Tag: Soul
For this week’s BeatCaffeine Record Rundown, we highlight a few notable releases that came out over the summer, including the new acoustic piano trio album from Greg Foat, Jihad Darwish, and Moses Boyd, plus highly recommended jazz dancefloor 7inch heaters from Central, Shuya Okino, MonsieurWilly and Natalie Nova.
Melbourne-rooted London-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Don Glori returns with his most eclectic and adventurous album to date, and first for the UK-based Mr. Bongo label, titled Paper Can’t Wrap Fire.
Brooklyn-based trumpeter Dave Guy has been a contributing member of some the most groundbreaking groups over the last twenty-plus years, including The Roots, The Dap Kings, Menahan Street Band, El Michels Affair, and The Budos Band, and has shared the stage with everyone from Amy Winehouse and Lizzo to Lee Fields, Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, and others. He now steps out on his own, and releases his debut 7inch release for Big Crown Records.
Under the guidance and direction from London-based DJ, radio broadcaster, and music producer Gilles Peterson, his reissue-focused label Arc Records has recently been diving deep into the Atlantic jazz archives, re-releasing mono versions of Max Roach’s 1968 of Members, Don’t Git Weary and Yusef Lateef’s 1969 Yusef Lateef’s Detroit Latitude 42° 30′ Longitude 83°. With the labels latest release of the series, they unearth a collection of tracks recorded by Roberta Flack in the sessions leading up to the recording of her seminal 1969 debut album First Take.
The highly-talented South London ensemble, Speakers Corner Quartet, who got their start in 2006 as the house band at the legendary Brixton spoken word/hip hop night Speakers Corner, and later as a backing group for some of today’s most forward-thinking artists (Sampha, Kae Tempest, Tirzah, Dean Blunt, the late MF DOOM, and Lianne La Havas), have stepped out on their own with a brilliant debut album featuring an A-list of special guest collaborators, titled Further Out Than The Edge.
For what seems like at least a year now, music from Los Angeles-based community choir The Voices of Creation, led by vocalist, songwriter, arranger, and producer Jimetta Rose has seen some strong rotation from the likes of some notable DJs and radio broadcasters including Kev Beadle, Colin Curtis, Gilles Peterson, David Paterson and others. The group’s highly-anticipated debut album, titled How Good It Is has recently been released on London’s Day Dreamer label (subsidiary to Night Dreamer Records).
Highly active Los Angeles-based Italian-rooted drummer and composer Tommaso Cappellato, who also runs the impressive Domanda Music label, has teamed up with Italian break dance collective Pavimento Fertile for a dance-oriented cosmic soul recording, titled Dancing Around Fire.
In what has certainly been one of the most anticipated releases of the year, Chicago’s International Anthem has unearthed and released the eponymous debut album, titled Step On Step, by the late great producer, arranger, and composer Charles Stepney (1931-1976), featuring never-heard-before 4-track tape demo recordings. During the 60s and 70s, Stepney was a essential contributor to some of the greatest recordings of that time by Earth, Wind & Fire, Terry Callier, Ramsey Lewis, The Dells, The Rotary Connection, Deniece Williams, Minnie Riperton, Marlena Shaw, Muddy Waters, and so many others.
The Diplomats Of Soul, which is a London-based label (distributed by Expansion Records) run by acclaimed DJs and diggers Mike Allin and Ralph Tee, have recently reissued drummer and vocalist Grady Tate’s very obscure and highly sought-after 1974 soul jazz rendition of Jon Lucien’s “Lady Love”.
The second wave of collaborative Jazz Is Dead releases from masterminds Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad kicks off with the first album in over 20 years from the great jazz, gospel, and soul vocalist Jean Carne.
Throughout the seventies and into the early eighties, jazz-funk legend Brian Jackson collaborated with the late great Gil Scott-Heron on some of the most forward-thinking and socially conscious music of our time, releasing tracks like “The Bottle”, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, “Johannesburg” and numerous others. Following up on last year’s collaborative effort with Jazz Is Dead, Jackson returns with his first solo album in over 20 years, titled This Is Brian Jackson on BBE.
This Saturday, April 23rd is the first of two Record Store Day’s in 2022. This now bi-annual event has become the prime day in which many labels release limited-edition or never-before-released vinyl albums, singles, compilations and reissues. While the day usually attracts many hardcore collectors, shops also often see a large influx of casual music fans and possibly a smaller number that might be buying their first record. Regardless, these are all great things.
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.
