jazz
Remus Miron – Degustare Muzicala No.3 – Romania 19.01.2018
Nearly 6 hours recorded “live”, a selection that includes only Romanian songs from the last 50 years, songs that appeared only on vinyl … and some unrealized songs from the tape recorder.
Yoshimi Ueno – Taiko No Uminari [STUDIOMULE14]
Johnny’s Disk Record is an independent jazz label run by the owner of jazz cafe Kaiunbashi No Johnny located in Rikuzentakata city in Iwate prefecture, Japan. The legendary label released a string of albums of high quality but down-to-earth music, spanning from modern jazz, avant-garde jazz to left-field pop. This is the only solo record drummer Yoshimi Ueno released before passing.
Jacky Giordano – Timing Archives [FR02LP]
‘Timing’ is a collection of sixteen records intended for audiovisual and media professionals which came out between 1975 and 1977, and initiated by Jacky Giordano who took care of the first six albums. The ten others were developed by Pierre Arvay and nearly all published in partnership with Music De Wolfe. 14-tracks LP with plenty of funky breaks and hard grooves, including afro-cuban rhythms, wild jazzy sounds, fuzz guitar, strings, sax, clavinet, flute…
Nubya Garcia – Nubya’s 5ive [JRF0012LP]
Nubya fearlessly threw herself head first into this 5ive project, her debut recording, with a clear vision of what she wanted and was meticulous in her pursuit of her sound. Enlisting the help of fellow musical comrades from an exciting new wave of London based talent, Nubya tapped into well-seasoned, harmonious relationships with players that know and understand her – and this joyful union radiates through her compositions. Beautiful music, thoughtful and passionate playing.
Mitsuaki Katayama Trio – First Flight [STUDIOMM11LP]
Johnny’s Disk Record is an independent jazz label run by the owner of Jazz Cafe Kaiunbashi No Johnny located in Rikuzentakata City in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. The legendary label released a string of albums of high quality but down-to-earth music, spanning from modern jazz, avant-garde jazz to left-field pop. Albums such as “farewell my johnny / left alone” and “Aya’s Samba” has reached cult status among fans as some of the best works to come out of the Japanese jazz scene. This debut album by drummer and actor Mitsuaki Katayama is a Japanese jazz masterpiece, put out by Johnny’s Disk Record. Consisting of 5 original compositions, the no-filler album includes the tracks “Unknown Point,” a danceable jazz samba with tight and powerful drumming; the melancholic “Arizona High Way,” a tune that perfectly epitomizes what Japanese jazz is about; “It’s Over,” which features beautiful piano work by Kichiro Sugino—a promising pianist who tragically succumbed to a chronic illness and couldn’t fully realize his potential; “Louis” and “First Flight,” a jazzy dance cut with a funky bassline.
Jazz Community – Revisited [SONOL109]
A compilation of lost tracks by the Zurich based ”Jazz Community”. One of the most important Post-Bop and Modal Jazz bands from Europe. The Sextet featured the exceptional brass section of Hans Kennel (tp, flh), Paul Haag (tb) and Heiner Althaus (ts). The three were members of ”Magog” and here they are working with various rhythm sections, using original compositions. For the first time, their most celebrated tracks from the rare LP’s ”Jazz Community” and ”Il Topo” are on one album. The tracks were produced in 1979 at the studio of Bruno Spoerri and in 1983 in concert at The Club in Rubigen, Bern.
VA – Life & Death on a New York Dance Floor Part 1 [REAPPEARLP001PT1]
For the last 20 years London-based author and party organiser Tim Lawrence has dedicated himself to excavating the history of New York City party culture and bringing some of the most powerful aspects of that culture to London’s dance scene, from where it has ricocheted around the world. Having conducted the first set of major interviews with David Mancuso, Lawrence started to put on Loft-style Lucky Cloud Sound System parties with David and friends in London in June 2003. In early 2004 he published Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-79, which tracked the influence of the Loft on the wider New York DJ, dance and disco scene. In 2009 his biography of the iconic musician Arthur Russell became the first book to map the wider downtown music scene. These beautifully written and politically insightful histories have educated, inspired and celebrated the previously overlooked foundations of contemporary dance music. Lawrence’s most recent publication, Life & Death On The New York Dancefloor, 1980 – 1983, published in late 2016, shines a light on ‘one of the most dynamic and creative periods in the history of New York City’. Falling between the more regularly celebrated sounds of disco, house and techno, the period produced a uniquely hybrid series of sounds that never acquired a settled name. This led them to be largely ignored by historians and even DJs, yet the power of the period’s music and the scenes it birthed, Lawrence argues, remains undeniable. Met with a rapturous response, Life and Death On The New York Dance Floor saw Lawrence on the road for most of the next year as he spread the word about the characters, the records, the clubs and the bands that shaped the post-Disco, post-Punk, and burgeoning Hip Hop landscapes of New York City during the early 1980s—a period when freedom still ruled.
Atmosfear – En Trance [MRBLP180]
Originally released in 1981 via Elite / MCA records, ‘En Trance’ is a joyous album that arguably represents the pinnacle of the Brit-funk sound. The band consisted of bassist, and keyboardist Lester J. Batchelor, drummer Ray Johnson, guitarist Andy Sojka, saxophonist Stewart Cawthorne, singer and guitarist Tony Antonio and producer Jerry Pike. The album captures the excitement of these exceptional players demonstrating utmost originality in the studio.
Jungle By Night – Livingstone [ND003]
This is the 5th album by the nine-piece instrumental collective from Amsterdam, Jungle by Night. After almost a decade of heating up dancefloors across the globe, Jungle by Night have reached manhood. In the process of creating their 5th album, the nine-headed collective melted years of passion, friendship, and influences from krautrock, dance, jazz, afrobeat together into new instrumental prose, fluently speaking the language of their instruments. The band is an oddball ensemble within its own cosmos. A danceable and thundering live-act, connecting with crowds like no other, with beaming fun and energy along the way.
The Scorpions & Saif Abu Bakr – Jazz, Jazz, Jazz [HABIBI009-1]
Habibi Funk co-founder Jannis Stuertz first came across “the Holy Grail of Sudanese funk”, Saif Abu Bakr and The Scorpions “Jazz, Jazz, Jazz”, while browsing eBay listings a few years back. His interest piqued, he took a trip to Sudan to track down the musicians who had made a ridiculously rare LP that was changing hands for thousands of pounds online. Some four years later, his wish to reissue the set has finally come through. It was originally recorded in Kuwait in 1980 and brilliantly joins the dots between American funk, soul and rhythm and blues, traditional Sudanese vocals and rhythmic arrangements, and even a dash of Congolese soukkous. It’s the first full album Habibi Funk has reissued, and with good reason: it’s near perfect from start to finish.
Kashmere Stage Band – Kashmere [ATH072]
Another sure shot double sider out the Now-Again catalogue, until now both tracks were album only and both pure club killers. Conrad O. Johnson of Kashmere High School, Houston Texas, created the Kashmere Stage Band turning it into one of the most fierce unbeatable high school bands in the national championships.
Chip Wickham – Shamal Wind Remixes [MNK60RMX]
Shamal Wind, the celebrated second album by UK flautist and sax player Chip Wickham gets revisited by three producers cooler than the other side of the pillow, hailing from London and Berlin. Max Graef, Reginald Omas Mamode IV and Ishmael Ensemble get their hands on the tracks of one of the jazz albums of the year and come up with four epic remixes.
VA – The Library Music Film: Music From & Inspired By The Film [LEGO148]
The Library Music Film follows record producer, composer and library music enthusiast Shawn Lee as he travels from his recording studio in London, through Europe, and California, USA to search out and interview the great pioneers of library music. Collecting rare, unreleased vinyl is big business. Library music was only available on vinyl and only given to industry professionals. There were very small production runs; sometimes only 200 copies of each album were pressed. Most of those were destroyed through the Nineties with the advent of CDs. Finding these records is extremely rare and therefore some of these records go for well over a thousand pounds. Shawn Lee opens the record boxes of some of the most notorious collectors, getting a glimpse and having a listen to their favourite wax. Delving into the vaults of the classic library music houses, meeting the people behind these incredible themes at Music De Wolfe, Warner-Chappell, Bruton Music, Bosworth, Flipper Music, KPM, Tele Music and Capitol Media Music as well as talking to some of the modern record labels that are compiling and re-issuing these quintessential pieces.
Abstract Orchestra – Madvillain, Vol. 1 [ATALP012]
Abstract Orchestra’s Madvillain Vol 1. explores the jazz, TV soundtrack and film score aspect of the original work, combining it with classic big band writing and a focus on improvisation. Bandleader and arranger Rob Mitchell says of the record: ‘”Madvillain’ is a jazz album as much as it is a hip-hop album and I wanted to explore this reciprocal territory there has always been between jazz and hip-hop. 70’s cop show soundtracks have always captured my interest and imagination, and I discovered so much amazing music through TV themes, Quincy Jones and Lalo Schifrin in particular. They explored sounds that were menacing, angular, dissonant, frantic and yet captivating. They were also able to write music that was the flip side of all that dark chaos, and write lush and beautiful music. Arranging and scoring up Madvillain Vol 1. Has allowed me to explore these sounds that I’ve always loved, yet keeping a strong hip-hop identity as the core of its sound.”
Eli Keszler – Stadium [SP099]
Inimitable percussionist Eli Keszler takes time out from 0PN’s ensemble to unfurl the incredible, dextrous rhythms and electro-acoustic jazz keen of his masterpiece, ‘Stadium’. An isolationist avant-jazz masterpiece that is a total must-hear for late-night listeners, perhaps the most wondrous thing about ‘Stadium’ is the way it describes the paradoxical quality of keeping your head amid the chaos – a notion that will surely resonate with inner city dwellers as much as fans of the finest noise, jazz, avant-garde music of all stripes, and is firmly at the heart of ‘Stadium’ and its amorphous milieu of sound.
Andreolina – An Island In The Moon [ZORN55]
“An Island In The Moon” is the perfectly conceived minimal ambient project from Italian composers Pier Luigi Andreoni (Doubling Riders, ATROX) and Silvio Linardi. Andreolina being a mix of the names of the two musicians who were both deeply involved with the label Auf Dem Nil on which the album was originally released in 1990. The duo stick to a disciplined and simple palette using only two synthesizers and a Roland S50 sampler. They are joined by fellow electronic journeyman Riccardo Sinigaglia who contributes piano and samples on two tracks. Taking influences from Italian minimalism while adding some jazz hints Andreolina sprawls, weightless instrumentals that never stay soporific for too long on this singular rare album.
Lucky Brown & The S.G.’s – Mesquite Suite [TRLP9074]
Lucky Brown delivers another album for Tramp Records. Since he joined the Tramp family in 2007, Lucky has developed his own trademark production and sound whose depth and honesty form a basis from which his work will ever remain timeless. On “Mesquite Suite” he is forging new paths by soaking up musical styles from all over the world to infuse with his own totally unique way of producing. It has been Lucky Brown’s aim to paint for the world a picture of the vernacular jazz that America’s neighborhoods once crafted as their own homegrown cultural heritage. Lucky Brown’s music is a rejection of the elitism, classism and status of the music industrial complex and is an antitoxin to it’s resultant homogeneity. He wants with his heart and his art to transmit an everyday people’s sound, made by everyday people, dedicated to the upliftment of all people.
Skymark – Mukatsuku Presents Skymark [MUKAT059]
Mukatsuku kicks off the incoming autumn period with two delicious slabs of dreamy jazzual bliss from Spanish artist and multi- talented musician Marc Friedli aka Skymark. Both tracks are presented here in a single form for the first time.
Mildlife – Phase II [RREP02]
With the release of their debut imminent, Mildlife took retreat at Research Records HQ in Melbourne, staying overnight after recording each morning and afternoon. It resulted in the evolution of the title track, newly imagined and re-contextualised at increased tempo with swathes of improvisation throughout. The studio recording was the culmination of the song’s growth in a live setting, evolving on club stages and at festivals throughout 2017.
The Hipodrome Of Music 