Category: FEATURED RELEASES
Lance Ferguson, who is a producer, guitarist, DJ, and bandleader of the Melbourne-based funk outfit The Bamboos, returns with volume two of his brilliant Rare Groove Spectrum series, featuring live band re-edits of essential jazz-funk rarities, balearic gems, Latin groovers and everything in-between.
Legendary Chicago-based multi-percussionist, bandleader, vocalist, composer, and educator Kahil El’Zabar follows-up two essential albums for London’s Spiritmuse Records, in Be Known Ancient/Future/Music and America The Beautiful, with another brilliant full-length on the label, titled A Time For Healing.
UK’s Mr Bongo label has recently released a remarkable new 7inch, featuring a brilliant new rendition of Minoru Muraoka’s Japanese folkloric-rooted breakbeat classic “The Positive and the Negative” by cinematic instrumental soul band Surprise Chef. If that wasn’t enough, the double A-side single also includes a Mr Bongo edit of the original gem.
Paris born, Los Angeles-based producer David Zylberman, who is also the keyboardist in Egyptian Lover’s spaced out synth-funk backing band, has released a brilliant new single, under the alias Ghost, featuring instrumental electro jazz-funk renditions of two seminal classics in Lonnie Liston Smith’s “Expansions” and Roy Ayers “Everybody Loves The Sunshine”.
Composer, pianist and producer Jamael Dean, who is one the standout young artists among the Los Angeles jazz scene, has recently released an incredible new debut album, titled Primordial Water, on Stones Throw Records.
The production tag team The Magic Twins, made up of Shiho and Yuhiro, have put together two phenomenal new jazz dance re-edits for a debut release on the UK’s Basic Fingers label.
UK/Yorkshire-born and now Kyoto-based multi-instrumentalist Jules Brennan, who first made his mark in the 90s acid jazz and hip-hop in Nottingham, has recently released a brilliant new 7inch single on the London Diplomats Of Soul label, featuring two highly adventurous and innovative jazz-funk tracks.
Tel-Aviv based composer, producer, bassist and bandleader Shay Hazan, who released a superb 7inch single last year with his Quintet on Jazzman Records, returns with a brilliant new album, titled Reclusive Rituals on London’s Batov Records.
After 19 years since their breakthrough debut album Spirit Of The Sun in 2002, the innovative Kyoto Jazz Massive project led by two hugely influential DJs and artists among the Japanese music scene in Shuya Okino (Kyoto Jazz Sextet & owner of The Room in Shibuya) and Yoshihiro Okino (owner of Especial Records) have returned to release a highly-anticipated new album, titled Message From A New Dawn.
As we wind down the final days of 2021 and look ahead to 2022 (with so many questions regarding what the future or this virus has in store), here is one more “look back” at the past twelve months — exploring some of the best individual tracks that helped us all get through this (still very much) challenging year. Happy New Year everyone, and more importantly, stay healthy and safe!
