Category: FEATURED RELEASES
Following last year’s incredible breakthrough full-length album Bichos (named one of BeatCaffeine’s Favorite Albums of 2020) from Venezuelan-rooted group Raúl Monsalve y Los Forajidos, London-based Olindo Records has recently issued a limited-edition 7inch EP featuring superb remixed versions of two selections from the recording.
Following the group’s superb 2020 breakthrough album Worshippers, and an expansive remix release, the Munich-based ensemble Web Web, led by mastermind Roberto Di Gioia, teams up with composer, musician, and producer, Max Herre and a string of outstanding guests to release a phenomenal new 70s-era inspired spiritual jazz recording, tilted WEB MAX.
Following the breakthrough debut album Dreams Fulfilled on Acid Jazz Records, Glasgow’s Nimbus Sextet returns with an incredible new 4-track EP release, titled Helix, which features a mixture of new material and unreleased remixes.
For well over a decade, Manchester composer, saxophonist, and multi-instrumentalist Nat Birchall has released some of the most standout jazz recordings, as well as some brilliant dub-infused collaborative work with producer Al Breadwinner. He has recently released an incredible new solo African-influenced spiritual jazz album titled, Ancient Africa.
For more than a decade, acclaimed London-based pianist Greg Foat has been at the forefront of some of the best groove-oriented jazz recordings for labels like Jazzman Records, Athens Of The North, and Strut. On his latest release, he teams up with two incredible Finnish musicians in bassist Teemu Åkerblom and drummer Aleksi Heinola for a superb feline-themed album on Jazzaggression, titled Gone To The Cats.
London-based keyboard wiz Joe Armon-Jones, who is also a member of the UK Afrobeat-inspired group Ezra Collective and a regular collaborator with saxophonist Nubya Garcia, follows up his two incredible breakthrough solo releases on Gilles Peterson’s Brownwood Recordings, with a superb 10-inch single Pray on his newly launch label Aquarii.
Throughout the seventies and into the early eighties, jazz-funk legend Brian Jackson collaborated with the late great Gil Scott-Heron on some of the most forward-thinking and socially conscious music of the decade, releasing tracks like “The Bottle”, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, “Johannesburg” and numerous others. For the eighth installment in the breakthrough Jazz Is Dead series, Los Angeles based producers/multi-instrumentalists Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have teamed up with Jackson for his first new album in 20 years.
One of the last year’s best albums, and a recording that really captured the emotion of 2020 well, was New York harpist Brandee Younger and bassist Dezron Douglas Force Majeure. Following this beautifully homemade session (recorded in the couple’s apartment), Younger steps out on her own to release a brilliant full-length on Impulse!, titled Somewhere Different.
Bristol-based experimental jazz collective Ishmael Ensemble, led by saxophonist and producer Pete Cunningham, return following their breakthrough 2019 debut A State of Flow, with another brilliant and expansive new album title Visions of Light.
Every year, there are always a number of unanticipated releases that seem to come out of nowhere and become future classics. That certainly was the case with the debut release from a superb trio cast of beat makers, producers, and instrumentalists known as Turbulance, whom have recently released their incredible debut on CoOperation Records.
