Tag: Jazz Funk
This past Sunday, March 19, 2023, I ran the Oakland Half Marathon, as a part of the week-long Oakland Running Festival. The weather was a little rainy and windy this year, but overall it’s a really great annual event that I highly recommend checking out and participating in.
The Italian-based label Eating Standing, which focuses on hi-quality reissues, has recently re-released the 1984 spiritual jazz-funk masterpiece Polygamy from producer, tenor saxophonist, and percussionist Mustafa Abdul Rahman.
DJ Amir (aka Amir Abdullah), through his 180 Proof Records, has been officially reissuing and releasing previously unheard material from Strata Records for the past decade. Now with the help of London’s BBE Music, he has put together a brilliant compilation featuring some of the most essential tracks to have come out on the legendary 70’s Detroit jazz label.
Milan-based producer Larry Manteca (aka Alessandro Paiola), who over the last decade has been publishing on Youtube 70s-inspired movie soundtracks, has recently released a brilliant new 7inch single for the outstanding Italian label Four Flies.
UK’s Far Out Recordings has recently issued the highly-anticipated previously unreleased 1975 recording, titled Starting Point, from the Brazilian fusion trio known as Grupo Um. Based out of São Paulo, the group features brothers Lelo Nazario (piano/keys) and Zé Eduardo Nazario (drums/percussion), alongside bassist Zeca Assumpção, whom made their mark performing in Hermeto Pascoal’s Grupo (included on Pascoal’s Viajando Com O Som: The Lost ’76 Vice-Versa Studio Session).
London keyboardist and pianist Charlie Stacey has been making waves over the past few years, performing with Yussef Dayes and fellow Tomorrow Warriors alumni such as Moses Boyd and The Ezra Collective. He sets out on his own, releasing his highly-anticipated debut as a leader, titled The Light Beyond Time on UK’s Night Dreamer label.
For the latest release of the fantastic Jazz Is Dead series, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad team up with two iconic legends in trombonist Phil Ranelin and Wendell Harrison, founders of the 70’s Detroit-based independent label and collective, Tribe Records.
Right on the heals of Jazz Room Records’ most recent 7inch release, Japan’s leading jazz fusion/funk trio Nautilus has recently released a brilliant new full-length on the Urban Discos label, titled Revival.
Scottish trumpeter Malcolm Strachan has been one of the most active UK musicians for over the past 20 years, recording and performing with Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse, Corinne Bailey Rae, Jamiroquai, The New Master Sounds and many others, as well as leading the notable UK jazz-funk band The Haggis Horns. He steps out on his own again and follows up his critically acclaimed 2020 solo debut album About Time with a superb new full-length on Haggis Records, titled Point Of No Return.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of arguably the greatest Afrobeat album ever recorded, in Fela Kuti and The Africa 70’s Shakara, Brooklyn’s Partisan Records has put out a special edition reissue of the two-track classic that includes an additional 7inch record featuring new renditions of both “Lady” and “Shakara (Oloje)” by one of the leading lights among the London jazz scene, Ezra Collective.
