Tag: Cosmic
Over this past summer, legendary Michigan-based producer and DJ John Beltran released a brilliant Brazilian-inspired jazz dance debut with the Detroit collective Sol Set, titled Olá de Novo. As a follow-up release, the tracks from the original recording have received the remix treatment and issued on a new LP, simply called Olá de Novo (the remixes).
UK’s Mr Bongo has recently released a brilliant new album from the highly creative Belarus-based collective SOYUZ (aka СОЮЗ), titled Force of the Wind. Led by composer, arranger, and singer Alex Chumak, multi-instrumentalist Mikita Arlou and drummer Anton Nemahai, the group’s third recording is heavily inspired by the popular Brazilian sounds of the 70s (known as Música popular Brasileira or MPB).
Continuing with a string of essential releases, Paul Murphy’s Jazz Room Records is releasing an incredible new double-sided 7inch featuring covers of both Azymuth’s 1979 “Jazz Carnival” and 808 State’s 1989 “Pacific 707” by jazz-meets-electronic music Tokyo-based duo Cruisic.
Since 2014, Tokyo-based jazz-funk trio Nautilus (named after Bob James’ 1974 fusion classic) has been at the forefront of the incredible music currently coming out of Japan. Led by drummer Toshiyuki Sasaki, and featuring founding bassist Shigeki Umezawa and more recent keyboardist Mariko Nakabayashi, the group is consistently active, releasing highly sought-after full-length and 7inch singles featuring a strong mix of originals and covers of timeless classics. For their sixth release(!!!) of 2022, the band has put out a brilliant new double-sided single on Japan’s Urban Discos label, titled Looking Back / Paint it Black.
London-based, Ukrainian-born harpist Alina Bzhezhinska follows up her critically acclaimed 2018 debut album Inspiration (Ubuntu Music), with a superb new full-length release featuring the HipHarpCollective on the BBE label, titled Reflections.
The London-based collective Natural Lateral, led by Aziz Mustafa (aka Tom Funk), follows up their breakthrough 2019 debut Cogito Ergo Jam with a brilliant and highly-anticipated new recording on the Social Joy label, titled Tapestry Of Life.
Formerly Chicago, and now Hawaii-based percussionist, composer, and producer Makaya McCraven has just released an incredible expansive new full-length album, titled In These Times, that has been over seven years in the making.
In just a short period of time, Italian-born Los Angeles-based drummer, producer and DJ Tommaso Cappellato‘s Domanda Music label has quickly established itself with some strong releases, including Rosa Brunello’s recent Sound Like Freedom recording, which is definitely one of the best albums of 2022. The label continues their string of impressive releases with a superb debut full-length, titled Transforma, from another of Cappellato’s collaborative projects, Collettivo Immaginario.
Over the last several years, there haven’t been many artists that have been able to release the sheer number of quality releases as composer and pianist Greg Foat. The London-based artist returns with his longstanding Greg Foat Group for the ensemble’s first full-length album in 6 years, titled Blue Lotus.
Following this past Spring’s fantastic 12″ tribute to the great Lonnie Liston Smith, and a number of superb releases for the Lovemonk label, saxophonist and flautist Chip Wickham, who divides his time between Spain, UK and the Middle-East, has released his debut full-length album on Matthew Halsall’s Manchester-based Gondwana Records, titled Cloud 10.
