Tag: Spiritual Jazz
The legendary Marshall Allen, who has been a member of the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1958 and led the iconic group since 1995, has remarkably at the age of 100 just released his debut solo album, titled New Dawn on the Brooklyn-based label Mexican Summer .
The first BeatCaffeine Weekly Record Rundown of 2025 highlights Jazzman Records’ latest volume of their highly-acclaimed Spiritual Jazz compilation series, diving deep into the vaults of the German SABA and MPS labels, a brilliant Night Dreamer direct-to-disc album from legendary Dutch-Surinamese multi-instrumentalist Ronald Snijders, a must-own 7″ from Mukatsuku Records featuring the funky sounds of Italian supergroup Addict Ameba, and a massive soulful jazzy house album from Chicago’s Vick Lavender.
Listen back to Saturday, December 14, 2024 BeatCaffeine Radio show on Motion FM, hosted by TJ Gorton. The broadcast looks back at just some of my favorite jazz and cosmic selections from 2024 that have yet to be played on the show including tracks by Nala Sinephro, Ezra Collective, Rosa Brunello, Lucas Arruda, Tom Funk’s The Sultan’s Swing, The Robinson, the return of Galliano, two incredible covers from Japanese based groups Nautilus and Cruisic, and so much more!
As we complete another trip around the sun, it’s that time again to start to look back on some of the best releases of 2024. Similar to previous years, we will start with the best new albums and follow it up with a deep dive into some of the standout reissues, compilations, singles, tracks and more.
UK-based producer, DJ, and musician, Lascelle ‘Lascelles’ Gordon, who was a founding member of legendary acid-jazz group The Brand New Heavies and a pioneering DJ at the legendary 1990s Wag Club, returns with his latest offering from his adventurous project Vibration Black Finger, titled Everybody Cryin’ Mercy.
New York-based keyboardist, vocalist and Alice Coltrane disciple Surya Botofasina, who was a major contributor on André 3000’s groundbreaking New Blue Sun recording, follows up his breakthrough debut Everyone’s Children with a brilliant new album on the superb London label Spiritmuse Records, titled Ashram Sun.
The 1968 spiritual soulful jazz classic Afro-Harping by pioneer jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby has recently been reissued, featuring 8 previously unreleased takes from the original recording sessions.
UPDATED: This Saturday, September 21st, I kick off my new online radio show, BeatCaffeine Radio on Motion FM. This one-hour show, which will run every other Saturday at 5pm ET & 2pm PT with a rebroadcast in-between every other week at the same time, will focus on jazz dance essentials (both classics & new releases) and cosmic spiritual grooves — basically all music on this site and more.
This week’s BeatCaffeine Weekly Rundown features some incredible boundary-pushing releases, including the brilliant new album from Nala Sinephro, Paradise Cinema’s much-anticipated sophomore release, an adventurous new recording from the Bristol-based Ishmael Ensemble, and a superb new remix 12″ from two of Gondwana Records’ standout artists in Portico Quartet and Hania Rani.
Co-founded by tenor and soprano saxophonist Søren Skov (also of Debre Damo Dining Orchestra) and keyboardist Peder Vind, Søren Skov Orbit is an experimental Danish quintet that was formed back in 2016. The group has just released their brilliant debut album, Adrift, on the superb New York-based Frederiksberg Records.
