Category: FEATURED RELEASES
Following this past Spring’s fantastic 12″ tribute to the great Lonnie Liston Smith, and a number of superb releases for the Lovemonk label, saxophonist and flautist Chip Wickham, who divides his time between Spain, UK and the Middle-East, has released his debut full-length album on Matthew Halsall’s Manchester-based Gondwana Records, titled Cloud 10.
Australian-based keyboardist, composer and producer David Versace, who also plays in the Meanjin nu-jazz group First Beige, has released an incredible debut album on the Melbourne label La Sape Records, titled Okra.
In what has certainly been one of the most anticipated releases of the year, Chicago’s International Anthem has unearthed and released the eponymous debut album, titled Step On Step, by the late great producer, arranger, and composer Charles Stepney (1931-1976), featuring never-heard-before 4-track tape demo recordings. During the 60s and 70s, Stepney was a essential contributor to some of the greatest recordings of that time by Earth, Wind & Fire, Terry Callier, Ramsey Lewis, The Dells, The Rotary Connection, Deniece Williams, Minnie Riperton, Marlena Shaw, Muddy Waters, and so many others.
Jazz Is Dead’s brilliant series continues with multi-instrumentalists, composers, producers, and JID masterminds Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad teaming up with one of Los Angeles’s most innovative collectives in Katalyst. Based specifically out of the Inglewood area, Katalyst is a 9-piece band that was established back in September 2014, and includes a collaborative group of producers, composers, session musicians, and writers, who continue to be at the forefront of creative music and art currently coming out Southern California.
Youthful virtuosic cosmic drum-keyboard duo DOMi and JD Beck have quickly been one of the most talked about acts this summer, releasing a great new debut album titled NOT TiGHT on Anderson .Paak’s new Apeshit Inc. label, that’s been set-up in partnership of Blue Note Records. This follows four-night sold-out residency this June at the Blue Note Jazz Festival in New York City, and numerous standout performances among the summer’s festival circuit.
Following the release of two outstanding EPs from last year, Ah-Free-Ka and Ja-Maye-Ka, Marc Mac, who is half of the groundbreaking broken beat duo 4hero, continues his exploration into sounds from around the world with a superb new EP, titled Br-Azil-Ah.
Following the release of Brian Jackson’s first solo album in 20 years on BBE Music, simply titled This Is Brian Jackson, the legendary jazz-funk multi-instrumentalist and songwriter gets the remix treatment from two of today’s best producers in Louie Vega and Josh Milan(aka Two Soul Fusion) on the track’s superb second single “Little Orphan Boy”.
Los Angeles-based composer, producer, and pianist John Carroll Kirby teams up with Canadian producer, composer, DJ and sound artist Yu Su (Ninja Tune) on an incredible new cosmic groove-oriented album on the Stones Throw label, titled Dance Ancestral.
Following the release of both their breakthrough 2019 self-titled debut EP, and last year’s standout double A-side 12″ single Baba Ayoola / Carry Me Home, the London 8-piece collective Kokoroko, led by trumpeter and vocalist Sheila Maurice-Grey, returns with their highly-anticipated full length album on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings, titled Could We Be More.
The city of Rio de Janeiro has a long well-documented history of producing some of the greatest Brazilian artists from the past century including legends like Marcos Valle, Arthur Verocai, Azymuth, Sérgio Mendes, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Jorge Ben Jor, Tim Maia, Joyce Moreno and countless others. Over the past decade, the region has had a strong resurgence of new artists presenting a more left-field take on bossa nova, samba, jazz and funk. The Sounds and Colours label celebrates these groundbreaking artists on a recently released compilation, titled Hidden Waters: Strange and Sublime Sounds of Rio de Janeiro.
