Category: FEATURED RELEASES
This week’s BeatCaffeine Weekly Record Rundown includes the incredible soul-jazz collaboration between The Lewis Express and flautist Chip Wickham, the latest offering from forward-thinking British-Bahrani trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, a beautifully lush album from North Carolina trio Okonski, and the fifth volume of legendary producer and DJ John Beltran’s must-buy-them-all Back to Bahia series.
In what has become one of the most anticipated albums of the year in many jazz circles, the expansive 11-piece Manchester-based group Ensemble C, led by acclaimed composer and pianist Claire Cope, has released a brilliant new album to coincide with March 8th’s International Women’s Day, titled Every Journey.
The superb Analog Africa label has recently released an expansive 2xLP retrospective on Beninese legend and “The King of Modern Agbadja,” Gnonnas Pedro, titled Roi De L’Agbadja Moderne 1974-1983.
When it comes to an EP release, Steve Conry’s Ten Lovers Music seems to have mastered the format with their ongoing Best of Various, and now more recently, The Coin series. The UK-label has just put out Volume 3, which includes selections from Italian pianist and producer Marcello Cassanelli, and a new project from Caruso with Helen McCormack.
The legendary Marshall Allen, who has been a member of the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1958 and led the iconic group since 1995, has remarkably at the age of 100 just released his debut solo album, titled New Dawn on the Brooklyn-based label Mexican Summer .
This week’s BeatCaffeine Weekly Record Rundown highlights the brilliant new albums from Belgium-based quintet Black Flower, and legendary 86-year-old Italian pianist Mario Rusca, an impressive EP from two of Schema Records’ most notable artists in Gerardo Frisina, and Toco, along with vocalist Luzia Dvorek, and the Far Out Recordings debut of forward-thinking Brazilian multi-instrumentalist and producer Nyron Higor.
The first BeatCaffeine Weekly Record Rundown of 2025 highlights Jazzman Records’ latest volume of their highly-acclaimed Spiritual Jazz compilation series, diving deep into the vaults of the German SABA and MPS labels, a brilliant Night Dreamer direct-to-disc album from legendary Dutch-Surinamese multi-instrumentalist Ronald Snijders, a must-own 7″ from Mukatsuku Records featuring the funky sounds of Italian supergroup Addict Ameba, and a massive soulful jazzy house album from Chicago’s Vick Lavender.
For the label’s 48th release, Steve Conry’s Ten Lovers Music has recently put out Volume 2 of The Coin EP series featuring new tracks from both the Italian brother duo known as The Robinson and Japanese artist Takahiro Fuchigami.
Happy New Year! We’ve made it to the final day of 2024. For what will probably be the final BeatCaffeine “best of” list of the year, we dive into some of our favorite tracks over the past twelve months. This one definitely gets the reward for most difficult list to put together out of the bunch. Even though this list stops at 40, this could have easily been a top 100 given how great some of the music was this year.
As we wind down the final days of 2024, we take a look back at some of the essential compilation releases over the past 12 months. From tropical grooves to jazz dance, spiritual, cosmic and obscure selections from around the globe, these well-crafted records helped shine a much-needed light on some incredible gems from many under-the-radar talented artists and musicians.
