Japanese trio Nautilus covers Gil Scott-Heron & Jessica Lauren on Jazz Room Records 7inch
Paul Murphy’s superb label, Jazz Room Records is back at it again, releasing a brilliant 7inch single featuring two excellent dancefloor primed covers by Tokyo’s remarkable jazz-funk trio Nautilus.
The A-side features a funky broken beat rendition of Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson’s iconic 1971 soul-jazz classic “Lady Day And John Coltrane,” with additional vocals by Kei Owada. On the flip, the group does an incredible version of the jazz dance groover “Serengeti”, originally released in 1994 by UK keyboard wiz Jessica Lauren. Both tracks were originally released on one of the trio’s first two CD-only albums, Nautiloid Matter (2015) and Deeper and Deeper (2016). These titles can also be found on the group’s 2017 Nautiloid Quest compilation, as well on a couple limited-edition 7inch singles.
With the group’s earliest material extremely hard to come by and skyrocketing in price, it’s great to see these two gems re-released and made available again. Plus, when it comes to new versions of jazz-funk and fusion essentials, their is probably nobody doing that better right now than Nautilus.
Nautilus — ‘Lady Day And John Coltrane / Serengeti’
(Jazz Room Records)
A SIDE: Lady Day And John Coltrane
B SIDE: Serengeti
