Tag: Spiritual Jazz
Not only did we see a ton of great new music released in 2020, there was also an abundance of extremely hard-to-find recordings being reissued throughout the year. Similar to how difficult it was to put together the “Favorite Albums” list, it has been just as challenging to dive into all the great reissues, and generate a similar “Favorites” list.
Making the most out of what has truly been an extremely difficult year for musicians (and just about everyone), New York bassist Dezron Douglas and harpist Brandee Younger have released a brilliant and uplifting album, titled Force Majeure on Chicgao’s International Anthem label, featuring recordings from their weekly live-stream sessions “Force Majeure: Brunch in the Crib with Brandee & Dezron”.
Since the breakthrough of his 2016 album Day to Day, US-born, Indian-raised, London-based drummer, percussionist, composer Sarathy Korwar has been releasing some of the most forward-thinking records, fusing together East African, Sufi and Indian influences with jazz, electronic music, and hip-hop. On his most recent release for the Netherland-based Night Dreamer label, he teams up with an all-star group of musicians, under the name UPAJ Collective (“UPAJ” means “to improvise” inHindi), for a fully improvised spiritual jazz session.
London-based reissue label, Outernational Sounds, who has been releasing many incredible albums over the past few years, has just made available for the first time outside of South Africa, one of the most sought-after and obscure international jazz recordings in Kirk Lightsey and Rudolph Johnson with the All Stars’ 1974 funky spiritual jazz holy-grail Habiba.
For over a decade, composer, trumpeter, producer, DJ and founder of Gondwana Records, Matthew Halsall has consistently been at the forefront of UK’s thriving jazz scene. His 2012 masterpiece Fletcher Moss Park was named one of BeatCaffeine’s best albums of the decade. He returns with his first full-length recording as a leader since 2015, titled Salute To The Sun, featuring a brilliant new band that includes some of the finest young musicians currently residing in Manchester.
Earlier this year, Gilles Peterson‘s new reissue label Arc Records re-released, for the first time, Tino Contreras‘ independent 1978 psych-jazz recording Musica Infinita, introducing the 96-year-old Mexican artist to new generations of listeners. The musical relationship between Gilles, Tino, and musician/record collector Carlos Icaza, who first introduced the two, has continued with Gilles’ other label, Brownswood Recordings, releasing a great new album from the prolific composer and drummer, titled La Noche de los Dioses.
Chilean composer, percussionist, keyboardist, and producer Enrique Rodríguez and his Negra Chiway Band have released an incredible spiritual jazz album on London’s Soul Jazz Records, titled Fase Liminal.
Over the past couple of years, New York City’s avant-jazz-meets-spoken word collective Irreversible Entanglements has stormed on the scene and have been one of the most creative and thought-provoking bands in jazz. Two of the group’s closest members in trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and drummer Tcheser Holmes have come together again to release a brilliant and wildly adventurous duo album titled Heritage of the Invisible II on Chicago’s International Anthem label.
In the run up to the US Election on November 3rd, Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide FM has put together an incredible thought-provoking series America 2020, which explores the theme of ‘What it means to be American in 2020’. The series has included mixture of inspired music and spoken word interviews from some of the most groundbreaking artists across all genres including Lady Blackbird, Algiers, Pan Amsterdam, Tune-Yards, Kahil El’Zabar and more.
Afro-futurism pioneers, and still the greatest band in the universe, under the direction of maestro Marshall Allen, who has been leading the Arkestra since Sun Ra left the planet in 1993, have just released their first studio album in over twenty years, titled Swirling on Strut Records.
