Category: FEATURED RELEASES
Following the breakthrough release of 2017’s The Arrow of Time, London’s Freestyle Records has recently released the highly-anticipated third album from the Melbourne-based 9-piece spiritual jazz ensemble Menagerie, titled Many Worlds.
For over a decade, London’s Jazzman Records’ incredible Spiritual Jazz compilation series has been unearthing and shedding light on some of most essential deep jazz recordings of the sixties, seventies, and eighties, highlighting different regions of the world and groundbreaking labels like Blue Note Records, Impulse!, Prestige, and SteepleChase. Now with the 13th release of the superb series, focus now shifts to the brilliant modern-day spiritual gems of today.
Over the past year, if you tuned in and listened to either Colin Curtis or Gilles Peterson on one of their weekly Worldwide FM radio shows, more times than not, you might have been finding yourself asking the question, who’s behind this new Brit-funk outfit STR4TA that they just played? After releasing a white label twelve-inch single this fall, and a limited “make-your-own-cover-with-stickers” album release a month ago, it was just revealed this week that Peterson and the legendary Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick of notable British group Incognito, are the masterminds behind this project. With the release of their second single “Rhythm In Your Mind”, Gilles’ Brownswood label has announced that the highly-anticipated debut album, titled Aspects, is set for release in late March.
In early 2018, Oakland-based cosmic psych jazz ensemble Sitka Sun, which is the brainchild of bassist, composer, and arranger Patrick Murphy, released their self-titled debut album to immediate high praise globally. The album sold out almost upon it’s release, and saw rotation on Gilles Peterson’s BBC 6 radio show. In what is certainly one of the most anticipated releases of the new year, the group will put out their sophomore recording, titled All The Way West via The Long Road Society label on in late January.
The Poland-based Electro Acoustic Beat Sessions collective, better known as EABS, has been one of the most forward-thinking jazz groups over the past few years, releasing a number incredible recordings including their 2017 debut Repetitions (Letters To Krzysztof Komeda), 2018’s 12″ single Kraksa / Svantetic with Tenderlonious, and last year’s full-length Slavic Spirits. The innovative sextet returns with arguably their best release to date with a six-track mind-blowing tribute to the legendary Afrofuturism pioneer Sun Ra, titled Discipline of Sun Ra.
Only hours after the shocking news about MF DOOM’s passing was just beginning to circulate throughout the music world on New Year’s Eve, we heard further heartbreaking news through social media that San Francisco native, producer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and vocalist Kenyan “K-Maxx” Hopkins had suddenly and unexpectedly passed away on December 29. This devastating news sent shockwaves through the Bay Area music community and beyond.
If 2020 didn’t already cause the world enough pain, on New Year’s Eve, MF DOOM’s wife Jasmine confirmed via Instagram that the legendary hip-hop artist (aka Daniel Dumile) passed away earlier this year on October 31. This was a shocking revelation for just about everyone in the music world, with artists like Flying Lotus, Danny Brown, Q-Tip, DJ Premier, El-P, Questlove, and others immediately honoring the late great rapper/producer on their social media channels.
As we get ready to enter the new year, I’ve put together one final “favorites” list, featuring some of the best EP releases that came out over the past twelve months. Sometimes the line is blurring as to what is an EP and what is considered an album, and definitely a few of the selections below can arguably be considered full-length recordings. Regardless, I thought this provides another opportunity to highlight some of the brilliant recordings that helped get us through this very challenging year. Happy New Year everyone!
As we wind down the final days of a year that we will never forget, and begin to look ahead, it’s good to highlight some of those incredible individual tracks that helped us get through 2020. From jazz, soul, electronic music, global grooves, dance floor gems, tropical funk, and just about everything in-between, the amount of quality music that was coming out over the past twelve months was arguably as good as any year I can recall.
Similar to the work that goes into reissuing a rare recording can probably also be said for a well-crafted compilation. Often years in the making, there are a number of elements, including discovery, theme, selection of tracks, licensing, and a complimentary editorial component. This past year, a number of brilliantly timeless and curated compilations were released, some highlighting a specific genre or region, while others focused on an artist or a label. Regardless, here are some of the favorites from the past twelve months.
