Author: TJ Gorton
The London-based quartet Ruby Rushton, led by composer, flautist, and producer Tenderlonious (aka Ed Cawthorne) and featuring trumpeter Nick Walters, keyboardist Aidan Shepherd, and drummer Tim Carnegie have just released a new limited-edition seven-inch single featuring two incredible Afro-tinged jazz-funk tracks including “Sun Khosi” and “Chrysalis”.
Spiritual jazz legend and multi-percussionist Kahil El’Zabar teams up again with longtime collaborator and tenor saxophone great David Murray on a brilliant new recording on Spiritmuse Records, titled Spirit Groove.
As a way to help promote those that are speaking out against racism, I am starting a new ongoing feature on BeatCaffeine called “Listen Here” (named after Eddie Harris’ 1968 soul jazz classic) where I will share recommended media, literature, and other resourceful information that is addressing this issue. These recommendations will include podcasts, radio shows, books, art exhibits, anti-racist organizations and more.
New York’s Ostinato Records has recently released a new album from Djibouti-based ensemble Group RTD, titled The Dancing Devils of Djibout. This recording represents the first ever international record to come out of the small East African country.
Over the past week, I haven’t posted much on this site. I’ve chosen to instead take a step back, listen, learn, understand my privilege as a white man who is very immersed in black music and culture, and think about the ways I can fight against racial injustices and police brutality. I know I can do more, I need to do more, and I will do more.
Legendary saxophonist Gary Bartz has been at the forefront of some of the greatest recordings over the past six decades, performing alongside Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders, Woody Shaw, McCoy Tyner, Jackie McLean and numerous others, while also putting out many groundbreaking records with his own bands, including the spiritual jazz ensemble NTU Troop, and collaborating with the Mizell Brothers on the jazz-funk anthem “Music Is My Sanctuary”. On his latest recording, the jazz great teams up with leading UK group Maisha on a a special straight-to-disc session for the London-based label, Night Dreamer.
Paris-based composer, bandleader and tenor saxophonist Laurent Bardainne, who has Pharrell Williams, Cassius, Tony Allen and many others, has released the debut full-length of his latest quintet project Tigre d’eau Douce, titled Love Is Everywhere on Heavenly Sweetness.
The Berlin-based label Matasuna Records has recently put out a pair of 7inch releases featuring two essential Latin funk gems from Nico Gomez And His Afro Percussion Inc’s “holy grail” classic Ritual.
Numero Group has unearthed and recently released what looks to be the final demo material ever recorded from the now legendary seventies-era soul group 24-Carat Black, simply titled III.
Even though Austrian saxophonist and composer Muriel Grossmann has released a dozen albums over the past thirteen years, it seems that she is just beginning to receive the global-acclaim that she ultimately deserves. As a follow-up to two brilliant releases over the past couple of years for the Estonia-based RR GEMS label, in Golden Rule (2018) and Reverence (2019), UK’s Jazzman Records has released a great new compilation highlighting some of Grossmann’s earlier recordings.
Based out of London and run by highly-acclaimed producer Dego (Pavel Kostiuk, 4hero), the 200Black label collective ( named after a 1975 Roy Ayers’ recording) have recently released a brilliant jazz-influenced dancefloor recording from a mysterious group that goes by Project X.
In a time where the topic of mass extinction feels unfortunately very real, the Helsinki-based sextet Soft Power releases an incredibly powerful new album, titled Brink of Extinction, that sonically speaks to the importance and beauty of biodiversity on this planet.
The UK-born, Madrid-based flautist and saxophonist Chip Wickham follows-up two stellar releases in 2017’s La Sombra, and 2018’s Shamal Wind, with his most adventurous and cosmically-charged album to date in Blue To Red.
