Tag: Jazz
This past Saturday, BeatCaffeine’s TJ Gorton was a special guest on Morgan ‘Moman’ Nixon‘s weekly two-hour live video streaming show Zinelab Transmission. Often there is a weekly theme tied to each show, and in memory of one of the greatest jazz collectors from Hawaii, Melvin M. Murakami, Moman and TJ played some of their favorite new, rare, and classic jazz records.
After making their mark for a number of years hosting notable parties and events, the Bristol-based collective Worm Disco Club have launched a brand new label called Worm Discs, and have recently released a brilliant new compilation highlighting the Bristolian jazz sound, titled New Horizons.
UK label Jazzman Records has recently released a brilliant full-length album highlighting the sixties-era music of long overlooked jazz journeyman and flautist Roscoe Weathers, titled I’ll Remember.
Record Store Day has typically been an annual event that has took place in mid-April. Due to the ongoing pandemic, this year’s RSD was originally postponed to June 20th, and unfortunately moved again to now three separate Saturday dates, August 29th, September 26th, and October 24th. Even though many record stores have been able to find ways to open up again in a limited capacity, it’s safe to say like everything in 2020, this year’s RSD will be very different than what it has been in the past.
28-year-old saxophonist and composer Nubya Garcia has been one the most active and impactful artists among the current London jazz scene. Over the past few years, she has collaborated with some of the region’s most breakthrough artists and collectives, including notable recordings with both ensembles Nérija and Maisha, as well as two highly acclaimed EPs in Nubya’s 5ive (2017) and When We Are (2018). In 2019, she was the recipient of the Jazz FM UK Jazz Act of the Year Award. This week, she releases her much-anticipated full-length debut album on Concord Records, titled Source.
The London-based label Time Capsule has recently released a great new compilation EP featuring an eclectic collection of modern tropically influenced sounds that range from jazz, reggae, psych, and indigenously rooted instrumental music currently coming out of Japan.
Chicago-based composer, drummer, and producer Makaya McCraven has over the past half-decade, been one of the most groundbreaking artists in jazz, due to his unique recording approaches and post-production editing and mixing processes. The “jazz beat scientist” has just released an insightful documentary and new material from the same sessions that produced the 2018 critically-acclaimed Universal Beings album.
Legendary composer and trumpeter Charles Tolliver, who also launched and ran the now groundbreaking Strata-East label with pianist and longtime collaborator Stanley Cowell during the seventies, has just released his first studio album in 13 years, titled Connect on Gearbox Records.
London-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and producer Emma-Jean Thackray follows up two breakthrough EP recordings, including 2018’s Ley Lines and Rain Dance, which was released earlier this year, with a brilliant direct-to-disc session on the Night Dreamer label, titled Um Yang.
Soul Jazz Records has released an incredible new expansive compilation, titled Kaleidoscope: New Spirits Known & Unknown, featuring many of the groundbreaking artists that are fueling the UK jazz scene.
With some remarkable releases over the past decade on Jazzman and Gondwana Records, as well as his recently brilliant collaborative work with dub producer Al Breadwinner, Manchester-based saxophonist and composer Nat Birchall has made his mark as one of UK’s most forward-thinking musicians.
An hour long mix featuring a selection of soulful jazz-funk gems, including many that have Bay Area roots like the all-female jazz group Alive!, Oakland’s spiritual jazz ensemble Sons And Daughters Of Lite, saxophonists Bishop Norman Williams and Pharoah Sanders whom both resided for a time in the Bay Area, recording for El Cerrito-based Theresa Records. There is also some funky global jazz grooves from France, Spain, Brazil and beyond!
London-based pianist Greg Foat has dived into a wide range of sounds over the last few years on some incredible releases for both Jazzman and Athens of The North, experimenting with soul-jazz, cinematic library music, techno, pastoral acid folk, and ambient electronic tones. For his debut release on Strut Records, titled Symphonie Pacifique, Foat brilliantly brings together all of these different elements to produce his most musically expansive and forward-thinking album to date.
