Tag: Jazz
For the latest release of Jean-Claude Thompson’s fantastic If Music Presents You Need This compilation series on BBE, he turns his focus to Dutch record shop Klinkhamer Records and invites owner Michel Veenstra to compile some of his most notable “holy grails” that have come through the shop.
Highly talented Afro-French composer, bassist and vocalist Sélène Saint-Aimé returns with her second full-length release for the Komos Jazz label, titled POTOMITAN, exploring her Caribbean cultural roots.
Featuring an expanded two-part 2xLP record release, legendary UK deejay Colin Curtis presents his highly-anticipated third volume of his incredible Jazz Dance Fusion compilation series on Z Records.
Brazilian pianist Erik Escobar has released a superb new jazz funk/fusion EP with bassist Michael Pipoquinhal and drummer/percussionist Miguel Assis on Steve Conry and Cziz Hall’s Ten Lovers Music label, appropriately titled New Brazilian Trio EP.
Bristol-based saxophonist Claude Cooper has just released one of the early contenders for “Best Album of The Year” in his psychedelic jazz groove oriented debut full-length, titled Myraid Sounds on Friendly Recordings.
Bobby Cole’s vocal jazz dance classic “A Perfect Day”, from his hard-to-find 1967 album A Point of View, has just been officially reissued as a 7inch single by the German-based Tramp Records.
One of London’s most forward-thinking artists and trumpeters, Nick Walters, returns with an incredible new experimental cosmic jazz album, titled Singularity, which is built around audio samples recorded by NASA in space.
Composer, pianist and producer Jamael Dean, who is one the standout young artists among the Los Angeles jazz scene, has recently released an incredible new debut album, titled Primordial Water, on Stones Throw Records.
UK/Yorkshire-born and now Kyoto-based multi-instrumentalist Jules Brennan, who first made his mark in the 90s acid jazz and hip-hop in Nottingham, has recently released a brilliant new 7inch single on the London Diplomats Of Soul label, featuring two highly adventurous and innovative jazz-funk tracks.
Tel-Aviv based composer, producer, bassist and bandleader Shay Hazan, who released a superb 7inch single last year with his Quintet on Jazzman Records, returns with a brilliant new album, titled Reclusive Rituals on London’s Batov Records.
After 19 years since their breakthrough debut album Spirit Of The Sun in 2002, the innovative Kyoto Jazz Massive project led by two hugely influential DJs and artists among the Japanese music scene in Shuya Okino (Kyoto Jazz Sextet & owner of The Room in Shibuya) and Yoshihiro Okino (owner of Especial Records) have returned to release a highly-anticipated new album, titled Message From A New Dawn.
Putting together selections for this list, I often find that there is a blurring line as to what is an EP and what is considered an album, and some of the selections below can arguably be considered full-length recordings. Sometimes I think it’s best to leave it up to the artist’s interpretation, which to me, makes the most sense. Regardless of the category, I thought this most importantly provided another opportunity to highlight more incredible recordings that came out in 2021.
When it comes to organizing a record release, there might not be something more challenging than compiling music for a compilation. Unlike a Spotify playlist, these releases require sourcing and licensing the music, which is often much more challenging than selecting the tracks. That being said, compilations play an important part in telling a story about either a time period, a region, a sub-genre of a sub-genre and many times, all of the above. They often also serve as musical “gateway drugs” into whole worlds of lesser known music for listeners, in which they can continue to explore well beyond each release.
