jazz

Raffaele Attanasio – Nuovo Futuro [AX099]

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ATTANASIO, Raffaele - Nuovo Futuro

Axis Records presents the latest release from the heterogeneous Raffaele Attanasio. The multifaceted Italian has delivered an eclectic sound over the years, from devious techno to melodious rhythmic beats. Attanasio delivers a jazz-tinged, angular, progressive and championing album by coalescing influential factors: a musician father, a multifarious palate in music, and prowess as a multi-instrumentalist. “Nuovo Futuro” is creating a new future by travelling to the past. Digging into the Zeitgeist of Naples post-second world war, Attanasio extrapolates the sound to present day, combining modern flair with an enriched sound. The influence of American blues and jazz is felt in his hometown, celebrating the lore of Neapolitan musicians through the track ‘Parlesia’. The history comes to life through these compositions, influenced by 70s spaghetti films and rich Italian exuberance. Ardour, lust and avidity ensnare the listener in ‘Indagini Sospette’. This album is a journey through the streets where he grew up, but also, encapsulates a wandering mind, meandering into the harmonious Mediterranean under the watchful eye of Mount Vesuvius. ‘Equilibrio Dinamico’ is a snapshot of the working mind of Attanasio, balancing the impromptu of jazz with a gentle caress of his honed craft. Melodies are soft, smooth, progressive and fulminating the constraints of contemporary music. It emanates a renaissance for a sound that Axis is espousing in their releases.

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Raffaele Attanasio – Nuovo Futuro [AX099]

Wildflower – Better Times [TOL001]

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WILDFLOWER - Better Times

Wildflower, the project comprising Idris Rahman, Leon Brichard and Tom Skinner, continues its journey with the third release Better Times, setting ahead with a deep, relentless and unique sound, constantly evolving and effortlessly hitting the aim. The beauty of Blue, Yellow, Green and Red, recorded in London in 2019, lies in the openness to form and structure these tunes, whilst a sense of groove and melodic development is maintained throughout. The confidence and versatility of the musicians is key, and so is the interaction between them, characterising a natural flow of unfolding musical ideas and embracing a New York musically care-free ethic, without having to wear their combined influences on their sleeves. Each song has a colour reference suggestive of mood tone and internal balance, enabling the audience to concur that Wildflower is not just a band, it is as ever an experience and one that allows its listeners to emerge and engage in a time where a perfect fusion of global sounds and jazz exists as a remedy, one you can feel and enjoy the benefits from everyday. Better Times by Wildflower is the debut release on Tropic of Love Music.

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Wildflower – Better Times [TOL001]

Kaidi Tatham – An Insight To All Minds [FW228]

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TATHAM, Kaidi - An Insight To All Minds

First Word Records presents a brand new album from Kaidi Tatham. On ‘An Insight To All Minds’, Kaidi says it’s ”not about a destination, but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going. Nothing in this world can torment you as much as your own thoughts… We are all going through it. We can all feel what the next person is feeling, believe it or not. It’s learning how to tap into it”. The album is comprised of an assortment of Kaidi’s unique flavours – uptempo jazz-funk bruk, laced with rhodes, flutes, live bass and delicious percussion. Using that blueprint he moves effortlessly through latin and samba, half-step, deep afro house and a sprinkle of curveballs, all presented in Kaidi’s inimitable way.

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Kaidi Tatham – An Insight To All Minds [FW228]

Experimental Q – Amintiri Despre Viitor [DTC020]

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Have you ever wondered what King Crimson or Emerson, Lake & Palmer would have sounded like, had they originated from behind the Iron Curtain?

This may sound like the usual hype promoters write to draw attention, but click on the audio files from this album’s track-list and listen closely. “Amintiri din viitor” [Memories from the Future] will take you back to a time when progressive music was truly forward looking, experimental, and original. The band Experimental Q was formed in the early 1970s, by a group of music students from the Gheorghe Dima Conservatory, in Cluj (Romania). Eugen Tunaru (keyboards), Valentin Farcaș (guitar), Nicolae Bucaciuc (bass), and Nicolae Delioran (drums) were joined by Gheorghe Marcovici (flute), and this line-up recorded a series of songs and compositions for radio and TV, without ever releasing any album on Electrecord, the sole record company in Romania at that time.

Their music was mostly instrumental and featured titles that touched upon intergalactic, or art themes. The band members may have been music students, but while their education was classical, their inspiration drew from pop music’s avantgarde. Prog and jazz-rock fans might find influences and echoes of bands that were carving out new paths in the unexplored music jungle of the late 1960s and early 1970s: King Crimson, The Nice, Jethro Tull, ELP, VDGG. After a few listens, however, it will dawn upon the listener that this music was more than just an East European response to the Western hype of the day. Facing the prejudice of their professors, the skepticism of some of their peers, as well as the numerous material drawbacks and technological limitations, Experimental Q improvised not only musically. In the end, they made their own instruments and adapted what they could get their hands on, to create some of the most intriguing music made on the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain.

“Amintiri din viitor” opens the first chapter in this still untold story of one of Romania’s best hidden music secrets. With the approval of and collaboration from the remaining band members, this project features restored and remastered audio, original artwork, as well as an in-depth essay about the band and its musical output in the socialist historical context, with exclusive photos and memorabilia.

This project is curated by Claudiu Oancea (artwork, liner notes), Adrian Matala (co-producer) and Remus Miron (restored, remastered audio and producer).

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Experimental Q – Amintiri Despre Viitor [DTC020]

Francisco Mora Catlett – Mora! I & II [FARO 222LP/FARO 223LP]

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CATLETT, Francisco Mora - Mora! I

Far Out Recordings presents Mora!, and for the first time ever on vinyl Mora! II. Mexican-American percussionist and former member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Francisco Mora Catlett originally recorded and released his debut solo LP as a private press in 1987, but the sequel he recorded over the course of the next few years with an expanded Detroit jazz brass section was shelved for decades to follow. A pan-American melting pot of hypnotic afro-cuban rhythms, frenetic batucadas and fiery sambas, Mora I & II are holy grails of latin jazz, masterminded by an unsung hero of the genre.

Part I / Part II / CD

Francisco Mora Catlett – Mora! I & II [FARO 222LP/FARO 223LP]

Kumasi – Live at Marigny Studio [ZONE002]

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KUMASI - Live At Marigny Studio

Kumasi, New Orleans’ own 14-piece Afrobeat orchestra, is back with their third LP and first live record. After two private-press releases, Kumasi is presenting Live at Marigny Studios to an international audience for the first time via Hiatt dB’s New Orleans-based Mystery Zone Records. Live at Marigny Studios, features 4 original compositions: jazz-centric interpretations of Fela’s classic form that incorporate rhythms and sentiments from New Orleans and the surrounding Afro-diaspora, namely Cuba, Haiti, and Brazil. It’s a bold effort that perfectly captures the infectious mix of heavy rhythms, spontaneous, improvisatory musicianship, and inclusive, participatory style that characterize Kumasi as a group, as well as Afrobeat as a whole.

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Kumasi – Live at Marigny Studio [ZONE002]

Roy Porter Sound Machine – Jessica [MJLP9095]

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ROY PORTER SOUND MACHINE - Jessica (reissue)

By the late 1960s, drummer Roy Porter had already worked with some of jazz’s true greats (Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie included), spent time in prison and weened himself off heavy drugs. It was at this point that he founded Roy Porter Sound Machine, a heavyweight jazz-funk combo with a penchant for raw rhythm and blues. The band’s 1971 debut LP, Jessica, is one of the most magnificent sets in his vast discography. Featuring sweaty, floor-ready rhythms from Porter, beefy bass, wild electric piano licks, fuzzy guitars and some fine brass arrangements, the album is as good a collection of jazz-funk/funk fusion tracks as you’re ever likely to hear.

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Roy Porter Sound Machine – Jessica [MJLP9095]

Phil Dawson Quintet – It’s Time [FWCD007]

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PHIL DAWSON QUINTET - It's Time

A new 6-track mini album from a musician with a long list of credits including South African trumpet legend Hugh Masekela, afrobeat co-creator Tony Allen and Ethiopian jazz originator Mulatu Astatke as well as many Brit-jazz and other international roots artists. “It’s Time” blends Afro-jazz groove, free improv, spoken poetry and other-worldly atmosphere, with lyrics and titles hinting at unorthodox takes on reality and the times we live in.

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Phil Dawson Quintet – It’s Time [FWCD007]

VA – Wamono A to Z Vol. II: Japanese Funk 1970-1977 [180GWALP02]

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DJ YOSHIZAWA DYNAMITE JP/CHINTAM/VARIOUS - Wamono A To Z Vol II: Japanese Funk 1970-1977

Wamono A to Z Vol. II: Japanese Funk 1970-1977, selected by DJ Yoshizawa Dynamite & Chintam. Following the highly acclaimed Volume I, dig further into the Wamono sound – the cream of the Japanese jazz, funk, soul, rare groove and disco music developed throughout the years since the end of the sixties in Japan. Fully licensed Nippon Columbia and Victor Japan masters available for the first time outside of Japan, featuring rarities from Jiro Inagaki & Soul Media, Hiroshi Sato, Bread & Butter, Hatsumi Shibata, Fujio Tokita and more.

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VA – Wamono A to Z Vol. II: Japanese Funk 1970-1977 [180GWALP02]

Teaspoon & The Waves – Teaspoon & The Waves [MRBLP225]

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TEASPOON & THE WAVES - Teaspoon & The Waves (reissue)

Official replica re-issue of a South African jazz-funk rarity from Teaspoon & The Waves. Released in 1977 on Soul Jazz Pop, a subsidiary label of Mavuthela Music Company / Gallo, Teaspoon & The Waves’ self-titled album is an absolute masterpiece. Best known for the song ‘Oh Yeh Soweto’, which is an astonishing adaptation of Lamont Dozier’s anthem ‘Going Back to My Roots’, this track has become a contemporary underground club classic in recent times and has been featured in sets from a cross-section of DJs.  ‘Saturday Express’ is a jazz-funk/disco stomper which will soon be lighting up dancefloors again. ‘Wind and Fire’ is true afro-jazz-funk excellence, with great spacey synths and reggae-inspired guitar grooves riding throughout. The opener, ‘Friday Night’, also has a slightly reggae-tinged tropical groove, whilst ‘Got Me Tight’ finishes off the session with a feel-good jazz-funk workout that features cool, quirky, Patrick Adams-esque synths.

vinyl / CD

Teaspoon & The Waves – Teaspoon & The Waves [MRBLP225]

Juju – Live At 131 Prince Street [STRUT250LP]

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JUJU - Live At 131 Prince Street

Strut continue their in-depth archive reissues from the Black Fire label with a definitive edition of JuJu’s ‘Live At 131 Prince Street’, recorded in 1973 at Ornette Coleman’s gallery in New York. After forming in San Francisco while working on the Marvin X theatre piece ‘The Resurrection of the Dead’, JuJu began to hone their uncompromising fusion of Afro-Latin rhythms with free and spiritual jazz before signing to Strata-East for the ‘A Message From Mozambique’ album in 1972.

vinyl / CD

Juju – Live At 131 Prince Street [STRUT250LP]

Byard Lancaster – My Pure Joy [STRUT240]

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LANCASTER, Byard - My Pure Joy

Lancaster had initially cut his musical teeth with the avant-garde on New York’s Lower East Side in the 1960s and in Paris during the ‘70s but, throughout his career, his path was built around community engagement, positivity and “the Philly jazz sound, Germantown style.” He became an ambassador for the music of the City Of Brotherly Love, starting his own Dogtown label, helping launch the Philly Jazz imprint and campaigning tirelessly to improve the circumstances of the city’s street musicians. Lancaster’s sessions for Black Fire were planned following a gig at Caverns Jazz Club in Washington DC. “Jimmy Gray of Black Fire and I originally met during the ‘riotous blisters’ of the late Sixties there,” explained Lancaster. “We became the best of friends.” Backed by a band of Philly musicians including percussionist Keno Speller and Baba Robert Crowder (drummer for Olatunji and Art Blakey), the album also featured the Drummers From Ibadan led by Tunde Kuboye, another influential figure dedicated to community jazz with whom Lancaster had bonded while teaching in Lagos. The result was a free-flowing set of spirituality and positivity, built around full band groove workouts, solo pieces and heavy African roots. “We had big fun documenting this music,” remembered Lancaster. The message of the album remains as relevant today as ever, “I dedicate this album to all African Americans in the USA. To the youth, I ask ‘What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?’”

vinyl / CD

Byard Lancaster – My Pure Joy [STRUT240]

Work Money Death – The Space in Which the Uncontrollable Unknown Resides, Can Be the Place from Which Creation Arises [ATALP022]

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A transcendental journey that takes in meditative musical mantras, sprawling tenor sax improvisation and mesmeric percussion, the new album by Work Money Death, titled ”The Space In Which The Uncontrollable Unknown Resides Can Be The Place From Which Creation Arises”. Originally conceived as a large scale group performance of a single extended piece the album was written by Tony Burkill and bassist Neil Innes through a series of extended improvisations similar to the extended meditation sessions that both musicians practice. These sessions enabled a state of flow through which Tony’s compositional approach to improvisation yielded meaningful melodic fragments that would be returned to and developed in a way similar to someone returning to the mantra. Also featuring on the record are drummer Sam Hobbs, pianist Adam Fairhall percussionist Pete Williams.

vinyl / CD

Work Money Death – The Space in Which the Uncontrollable Unknown Resides, Can Be the Place from Which Creation Arises [ATALP022]

Elite Beat – Selected Rhythms Vol. 2 [RESEARCH010]

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Research Records continue their voyage into Elite Beat’s extraordinary back catalogue with their second compilation Selected Rhythms Vol. 2. The chosen tracks are lifted from the Portland collective’s three-part cassette series Casual Rhythms; a treasure chest of meditative and genre-defying instrumentals where percussion and dub accents prevail. Remastered for the first time on vinyl, Selected Rhythms Vol. 2 adds to the immersive and interstellar tapestry of Elite Beat. The compilation delves deep into the healing and hypnosis that characterizes the collective.

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Elite Beat – Selected Rhythms Vol. 2 [RESEARCH010]

Ultramarine – Folk [FMOAW001]

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ULTRAMARINE - Folk

For their first outing, new London-based reissue label Foam On A Wave resurface the remarkable debut album from one of the UK’s foremost artists of ‘ambient techno’, Ultramarine’s ‘Folk’. Like the surrealist collage of the sleeve designed by Benoît Hennebert, Ultramarine weave together unique instrumentation and sonic influences into rich, ethereal soundscapes, now fully remastered for its 30th anniversary. Conceived at a time when technology began reshaping the process of recording and production, the band’s interest in fusing the organic and the electronic is apparent, and one that has remained with them throughout their career. ‘Folk’ both sits apart from and serves as a precursor to the ‘pastoral techno’ sound Ultramarine went on to pioneer.

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Ultramarine – Folk [FMOAW001]

Badge Époque Ensemble – Future Past & Present [TER074]

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BADGE EPOQUE ENSEMBLE - Future Past & Present

The Badge Époque Ensemble group came out with a surprise album on Telephone Explosion Records, the fittingly titled “Future, Past & Present”. A compilation of sorts, the album collects instrumental, alternate mix versions of all BÉE songs which originally featured guest vocalists. In practice this results in a pseudo-greatest-hits survey of the Ensemble’s catalogue to-date, touching on highlights from all three releases while emphasizing the group’s strength as versatile mood-conjurors. Where these songs once featured vocal heavyweights like Meg Remy, Jennifer Castle, James Baley and Dorothea Paas, they are now strung together instrumentally in a sequence which represents the purest distillation of BÉE’s collective musical chemistry to date.

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Badge Époque Ensemble – Future Past & Present [TER074]

VA – Spiritual Jazz 13: NOW! [JMANLP126/JMANLP127]

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VARIOUS - Spiritual Jazz 13: Now Part 1

Modern sounds for the 21st century featuring modal, progressive and esoteric contemporary jazz. The 13th volume of the Spiritual Jazz series turns our attention to what’s happening NOW. Over the course of 24 tracks and spanning 2 x 2LPs, Jazzman presents an overview of the contemporary exponents of Spiritual Jazz; musicians who are intent on bringing something personal to the table, as much as they recognize the importance of those who have paved the way for them. This is music recorded within the past 20 years and from 15 different countries, including modern classics from veterans Steve Reid and Idris Ackamoor, providing a vital link between the past masters and the enlightened new generation. It’s pioneers such as John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders et al, with their innovations in reaching another plane of consciousness that was and remains uppermost in the minds of exponents of Spiritual Jazz. Fittingly, several of the artists featured on this compilation, such as Cat Toren and David Boykin, are practitioners of the art of music therapy and sound healing, and have absolute conviction in the role of song as solace. The pioneers may no longer be with us, but their saintly selves loom large, shining a light in the darkness, inspiring many a brave new disciple today, as this album will testify: the new wave of jazz is gathering pace and still sounds fresh, vibrant and as relevant as ever.

part 1: vinyl / CD


part 2: vinyl / CD

VA – Spiritual Jazz 13: NOW! [JMANLP126/JMANLP127]

Azmari – Samā’ī [SDBANULP16]

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Created in Brussels in 2015, Azmari is a weaving musical odyssey that expertly fuses ethiogroove, dub, psychfunk and eastern sounds. Azmari, literally “one who praises” in Amharic, is an Ethiopian singer-musician, comparable to the European bard or the West African griot often accompanied with a masenqo – one-stringed fiddle or krar – lyre, two traditional ethiopian instruments. The nine tracks that make up debut album ‘Sama’i’, released via Sdban UItra, is a deeply hypnotic experience where mesmerising rhythms and winding improvisations send the listener in to a higher state of consciousness. From the magical sax of album opener ‘Zegiyitwali’, to the dubby template of ‘Cosmic Masadani’ and joyous horns of ‘Kugler’, Azmari seamlessly blend African and oriental melodies with effortless precision, providing a fresh take on the ethiojazz sound. Elsewhere, the heavy, rhythmic sounds of ‘Tariq Al Sahara’ and the mystical and cosmological ‘Azalai’ continue our sacred journey full of raging saxes and wig-out percussion, while the free-spirited, trippy ‘Kadikoy’ coming in at nine minutes in duration, lends a trance-like quality to proceedings where psychedelic jazz meets afro-funk.

vinyl / CD

Azmari – Samā’ī [SDBANULP16]

Lon Moshe & Southern Freedom Arkestra – Love Is Where The Spirit Lies [STRUT239LP]

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LON MOSHE & SOUTHERN FREEDOM ARKESTRA - Love Is Where The Spirit Lies (reissue)

Strut present the first ever international reissue of one of the most sought-after albums from the Black Fire catalogue, Lon Moshe & Southern Freedom Arkestra’s life-affirming ‘Love Is Where The Spirit Lies’ from 1977. This first international reissue of the album features new sleeve notes including interviews and commentary by Lon Moshe, Plunky Branch and band members with original illustrated artwork by Mary E. Greer. Audio was remastered from original tapes by The Carvery. “Lon was creating his own path in his music life at this time,” remembers Black Fire’s Plunky Branch. “We had met in San Francisco and he had become an original member of JuJu during the early ’70s. He then wanted to pursue his own music, primarily in jazz; he was an avant-gardist and loved Tribe, Strata-East and Sun Ra.” For his Love Is Where The Spirit Lies album, Moshe drew from musicians within the Black Fire stable. Oneness Of Juju’s Jackie Eka-Ete sang and helped to write songs and members of Southern Energy Ensemble contributed, including their bandleader Marvin Daniels. “The band name, Southern Freedom Arkestra, was a proud declaration that this music was from the U.S. South,” continues Branch.

vinyl / CD

Lon Moshe & Southern Freedom Arkestra – Love Is Where The Spirit Lies [STRUT239LP]

Sun Ra Quartet – The Sky Is A Sea of Darkness When There is No Sun To Light The Way [ARTYARD45003]

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SUN RA QUARTET - The Sky Is A Sea Of Darkness When There Is No Sun To Light The Way

Asolutely stellar jazz from Sun Ra alongside John Gilmore, Luqman Ali & Michael Ray. This quartet version of the title song appeared on 1978’s ‘New Steps’ LP. Over on the flip is the ‘Alien vocal version’ of Somewhere In Space, recorded in 1957. Two expertly plucked out (fully licensed) Sun Ra essentials, presented on a heavyweight (70gram) Art Yard styled 7″.

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Sun Ra Quartet – The Sky Is A Sea of Darkness When There is No Sun To Light The Way [ARTYARD45003]