Tag: Spiritual Jazz
This week’s BeatCaffeine Record Rundown highlights the brilliant new spiritual jazz album from Tony Burkill’s Work Money Death, a remix release from Italian bassist Rosa Brunello, the Jonny Liebeck Group’s cosmic 7-inch single on Terrasolare, and the celebratory Frisson EP Part 1 on Steve Conry’s superb Ten Lovers Music label.
For nearly a decade, London’s Tony Higgins and Mike Peden, have led the charge in reissuing some of the most adventurous and elusive Japanese jazz recordings through BBE Music’s acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series. Ahead of the highly anticipated J-Jazz Volume 5 compilation, two essential titles join the growing collection — Sachi Hayasaka & Stir Up!’s 1988 full-length Free Flight and a rare 1971 7inch from Christal Zone.
As with the new music releases of 2025, many incredible reissues and previously unreleased recordings emerged throughout the year. The recordings unearthed each year continue to amaze. As mentioned in past years, the quality of these reissue releases seems to keep improving over time.
Similar to past years, narrowing down this list was probably the most challenging task among all the year-end lists (sorry, I always forget a few worthy titles). For this list, the focus is mostly on full-length reissues, though a few standout 7-inch selections are included.
It’s that time of year again, when we look back on some of the year’s best albums. As in previous years, we’ll start with the top new releases, followed by deep dives into standout reissues, EPs, compilations, tracks, and more in the days and weeks ahead.
The superb New York-based Frederiksberg Records has unearthed and recently reissued an extremely hard-to-find mid-70’s spiritual jazz album from the Oakland ensemble The People’s People, titled The People’s People Present The Spirit Of David.
For this edition of BeatCaffeine’s Weekly Record Rundown, we highlight the second EP from the new duo project from Italian producers Nicola Conte and Nico Lahs, as well as incredible new 7inch singles from Ella & The Bossa Beat, and Chris Bangs and Mick Talbot, along with the new highly improvisational full-length from Leeds-based 15-piece spiritual jazz ensemble Ancient Infinity Orchestra.
For this week’s BeatCaffeine Record Rundown (it was a massive week for new music!), we highlight new full-length albums from both saxophonist and flautist Chip Wickham and keyboardist and producer Yoni Mayraz, along with the latest EP from UK-based The Earthsouls on Colin Curtis Presents, and the must-own 7inch by Orchestra Mambo International on Echo Chamber Recordings.
New Zealand jazz collective The Circling Sun, whom is made up of record collectors, music producers and DJs including bandleader Julien Dyne, follow-up their breakthrough debut Spirits, which was named ‘2023 BeatCaffeine Album of the Year‘ with their highly-anticipated sophomore full-length on Soundway Records, titled Orbits.
Over the span of two decades, London’s Jazzman Records’ remarkable Spiritual Jazz compilation series has been uncovering and celebrating deep, esoteric jazz from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, with each volume often focusing on a different region, theme, or influential label. For its latest installment, Spiritual Jazz 18: Behind the Iron Curtain, the label ventures deeper than ever into the hidden world of Cold War-era jazz from the Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe.
Listen back to this past Saturday, May 17th BeatCaffeine Radio show on Motion FM, hosted by TJ Gorton. The broadcast celebrates the late legendary vocalist Andy Bey, who sadly passed away recently, and also includes a number of jazz dance classics from Idris Muhammad, Norman Connors, selections from Chris Bang’s new compilation Playbox, new tracks out of Italy from Emanuele Cisi, Gerardo Frisina and Collettivo Immaginario, the latest from Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange and more!
Catching up on some recent standout releases, here is BeatCaffeine’s weekly record rundown (just a few days late) featuring the latest by Melbourne-based “future-jazz” collective Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange, Emma-Jean Thackray’s highly personal and eclectic album Weirdo, Italian saxophone great Emanuele Cisi’s brilliant new offering on the Right Tempo label, and Ten Lovers Music latest Best of Various EP.
New York-based Frederiksberg Records has recently reissued the extremely rare 1984 spiritual soul-jazz private press album, Looking For Love, by Hebrew Israelite vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Margeeah Aharon.
This week’s BeatCaffeine Weekly Record Rundown includes the incredible soul-jazz collaboration between The Lewis Express and flautist Chip Wickham, the latest offering from forward-thinking British-Bahrani trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, a beautifully lush album from North Carolina trio Okonski, and the fifth volume of legendary producer and DJ John Beltran’s must-buy-them-all Back to Bahia series.
