conversation

Aretha Franklin ‎– Yeah!!!

2021-06-22T05:38:00.000-07:00

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COLUMBIA RECORDS ( 1965)

A1. This Could Be The Start Of Something

A2. Once In A Lifetime

A3. Misty

A4. More

A5. There Is No Greater Love

A6. Muddy Water

B1. If I Had A Hammer

B2. Impossible

B3. Today I Love Ev'rybody

B4. Without The One You Love

B5. Trouble In Mind

B6. Love For Sale

Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer and pianist.^[2] Franklin began her career as a child singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was a minister. At the age of 18, she embarked on a secular-music career as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While Franklin's career did not immediately flourish, she found acclaim and commercial success after signing with Atlantic Records in 1966. Hit songs such as "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," "Respect," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "Chain of Fools," "Think," and "I Say a Little Prayer" propelled her past her musical peers. By the end of the 1960s, Franklin had come to be known as the "Queen of Soul."

Gecko Turner. - Chandalismo Illustrado

2021-06-21T14:36:00.018-07:00

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LOVEMONK RECORDS ( 2006)

01. Enl La Calle, On The Street

02. Monosabio Blues

03. Què Papa e' Esse

04. Toda Mojaita

05. Coco Pindà

06. Daughter Bitchin' and Motherfuckin' Style

07. Pal Perù

08. Tieso (Y Sin Desayuna)

09. Tontorroneà

10. The 48th African Davies

11. 'Fess It, Girl

12. Afrobeatnik?

13. Raise Up Standards

14. Joyina

15. Sycamore Blues (Tristezas Del Sicomoro)

Gecko Turner (born Fernando Gabriel Echave Peláez, 1966) is a Spanish musician and singer-songwriter. Based near the border between Spain and Portugal, he has fronted several bands in his native Spain. Guapapasea, his first CD released in the U.S., incorporates bossa nova, soul, funk, reggae, jazz and electronica.

Gecko Turner grew up in Spain, learning English from the blues artists he loved. After a long musical journey, he started composing in a style that combined jazz, blues, samba, reggae, hip-hop, and more into something all his own. Journalists in Spain dubbed it 'Afromeño (rough translation: African and Extremeño, being Extremadura the region where he comes from), but the sound owes as much to North and South America, the Caribbean and Europe, as it does to Africa. All of his work has been published by Lovemonk Records, on cd and vinyl. Also, Californian label Quango Music Group has published in the United States an American edition of the album "Guapapaséa", as well as several singles

C-annonball Adderley Quintet - Walk Tall

2021-06-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

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CAPITOL RECORDS ( 1967)

A1 Do Do Do ( What Now Is Next?)

A2. I Remember Byrd

A3. Walk Tall ( Baby That's What I Need)

B1. 74 Miles Away

B2. Oh Babe

The Cannonball Adderley Quintet featured Cannonball on alto sax and his brother Nat Adderley on cornet.
Adderley's first quintet was not very successful; however, after leaving Miles Davis' group, he formed another, again with his brother, which enjoyed more success.
The new quintet (which later became the Cannonball Adderley Sextet), and Cannonball's other combos and groups, included such noted musicians as:

* pianists Bobby Timmons, Victor Feldman, Joe Zawinul, Hal Galper, Michael Wolff, George Duke, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans
* bassists Ray Brown, Sam Jones, Walter Booker, Victor Gaskin
* drummers Louis Hayes, Roy McCurdy
* saxophonists Charles Lloyd, Yusef Lateef.

The sextet was noteworthy towards the end of the 1960s for achieving crossover success with pop audiences, but doing it without making artistic concessions

Instant Funk - Instant Funk

2020-05-08T14:36:00.001-07:00

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SALSOUL RECORDS ( 1979)

1 . I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl)

2. Crying

3. Never Let It Go Away

4. Don't You Wanna Party

5. Wide World Of Sports

6. Dark Vader

7. You Say You Want Me To Stay

8. I'll Be Doggone
9.

Carlos Garnett ‎– The New Love

2017-10-16T13:26:00.001-07:00

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MUSE RECORDS ( 1978)

1 . Lil Dear

2. Bolerock

3. The New Love

4. Uncle Ben & Aunt Jemima

5. Dance Of The Virgins

6. Memories Of Coltrane

New Love’ from 1978 was the fifth and last album that Carlos Garnett recorded for the Muse label in the 70’s. Featuring heavyweight musicians like Alphonse Mouzon, Terumasu Hino and Joe Bonner, It includes the Jazz-Funk Dance classic ‘Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima’ a highly rhythmic track with a wicked bassline a sure fire dancefloor filler. ‘Memories of Coltrane’ is a tribute to the master which starts off with some solos, moves into a spiritual chant and then developes into a corker of dancefloor Jazz shifter with a really heavy percussive driving groove topped with blazing horns reminiscent of a Pharoah Sanders track, and includes a great drum solo from Mouzon An intense tenor soloist,

Carlos Garnett seemed to largely disappear from jazz after the late '70s, but after a ten year sabbatical, he re-emerged playing better than ever. He grew up in Panama, started playing tenor in 1957, and early on performed calypso and Latin music. In 1962, Garnett moved to New York, working with rock groups and struggling a bit, but listening closely to the free jazz saxophonists. He gained some recognition for his work with Freddie Hubbard (1968-1969), Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (1969-1970), and Charles Mingus, and had an important stint with Miles Davisin 1972. Garnett also worked with Jack McDuff, Andrew Hill, Gary Bartz, and Norman Connors during the era and recorded five albums of his own for Muse during 1974-1977 that ranged from exploratory music to attempts at commercialism. Carlos Garnettwas musically inactive during much of the 1980s, but started a comeback in 1991. In 1996, he made one of his finest albums (Fuego en Mi Alma, for the HighNote label) in a style little changed since the '70s

Sarathy Korwar - Day to Day

2017-01-04T14:54:00.001-08:00

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NINJA TUNE RECORDS X STEVE REID ( 2016)

1. Bhajan

2. Bismillah

3. Dreaming

4. Eyes Closed

5. Hail

6. Indefinite Leave To Remain

7. Karam

8. Lost Parade

9. Mawra (Transcendence)

The extraordinary debut album from percussionist, drummer and producer Sarathy Korwar – Day To Day – fuses traditional folk music of the Sidi community in India (combining East African, Sufi and Indian influences) with jazz and electronics. It’s a collaborative release by Ninja Tune with The Steve Reid Foundation – a charitable trust established by Brownswood / Gilles Peterson with the dual objective of helping musicians in crisis and also supporting emerging talent. Sarathy is an alumnus of the Foundation’s development program, mentored by Four Tet, Emanative, Floating Points, Koreless and Gilles Peterson – all trustees of the foundation.

“Sarathy instantly caught my attention when he said he wanted to make an album that embraced both Indian folk music and jazz - two worlds that have had a big influence on me. His album succeeds in bringing these things together in an elegant way, but it’s his own style and ideas that come through the most in the music. Refreshingly different, this is a deep and powerful listening experience.” Four Tet
The Steve Reid Foundation commemorates the life and legacy of legendary percussionist/drummer Steve Reid. It is fitting that Sarathy’s album follows the lineage and spirit of Reid who himself left New York and took on a spiritual pilgrimage through Africa in the mid-1960s. For three years he journeyed through West Africa, playing with people along the way, including Fela Kuti, Guy Warren and Randy Weston. The musical roots and routes of the Black Atlantic have been discussed and documented extensively, but Sarathy is highlighting a different dispersal of people in the other direction, from East Africa to India. The Sidis travelled to India from Africa as merchants, sailors, indentured servants and mercenaries from as far back as 628 AD and have settled in India ever since.
Conceived on an extended trip to rural Gujarat, followed by sessions at Dawn Studios in Pune, Sarathy made field recordings of The Sidi Troupe of Ratanpur whose vocals and percussion form the backbone of Day To Day. The troupe features five drummers – their polyrhythms reflect their African heritage, in contrast to traditional Indian drummers who play in unison. Likewise, the Malunga bows (there are only 4 or 5 players in India) bear a striking resemblance to those found in Africa.
“The record is about how we individually and collectively live from day to day. The everyday rituals and tasks that bind us together, it’s a celebration of the trivial and mundane,” explains Sarathy. The colourful handmade rag quilts that the Sidis make using everyday fabrics serve as a perfect metaphor for the record: “The Sidi women make these amazing collages of colour using everyday rags,” he says. “That’s how I see this album”.
Born in the US, Sarathy Korwar grew up in Ahmedabad and Chennai in India. He began playing tabla aged 10 but was also drawn to the American music that he heard on the radio and that leaked through the doorway of his local jazz music shop, Ahmad Jamal were John Coltrane early discoveries. At 17, Sarathy moved to Pune to study for a degree in Environmental Science, but instead dedicated his time to music: practicing tabla under the tutelage of Rajeev Devasthali, translating his skills to the Western drumkit and playing as a session musician. Finishing his studies, Sarathy began to think about pursuing a career in music and moved to London, where he trained as a classical tabla player under the guidance of Sanju Sahai and graduated with a MMus in Performance from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) focusing on the adaptation of Indian classical rhythmic material to non-Indian percussion instruments.
Working the angles in London’s jazz scene, Sarathy connected with Shabaka Hutchings (Sons of Kemet, The Comet is Coming), Cara Stacey (Kit Records) and played with clarinettist Arun Ghosh. He was, however, itching to create under his own name and he started researching and formulating the concept for Day To Day and planning a trip to India to record the Sidis. It was late in 2014 when Sarathy heard about the Steve Reid Foundation. He applied with a three-minute video explaining his vision for the record and was accepted onto the project to be mentored by the foundation’s patrons: Four Tet, Floating Points, Gilles Peterson, Koreless and Nick Woodmansey (Emanative).
“Day To Day is an exceptional debut by this multi-percussive artist fusing jazz, electronic and Indian harmonics.” - Gilles Peterson

Childish Gambino - “Awaken, My Love!”

2016-12-12T15:03:00.000-08:00

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GLASSNOTE RECORDS ( 2016)

1. Me and Your Mama

2. Have Some Love

3. Boogieman

4. Zombies

5. Riot

6. Redbone

7. California

8. Terrified

9. Baby boy

10. The Night Me And Your Mama Met

11. Stand Tall

Childish Gambino is (and isn't) Donald Glover, a recording artist, writer, actor, director, producer and comic who was gifted his alias by an online Wu Tang-Clan name-generator. Originally hailing from Stone Mountain, Georgia - his Mum was a daycare provider and his Dad a postal worker, where TV was banned in the house - Glover first entered the spotlight as a member of sketch-troupe Derrick Comedy, via a stint working on The Daily Show and the invitation to join the '30 Rock' writing staff by Tina Fey before he'd even graduated from NYU. A succession of mini-albums and mixtapes surrounded all of this, parallel to acting roles ranging from The Muppets to NBC's cult hit comedy 'Community'. It was 2011's debut album 'Camp' - his first since signing to Glassnote Records - which marked a breakthrough for Childish Gambino, whose music explores everything from identity, race, and technology to hip-hop culture, class, and family. Follow-up 'because the internet' went top 10 on the Billboard chart, was nominated for 2 Grammy Awards and further assimilated Gambino's multiple disciplines (it was accompanied, for instance, by two films and a standalone 72-page screenplay). Around this time - and between roles in HBO's 'Girls' and movies like 'The Martian' - Glover also announced that he was working on his own TV show: a comedy-drama which he would star in, write and direct, 'Atlanta' premiered on FX this autumn to significant critical acclaim (it's already been described as "Twin Peaks with rappers"). The show was launched alongside the third Childish Gambino, 'Awaken, My Love!', this summer at 'Pharos', a series of secretive, audio-visual live performances which took place in a custom-designed dome in the middle of the desert in Joshua Tree. A second series of 'Atlanta' has already been commissioned, whilst Glover has recently been cast in the forthcoming Spider Man movie and has also been confirmed to play the iconic role of Lando Calrissian in the next Star Wars film (a Han Solo spin-off).

Shabaka And The Ancestors - Wisdom Of Elders

2016-11-28T14:41:00.002-08:00

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BRONSWOOD RECORDS ( 2016)

1. Mzwandile

2. Joyous

3. The Observer

4. The Sea

5. Natty

6. Give Thanks

7. Nguni

Wisdom of Elders by Shabaka And The Ancestors This recording is the culmination of the triangular experiences of tenor man Shabaka Hutchings and his personal destiny. Born in London, his family relocated back to their native Barbados, where Hutchings was raised in a musical environment until his teen years. Returning to London, he became a fixture on the free jazz scene, and while on holiday to South Africa, was drawn back to the primordial source of inspiration. Recorded over one day with no rehearsal, Wisdom Of Elders explores and expands upon traditional Nguni rhythms, while injecting blues, spiritual hymns, and Caribbean calypso. Accompanied by the best players from Capetown; this session transformed into a tribute to those who have played jazz in the townships, especially saxophonist Bheki Mseleku, a major influence on Hutchings, and an inspiration for this production. This is an intended throwback to the era when African jazz was played as a spiritual path to resistance and creative survival.

The bass opens the blistering "Mzwandile," which is the tribal name bestowed on Hutchings, vocalist Siyabonga Mthembu then commences his incantations, allowing Hutchings to weave his horn into an intro for the rest of the band, accented by propelling percussion and spatial piano work from Nduduzo Mahathini. Having raised the temperature at the outset, "Joyous," has a soothing effect, featuring local legend Mandla Mlangeni on trumpet, who carries on an honored tradition of South African trumpeters. Altoist Mthunzi Myubu joins Hutchings on solos, as they rise up in one voice.

"The Observer," is dedicated to a Barbadian calypsonian from Hutchings' youth, and is presented as a melancholy blues; vocal chanting invoking hope and redemption amidst the sadness. The township connection is evident on "The Sea," as the repetitive bass pattern and dual saxophones invoke the master Abdullah Ibrahim, and his extended forays into cerebral jazz. Strategically placed midway through the record, this is a soaring aural orison.

There is a slight undercurrent of reggae syncopation in "Natty," as Hutchings reaches into his mixed bag of influences, yet remains anchored in the ritualistic concept initiated. The provoking drums and sax exchange in "Give Thanks," is centered around these two instruments exclusively, both taking turns on solos and maintaining the fiery tempo. They end as they commenced, with a bass intro on "Nguni," but this time the mood is tempered as the vocal chants slowly bring it up to a crescendo. This final track is in honor of the Swazi, Ndebele, Xhosa, Zulu, and Bantu people of southern Africa, whose history and lineage reach back to the dawn of time, and whose influence on jazz is monumental.

Creating from an abiding space beyond the instruments, compositions, and arrangements, Shabaka Hutchings' African sojourn tuned him into a higher energy source, and he plays his music from that dimension. Of course, a lot of the credit goes to the accompanying musicians on this project, for they were his enthusiastic guides and accomplices on this spiritual endeavor. This is music of the utmost caliber, performed with an unrefined attitude, taking jazz back home.

Yishak Banjaw - Love Songs, Vol. 2

2016-11-27T11:34:00.003-08:00

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TERANGA BEAT RECORDS (2016)

1. Libey Ma'aduley

2. Ageren Ayehuwat

3. Fikrehoy Temekeri

4. Segno Sra Allebign

5. Ayine Yisasaleshal

6. Yadah (Sudanese Song)

7. Gwal Semahria

8. Engudaye Nesh

lindingly futuristic instrumentals recorded on a kids Casio PT in Asmara, Eritrea, 1986, by Ethiopian player, Yishak Banjaw Belayne. That should really be all you need to know before purchase, but read on if you want more background and to read us rave about it!

Love Songs Vol.2, as the title suggests, is the 2nd volume of Banjaw’s straight-to-tape recordings made in 1986 on a Casio keyboard rented from his pal for 100 Ethiopian Bir per day (not a lot, so we’re told). He apparently made another five volumes in this style before 1989, which, if they’re anything like this, also contain some of the waviest grooves you’ve never heard.

It’s effectively Banjaw’s first international release after more than 40 years as a musician, and was recorded during his time as a member of the Eritrean police band among a mixed group of Eritrean and Ethiopians playing both English music as well as Sudanese, Amharic and Guragigna traditionals, all performed on electric rather than traditional instruments.

However, thru a combination of his classical training and not being able to find a band to perform along with him, by 1986, Banjaw was pushed to record solo, and as you couldn’t perform without a permit, he did so at home, recording straight into the mic of his cassette recorder. Thank the heavens he did, ‘cos his Love Songs are nothing short of stunning.

Based on the aforementioned mix of Sudanese, Ethiopian and Amharic songs that he loved and grew up with, Banjaw would jam for three hours to record the first volume, and only 2 hours for this, the 2nd volume (consider that, producers who are on their 15th hour of mixdowns), transformed those influences into a shimmering, bubbling and spaced out delicacy that obviously recalls Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument, but played by Mad Mike and Aksak Maboul.

The eight tracks traverse a fine spectrum of feels, from breezy downbeats to simmering uptempo dances, with two real standouts at the quicker end of the spectrum in the Rob Hood-esque percolated chords of Fikrehoy Temekeri and Ayne Yisasaleshal, whilst the slower parts are just wonderfully atmospheric, funnily enough to the extent we can hear trucks passing by in the road outside on Gwal Semahria.

It’s utterly arresting stuff, the kind of record that will melt any room it’s played in and enchant its owners for years, decades to come.

Mala - Mirror

2016-11-25T15:40:00.003-08:00

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BROWNSWOOD RECORDS (2016)

01. Kotos

02. Dedication 365

03. Cusco Street Scene

04. They're Coming

05. Shadows

06. Cunumicita ( feat. Danitse)

07. Take Flight

08. The Calling

09. Inga Gani

10. Looney

11. Markos Swagga

12. Zapateo ( feat. Colectivo Palenke)

13. Sound Of The River ( feat. Silvia Falcòn)

14. Elements

Mala’s first new album in four years, Mirrors, is effectively the Mala In Peru to his previous LP’s Mala In Cuba session, and again enabled by Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings.

Working with native musicians in Lima, including Asociacion Juvenil Puno, Danitse, Colectivo Palenke and Sylvia Falcón, the DMZ don gorgon traces rhiozomatic binds and faultlines between South London and South America via seismic bass and plasmic dub contrails, shaping up as a much darker, spirit-haunted sound than its predecessor.

It’s identifiably Mala music, at once rooted and forward-leaning; trampling zones close to his ground-breaking early DMZ emissions and yet keenly compatible with the sci fi-esque Afro-Latin styles currently sprouting up across a diaspora located between London, NYC and South America.

Effectively, Mala is your spirit guide, acting as an interlocutor between those dimensions, navigating a trip that comes on in waves between the stoned pipe rituals and skeletal drums of Kotos thru the queasy ayahuasca synth visions of Dedication 365 and brilliantly cinematic set-pieces like the dread couplet of They’re Coming and Shadows, or the spellbinding dark drum arts of Inga Gani and the grimy stepper, Looney.
Mirrors strengths lie in a spirited, fertile ground that’s outta time and place, forming a personalised work of sonic fiction that couldn’t have come from anyone else.

https://www.facebook.com/mala

Ash Walker - Echo Chambler

2016-11-09T15:10:00.001-08:00

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DEEP HEADS RECORDS ( 2016)

01. Step Into My Spaceship
02. Thunder Feat Lord Laville
03. Windows Feat Ansaba
04. Afghanistan
05. Broke My Phone Again
06. Truffles
07. Precinct
08. Goblins
09. Bongo Legs
10. Promotion
11. Dark Hour
12. Step Wrong Feat Sage
13. Glacier

Nomade Orquestra - Nomade Orquestra

2016-10-23T09:56:00.002-07:00

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FAR OUT RECORDINGS ( 2016)

1. Samurai

2. Sonhos de Tóquio

3. Bedum

4. Doce Agonia

5. Dragão Do Mar

6. Morning Birds

7. Humaitá

8. Garuda

In 2012, ten of the most adventurous and accomplished musicians in São Paulo, Brazil, came together, took root and blossomed like a tropical flower. Nomade Orquestra describes their music as "the point where different musical expressions and strands meet and interact in a unique way," a fair way of pointing out that there is no other band, and no other music, like Nomade Orquestra.

Nomade Orquestra captures so many different instrumental sounds and styles that it challenges any clear description or explanation. Different tracks, styles, and soloists drift in and out of focus in natural, unforced rhythms, like clouds floating in and out of sunlight. Arrangements generally spotlight the trumpet (Marco Stoppa), marimba (Beto Montag) and guitar (Luiz Galvão) soloists, but these compositions feel very "open," so elastic in time and space that every contributor can shine.

These songs paint such clear scenes with so much depth, breadth and color that they sound cinematic. "Morning Birds" opens with an ancient horn sound, as if gathering worshippers and acolytes to greet the dawn; once in full flight, Montag's dancing marimba fences with sharp guitar and organ chords and then joins the closing chorus. "Garuda" also greets the day with fluttering bird flutes and rattling percussion before it grows like a Middle Eastern olive vine upon Luciano Sallun's alaude (oud) and André Calixto's soprano saxophone.

Writing about Nomade Orquestra this way can make these songs sound academic but they're really a ton of fun. "Fuego Policia" throws down funk-rock bursting with roundhouse horns, dueling saxophone and trombone solos, keyboard and organ psychedelics, and a tumultuous, percussive backbeat. Six minutes of condensed primal musical fury, electric and hot, "A Vida Vem Em Ondas" shuts this set down with drummer Guilherme Nakata pounding out a boogaloo beat while Stoppa and Galvão respectively unleash trumpet and guitar solos so fast and hot they blister your ears.

But "Venus" is Nomade Orquestra's crowning achievement. This twelve-minute epic, a goddess on the mountaintop who burns with a silver flame, placidly rocks back and forth like Buddha keeping the beat while flute and electronics overgrow the sound like a Japanese hanging garden until electric guitar stomps and gnaws the soundscape like a rampaging Godzilla. It's like Henry Mancini composed a trip-hop jazz soundtrack for a contemporary Japanese film... Henry Mancini composing a trip-hop jazz soundtrack for a contemporary Japanese film may not be great writing, but it's a great illustration of the fact that I've been writing about music for nearly forty years, and writing about Nomade Orquestra has been my biggest challenge. Ever. Words do not justly explain or describe the depth, breadth, scope, and vision of this debut. You simply must experience it for yourself. You'll be very rewarded when you do.

Robert Glasper Experiment ‎– Artscience

2016-10-09T10:44:00.001-07:00

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BLUE NOTE RECORDS ( 2016)

1. This Is Not Fear

2. Thinkin Bout You

3. Day To Day

4. No One Like You

5. You And Me

6. Tell Me A Bedtime Story

7. Find You

8. In My Mind

9. Hurry Slowly

10. Written In Stone

11. Let's Fall In Love

With last year’s Covered, free-thinking idiom-bender Robert Glasper imaginatively used a classic acoustic-trio jazz lineup to rework pop-structured songs. ArtScience reassembles his vocoder-dominated Experiment quartet, but this time with all the members joining the electronically massaged vocals in a recalibration of the group’s balance of pop, dance and jazz methods. The fast jazz swing, skidding avant-bop sax and acoustic walking bass of the opener immediately flags that up, before electronically warped crowd sounds and a hard-struck hip-hop groove intervene. Anthemic pop-hooked songs, such as saxist Casey Benjamin’s Day to Day, nonetheless hide sly jazz nuances in the pianist’s casual fills and drummer Mark Colenburg’s eerily impassive snare hits. A cover of Human League’s Human gracefully develops the pop ballad theme as a seductive accumulation of whistling synth sounds and intensifying hip-hop patterns before Benjamin’s soulfully beboppish acoustic-sax finale. Glasper has signalled an impatience with jazz on earlier Experiment ventures, but very definitely not on this one.

Lakuta - Brothers & Sisters

2016-10-05T14:11:00.003-07:00

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TRU THOUGHTS RECORDS ( 2016)

1. Bata Boy

2. Rice & Peace

3. So Sue Us

4. Pique

5. Yansan

6. Changanya

7. Lose Yourself

8. Mr Serious

9. Ultimate Robot

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World music has been a term non grata for a while now (reductive, meaningless and racist are common accusations thrown at it), but 10-piece ensemble Lakuta are undoubtedly a global act. With members hailing from Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Malaysia, Spain and the UK, the Brighton-based outfit combine the gamut of western dancepop (soul, disco, funk) with Afrobeat and Latin sounds. Tanzanian-Kenyan singer Siggi Mwasote is very much the group’s dominant voice on this debut, and she uses it to wordily and redoubtably cover the kind of right-on topics the album’s title would suggest. That includes persecution of gay men on Bata Boy, while So Sue Us condemns the immorality of the music industry’s exploitative tendencies (“you think you’ve got a lasso / but you’ve tied your own noose”) with satisfyingly neat phrasing. Her rousing lyrics are matched by an infectiously danceable bed of sound: a frivolous, uplifting spirit and a steely core.

https://soundcloud.com/lakuta

The Bad Plus - It's Hard

2016-09-05T10:04:00.001-07:00

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OKEH RECORDS ( 2016)

    1. Maps
2. Games Without Frontiers
3. Time After Time
4. I Walk The Line
5. Alfombra Magica
6. The Beautiful Ones
7. Don't Dream It's Over
8. Staring At The Sun
9. Mandy
10. The Robots
11. Broken Shadows

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The new 11-song full length is made up entirely of cover songs, including takes on tracks originally performed by Johnny Cash, Prince, Peter Gabriel, Kraftwerk, Ornette Coleman, TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cyndi Lauper, Crowded House and Barry Manilow. The new album was recorded earlier this year with engineer Pete Rende at Brooklyn Recording in New York City. It follows-up last year’s collaborative LP with saxophonist Joshua Redman and the trio’s 2014 studio album Inevitable Western.

The Bad Plus has spent more than a decade redefining what a piano-bass-drums trio can and should be. They’ve reached audiences of all demographic stripes with an uncompromising body of original music (plus some ingenious, genre-jumping covers) and dedicated touring around the globe. On their eighth studio album, Made Possible, bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer David King take their distinctive musical M. O. to captivating new heights, proving once again that the rules of musical convention are made to be broken.

“This band contains some of the most punk energy I’ve ever seen or felt as a musician — it just doesn’t need to do it so obviously,” King says. “That’s our statement. It’s a complex emotion.”

Made Possible marks a palpable departure for The Bad Plus on a few fronts. Layers of synth and electronic drum sounds can be heard prowling amid the trio’s signature acoustic palette. Also, whereas the group’s new material typically gets a thorough road test before being recorded, these songs were brought in with looser expectations and even more potent possibilities. And for the first time since 2005′s Suspicious Activity?, the band chose to record far away from its Minnesota motherland, holing up instead at a remote studio in upstate New York.

The resulting nine tracks — eight originals plus a loving nod to the late Paul Motian (“Victoria”) — showcase everything this groundbreaking trio is capable of: pulse-pounding anthems, bright-eyed melancholia, bold juxtapositions, tunefully mathy contortions and a masterful sense of song. “Seven Minute Mind” and “Wolf Out” are streaked with heady minimalism. “For My Eyes Only” and the epic “In Stitches” highlight the group’s vulnerable, ambitiously emotive core. “Re-Elect That” honors and extends the rich bloodline of American avant jazz, while “I Want to Feel Good Part Two” offers an irresistible two-beat that’s equally suitable for a postmodernist time capsule or a church picnic. As ever, the sum effect is a welcome demolition of what listeners might expect from an instrumental trio.

Per Iverson, “It’s the sound of getting together in your garage and all committing, no matter what, seeing what you can make up today.”

Throughout its career, The Bad Plus has held fast to a band ethos (deeply collaborative with no “leader”) and a belief in what its members like to call avant-garde populism (progressive, musically sophisticated ideas without the highbrow trappings). Made Possible is a vivid and convincing document of this passionate stance, loaded with genre-defying music that is at once complex, heartfelt and instantly engaging.

The Jazzinvaders - Find The Love

2016-06-18T06:46:00.004-07:00

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UNIQUE RECORDS ( 2016)

1. Higher On Fire

2. Discover Disco Lover

3. Get It, Work It

4. Find The Love

5. Get Away

6. Much Rosie

7. Disco Fever

8. Do It

9. Phil's Crossroads

10. Higher On Fire Reprise

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“Find The Love” is the latest release from the six member ensemble from the Netherlands from as The Jazz Invaders. Their ten track disc is smoothed out soul jazz layered with warm harmonies and solid horn arrangements layered over Disco rhythms. “Disco Fever” is a soft mid-tempo boogie tune sprinkled with Linda Bloemhard’s sweetened vocals. The title track starts out with a bit of funky fusion flavor before seguing into mellow soul. “Much Rosie”, the only instrumental showcases sweet horn soloing and organ rhythms. Overall this is a pleasant journey to the land of eighties flavored Disco grooves, no doubt you’ll enjoy the ride. – Reg Dancy 06/16

Miles Davis & Robert Glasper - Everything's Beautiful

2016-06-18T06:33:00.003-07:00

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SONY MUSIC ( 2016)

1. Talking Shit

2. Ghetto Walkin'

3. They Can't Hold Me Down

4. Maiysha (So Long)

5. Violets

6. Little Church

7. Silence Is The Way

8. Song For Selim

9. Milestones

10. I'm Leaving You

11. Right On Brotha

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* EVERYTHING'S BEAUTIFUL, beautifully crafted, reimagined interpretations of Miles Davis' music produced by Grammy Award winner Robert Glasper (who also served as co-producer of the MILES AHEAD motion picture soundtrack) with musical guest artists including Bilal, Illa J, Erykah Badu, Phonte, Hiatus Kaiyote, Laura Mvula, KING, Georgia Ann Muldrow, John Scofield and Ledisi, and Stevie Wonder. A visionary exploration of the music of Miles Davis, EVERYTHING'S BEAUTIFUL incorporates Davis' original recordings into new collaborative soundscapes.

HNenri Texier - Dakota Mab (Live At Theater Gütersloh)

2016-05-16T13:19:00.002-07:00

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INTUITION RECORDS ( 2016)

1. Ô Elvin

2. Hopi

3. Mic Mac

4. Dakota Mab

5. Navajo Dream

6. Comanche

7. Sueño Canto

8. Interview With Henri Texier

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Live recording by French bassist Henri Texier, a real European jazz legend, from 2015. His quartet includes his son Sébastien on alto saxophone and clarinet, Francois Corneloup on baritone saxophone and Louis Moutin on drums.

Texier is perhaps best known for his 1960s work with Don Cherry and for his 1980s band the Transatlantik Quartet, which featured Joe Lovano, Steve Swallow and Aldo Romano. He also worked with several other American musicians in Paris jazz clubs, including Johnny Griffin, Phil Woods, Bill Coleman and Bud Powell. Texier is a self-taught jazz bassist, crediting Wilbur Ware most as an influence. Throughout the 1970s Texier remained active in Europe on the jazz scene, performing with musicians such as Gordon Beck, John Abercrombie and Didier Lockwood, among others. In 1982 he formed a quartet with Louis Sclavis and others. Since 1989 he has recorded a series of acclaimed albums for Label Bleu.

Lack of Afro - Hello Baby

2016-05-14T07:02:00.001-07:00

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OA RECORDS ( 2016)

1. Hello Baby

2. I Got The Rhythm

3. All My Love

4. (Searching For) Peace & Love

5. Take You Home

6. Nothing Personal

7. The Bakery Girl Intermission

8. One World

9. Fires Glow

10. Magic Together

11. Walk In The Sun

12. Now I Feel Good

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Multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and DJ, Adam Gibbons (aka Lack of Afro) is back in considerable style with 'Hello Baby' - his fifth studio record and the first Lack of Afro album to be released on his own LOA Records imprint.
Described as 'always having a knack for finding great vocal collaborations', he has raised the bar again here! Featuring a stellar cast of guest vocalists including Grammy-award winner Joss Stone, steam-punk legend Professor Elemental & arguably the most talented young soul singer in the UK today in Elliott Cole, 'Hello Baby' is a genre-bending colossus of an album that is packed full of Adam's trademark multi-instrumental goodness, heavy drums, percussion-packed production, and ear for a good tune.
Also featured on the record is soul singer Juliette Ashby (who featured heavily in the recent Oscar-winning 'Amy' documentary) - Californian rapper, regular Lack of Afro collaborator (and one half of The Damn Straights) Herbal T, and rising star of the northern soul / mod scene, dancer, model & vocalist Emma Noble.
A wide ranging, eclectic and progressive musical outlook has always been the Lack of Afro approach, & 'Hello Baby' doesn't disappoint. Classic R&B ('I Got The Rhythm', 'Take Me Home'), Soul ('All My Love', 'Fires Glow'), Hip-hop ('One World', 'Walk In The Sun'), Disco ('Magic Together'), and elements of House, Indie-Rock and a smattering of Electro ('Now I Feel Good', 'Searching For Peace & Love') all come together to create an album that is stuffed with beautiful audio gems of all varieties and is without doubt an even more confident, assured and mature collection than its predecessor.
Away from the studio, Adam's music has been much in demand in TV, Film and Advertising, with directors including Steven Soderbergh and companies including Disney, HBO, Sony Pictures, Adidas & Miller Lite all using the Lack of Afro sound for successful projects and campaigns. 'Hello Baby' continues in this vein and promises to be of significant interest to music supervisors everywhere!
'Hello Baby' will be supported by a live band tour in May 2016 as well as DJ sets & further live shows at various festivals throughout the summer.

Andy González - Entre Colegas

2016-04-23T07:30:00.001-07:00

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TRUTH REVOLUTION RECORDS ( 2016)

1. Vieques

2. Ode to Joy

3. El Mostro’s Aguinaldo

4. Misty

5. Inspiracion de Cachao (Estudio En Trompeta)

6. Sabor A Mi

7. Dialysis Blues

8. Conversando Conversa

9. A Flower is a Lovesome Thing

10. The Addams Family

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In a career that spans almost 50 years and roughly 1000 recordings as a co-leader, producer, musical director, and sideman, Andy Gonzalez is arguably one of the most important bass players of his generation. His impressive body of work transcends time and genres, beginning with the Latin Jazz Quintet at the age of 13; followed by foundational contributions to the Fort Apache Band, led by his brother, Jerry Gonzalez and Grupo Folklorico Experimental Nuevayorquino, an inter-generational collective of Latinos (Puerto Ricans and Cubans) whose music offered a fresh alternative to the commercial world of salsa. Andy is also the co-leader and musical director for the killer dance band, Manny Oquendo and Libre. In addition, Andy has performed and recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Kenny Dorham, Machito, Hilton Ruiz, Mc Coy Tyner, Chico O’ Farrill, Ray Barretto, Johnny Pacheco, Papo Vazquez, Arturo O’ Farrill, Ruben Blades, Bebo Valdes, Eddie Palmieri, Deep Rumba, the Conga Kings, and Rumba Club among others. The repertoire offers the listener a glimpse into Andy’s inmost being and reflects his diverse taste in music. Unlike the vast majority of his recordings, which feature brass and horn ensembles, Entré Colegas focuses on guitars, strings and Latin jazz with folkloric elements. Andy imagines it as, “Django Reinhardt goes to Cuba and Puerto Rico.” The music conjures up the sound and spirit of the historic Cuban Jam Sessions and the spontaneous descargas that took place in the basement of the Gonzalez home in the South Bronx, where Andy, Jerry and other artists cut their teeth under the gaze of Latin music historian Rene Lopez. The album begins with Vieques, a Puerto Rican bomba that appeared on Arturo O’ Farrill’s Live in Brooklyn (Zoho, 2005); Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is inspired by the choir scene in the film, Sister Act 2; El Mostro's Alguinaldo showcases Orlando Santiago’s traditional yet harmonically adventurous cuatro playing; Erroll Garner’s Misty and Billy Strayhorn’s A Flower is a Lovesome Thing are jazz classics; the Mexican bolero, Sabor a Mi, features vocalist, guitarist David Oquendo; as the title implies, Inspiración de Cachao pays tribute to the legendary bassist, composer Israel “Cachao” Lopez; Conversa Conversando features tres master, Nelson Gonzalez. The album closes with a duet between Andy and protégé Luques Curtis, who interpret the theme from the 1964 TV series, the Addams Family with a Latin beat (trademark finger snaps included). Many of the musicians who participated in the sessions have long-standing associations with Andy that go back to his childhood and early years as a fledgling musician. Others are colleagues, students and emerging artists that Andy wished to showcase, particularly, cuatro player, Orlando Santiago, who Andy cites as an inspiration and a game changer. The sessions were joyful and challenging, particularly for Andy, who experienced fatigue and stiffness in his hands as a result of dialysis. Ben Lapidus eloquently captures the atmosphere and spirit of the sessions in the liner notes: “Once everyone was in the studio, there was no dialysis, no illness, no fatigue; there was only the creation of beautiful music.” Entré Colegas captures Andy’s essence and creative force. Truth Revolution Records is proud to present the first recording to bear his name and invites you to take part in the celebration of a musical genius and a live well lived.

Gregory Porter - Take Me To The Alley

2016-03-31T15:08:00.001-07:00

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BLUE NOTE RECORDS ( 2016)

1. Holding On

2. Don't Lose Your Steam

3. Take Me to the Alley

4. Day Dream

5. Consequence of Love

6. In Fashion

7. More Than a Woman

8. In Heaven

9. Insanity

10. Don't Be a Fool

11. Fan the Flames

12. French African Queen

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Charles Bradley - Changes

2016-03-31T14:13:00.002-07:00

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DAPTONE RECORDS ( 2016)

1. God Bless America

2. Good to Be Back Home

3. Nobody But You

4. Ain't Gonna Give It Up

5. Changes

6. Ain't It a Sin

7. Things We Do for Love

8. Crazy for Your Love

9. You Think I Don't Know (But I Know)

10. Change for the World

11. Slow Love

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It’s easy to root for Chales Bradley, the 67-year-old soul singer who has spent the last few years enjoying a breakout career on Daptone Records. Bradley’s underdog narrative has remained as genuinely endearing as it has perpetually marketable, and Changes, his third album, feels like his straightforward best to date, the result of an improved dynamic between the singer and his band. If he ever sounded awkwardly patched in on previous recordings, Bradley now seems to command ownership of his songs like never before. It’s an accomplished skill in the world of retro-soul, and Bradley sounds vital instead of nostalgic because of it.

Changes’ lyrics are immediately and sometimes overly familiar, but Bradley’s unmistakable voice is the obvious draw throughout. For a guy who has often been affectionately pigeonholed—Bradley has earned a tagline as the “The Screaming Eagle of Soul”—the new album instead finds him at his most versatile and complete. The record opens with a soulful gospel rendition of “God Bless America” in which the singer delivers an organ-laced testimony; the same keys pop up in funkier form on follow-up “Good to Be Back at Home.” After spending much of his seventh decade as a first-time international headliner, Bradley sings about the mixture of relief and disappointment in his return trip. Like other songs on the album, the song is vaguely and upliftingly political: On “Changed For the World” Bradley tells us "Heaven is crying, the world is shaking." Half singing, half preaching, he warns “God is unhappy, the moon is breaking / Blood is spilling, God is coming.”

Musically, Changes fits squarely into the Daptone house sound, but the session players—primarily from Menahan Street Band but also Bradley’s touring group The Extraordinaries—are more restrained here to make room for Bradley's big presence and even bigger voice. But the album is nonetheless inflected with the referential post-funk and hip-hop drum sounds of label guitarist Thomas Brenneck and company. Near the end of “Nobody But You” a horn line quotes the unmistakable saxophone from Seals and Crofts 1972 hit “Summer Breeze,” whereas the opening piano-laced drum break on “You Think I Don’t Know (But I Know)” conjures up Freddie Scott’s “(You) Got What I Need,” now perhaps better known to all as the sample chop Biz Markie finagled into “Just a Friend.”

Much of the album is about love: searching for it, being wronged by it, basking in it. Of the spare forty-minute tracklist, “Things We Do For Love” might be the most satisfyingly retro offering, complete with a dose of doo-wop accompaniment and a nimble, romantic groove. The album’s greatest accomplishment is in its most unexpectedly personal moment though, in which Bradley wrestles an out-of-character Black Sabbath ballad about a breakup into an agonizing paean to his late mother. After spending a lifetime estranged, Bradley patched up his relationship with his mother in time to serve as her caretaker before she passed, and also early enough that she got to see his career finally take off. In her absence and in the midst of post-success family quarrels, Bradley sounds heartbreakingly alone when he wails “I’ve lost the best friend I’ve ever had.” “Changes,” and its accompanying video, show the singer at his most emotionally unhinged and dramatically vulnerable.

A few years ago, Bradley’s success seemed more romantic in its improbability. “We found an authentic soul man that liked our music,” Brenneck glowed of his band’s initial collaboration with the singer in 2012. Changes somehow feels more natural, in which Bradley comes off as an obvious star, like he's belonged here the whole time. Surrounded by talented revivalists half his age, the singer remains a precious commodity: the real thing. He’s not reenacting or revisiting, he’s on his first run through. And it's still inspiring to watch him live it out at last.

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