Category: FEATURED RELEASES
Highly accomplished Detroit-born drummer Gerald Cleaver, who has been a staple among the New York jazz scene performing in forward-thinking groups with artists like Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Michael Formanek, Chris Lightcap, Joshua Abrams, Craig Taborn, Steve Swell and many others, returns with an experimental new album, titled Griots, that explores the depths of electronic music.
Over the last several years, Poland has produced some of today’s most forward-thinking and innovative jazz artists and ensembles like EABS, Wojtek Mazolewski, Piotr Damasiewicz, and Bloto to just name a few. We can now add the Wrocław-based Sneaky Jesus to that last list, as the Polish quintet has just released a superb debut album, titled For Joseph Riddle on the South London label Shapes Of Rhythm.
The innovative London-based trio, featuring bassist and founding member of Ill Considered Leon Brichard, saxophonist Idris Rahman (Soothsayers), and drummer Tom Skinner (Sons of Kemet), have followed up last year’s outstanding album Season 2, with a brilliant new four-track EP, titled Better Times. This also marks the debut release on notable London-based Portuguese DJ Mafalda Daniel‘s new label Tropic of Love Music.
As we move into the warmer months of summer, it’s great to see that many of the record shops that were either closed for over a year and/or only doing online sales are finally opening up again. In my opinion, it doesn’t get much better than a Saturday trip (or any day really) to the local record shop(s). Somewhat similar to last year, this year’s typical annual Record Store Day has been broken up into not just one, but two Saturdays (or what is being referred to as “Drop 1” & “Drop 2”) on June 12th and July 17th.
For the seventh release in what continues to be an absolutely brilliant Jazz Is Dead series, Los Angeles based producers/multi-instrumentalists Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have teamed up with legendary Brazilian composer and pianist João Donato on a superb new full-length album.
In 2019, Cuban-born London-residing trumpeter Yelfris Valdés released his highly praised debut full-length album For The Ones … (named BeatCaffeine’s ‘2019 Album of The Year‘ & one of the ‘Jazz Albums of the 2010s‘ ). The incredible ten-track recording combines his Cuban roots and Yoruba traditions mixed with London-influenced jazz and electronic music. Now, through the assistance of some of the most forward-thinking producers, the dancefloor heat gets turned up tenfold as this breakthrough recording gets the remix treatment on For The Ones … Remixed.
In what comes with a remarkable backstory, London’s Far Out Recordings has reissued for the first time ever, the 1970 forgotten masterpiece from Brazilian composer, singer, and guitarist José Mauro, titled A Viagem Das Horas. This exciting new issue of the recording also includes three previously unreleased and unheard tracks from the original studio sessions.
With the warmer months and the ability to gather again upon us, Amsterdam-based label Bongo Joe and Worldwide FM radio DJ Coco María have teamed up to release one of the dance floor records of the summer with a brilliant new Afro-Latin compilation, titled Club Coco.
Following the release of last year’s incredible Color de Trópico compilation (which made the list of BeatCaffeine’s “Favorite Compilations of 2020“), the Barcelona-based label El Palmas Music returns with the highly-anticipated second volume of the series, further shining a light on some of the most obscure gems out of Venezuela during the sixties and seventies.
The brand new Belfast, Ireland-based label Sounds Familiar launches it’s “7 Inch Nails” series with two stunning tracks from Broken Beat pioneer and keyboard wiz Kaidi Tatham. This brilliant new release kicks off what will be a string of 7inch singles from the label featuring a number of extraordinary artists.
