Tag: Jazz
Highly accomplished UK-based DJ and producer, Lascelle ‘Lascelles’ Gordon, who was also a founding member of legendary acid-jazz group The Brand New Heavies, returns with a brilliant new Vibration Black Finger full-length album on Jazzman Records, titled Can You See What I’m Trying to Say.
On Saturday, June 20th, Kerem Gokmen invited to me to put together a guest mix for his weekly Dubmission show on the Pittsburgh, PA based independent radio station 91.3FM WYEP. Given that it was a little while since my last mix, I was honored and excited to compile a mix for this broadcast.
For this week’s Listen Here post, we are sharing a fascinating and informative episode from the Classic Album Sundays and Studio 360 podcast series This Woman’s Work, which highlights classic albums by female artists who have made a lasting impact on music and pop culture. On this episode, iconic activist and scholar Angela Davis, and drummer/composer Terri Lyne Carrington discuss Nina Simone’s 1970 classic album Black Gold, and it’s significant impact during the civil rights movement in the US.
The London-based quartet Ruby Rushton, led by composer, flautist, and producer Tenderlonious (aka Ed Cawthorne) and featuring trumpeter Nick Walters, keyboardist Aidan Shepherd, and drummer Tim Carnegie have just released a new limited-edition seven-inch single featuring two incredible Afro-tinged jazz-funk tracks including “Sun Khosi” and “Chrysalis”.
Spiritual jazz legend and multi-percussionist Kahil El’Zabar teams up again with longtime collaborator and tenor saxophone great David Murray on a brilliant new recording on Spiritmuse Records, titled Spirit Groove.
Legendary saxophonist Gary Bartz has been at the forefront of some of the greatest recordings over the past six decades, performing alongside Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders, Woody Shaw, McCoy Tyner, Jackie McLean and numerous others, while also putting out many groundbreaking records with his own bands, including the spiritual jazz ensemble NTU Troop, and collaborating with the Mizell Brothers on the jazz-funk anthem “Music Is My Sanctuary”. On his latest recording, the jazz great teams up with leading UK group Maisha on a a special straight-to-disc session for the London-based label, Night Dreamer.
Even though Austrian saxophonist and composer Muriel Grossmann has released a dozen albums over the past thirteen years, it seems that she is just beginning to receive the global-acclaim that she ultimately deserves. As a follow-up to two brilliant releases over the past couple of years for the Estonia-based RR GEMS label, in Golden Rule (2018) and Reverence (2019), UK’s Jazzman Records has released a great new compilation highlighting some of Grossmann’s earlier recordings.
In a time where the topic of mass extinction feels unfortunately very real, the Helsinki-based sextet Soft Power releases an incredibly powerful new album, titled Brink of Extinction, that sonically speaks to the importance and beauty of biodiversity on this planet.
The UK-born, Madrid-based flautist and saxophonist Chip Wickham follows-up two stellar releases in 2017’s La Sombra, and 2018’s Shamal Wind, with his most adventurous and cosmically-charged album to date in Blue To Red.
Italian drummer, composer, and producer Tommaso Cappellato, who has recently relocated to Los Angeles, has released a Sun Ra-inspired experimental cosmic jazz recording with his Astral Travel group, titled If You Say You Are From This Planet, Why Do You Treat It Like You Do?.
Led by by Melbourne saxophonist Josh Kelly, who also is a member of the future soul-jazz collective 30/70, the JK Group has recently released their incredible debut album, titled The Young Ones on La Sape Records.
Since being established in 2017, New Zealand’s Rain&Shine have been reissuing many incredible rare modern soul, disco, jazz, and gospel recordings. This month, the label continues it’s string of great releases by making available again, The Positive Force & Ade Olatunji’s 1977 almost-impossible-to-find spiritual jazz masterpiece Oracy.
The late Steve Reid is one of the greatest, and possibly most over-looked drummers of our time. First making a name for himself at the early age of 19, playing on Martha and The Vandellas’ 1964 Motown classic “Dancing In The Street,” Reid went on to play with a wide array of legendary artists from soul to jazz and Afrobeat, including Fats Domino, James Brown, Chaka Khan, Dexter Gordon, Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Randy Weston, Fela Kuti, and many others.
