Tag: Spiritual Jazz
Over the last several years, there haven’t been many artists that have been able to release the sheer number of quality releases as composer and pianist Greg Foat. The London-based artist returns with his longstanding Greg Foat Group for the ensemble’s first full-length album in 6 years, titled Blue Lotus.
Following this past Spring’s fantastic 12″ tribute to the great Lonnie Liston Smith, and a number of superb releases for the Lovemonk label, saxophonist and flautist Chip Wickham, who divides his time between Spain, UK and the Middle-East, has released his debut full-length album on Matthew Halsall’s Manchester-based Gondwana Records, titled Cloud 10.
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”.
Jazz Is Dead’s brilliant series continues with multi-instrumentalists, composers, producers, and JID masterminds Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad teaming up with one of Los Angeles’s most innovative collectives in Katalyst. Based specifically out of the Inglewood area, Katalyst is a 9-piece band that was established back in September 2014, and includes a collaborative group of producers, composers, session musicians, and writers, who continue to be at the forefront of creative music and art currently coming out Southern California.
Following the release of both their breakthrough 2019 self-titled debut EP, and last year’s standout double A-side 12″ single Baba Ayoola / Carry Me Home, the London 8-piece collective Kokoroko, led by trumpeter and vocalist Sheila Maurice-Grey, returns with their highly-anticipated full length album on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings, titled Could We Be More.
It’s safe to say that if we’ve learned anything over the last decade when it comes to Greg Foat, who has established himself as one of the most forward-thinking composers and pianists, is that you can “box him in” musically. It seems like each release has it’s own concept or identity, and that is certainly the case on his latest solo effort, titled Photosynthesis, which trades in jazz-funk grooves for meditative soundscapes.
South London-based composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist and virtuosic pianist DoomCannon, who first jumped onto the scene with the group Triforce (featured on the We Out Here compilation and Jazz Re:freshed release TriForce 5ive EP), has recently released his much-anticipated debut album, titled Renaissance, on Gilles Peterson’s label Brownswood Recordings.
Two of London’s groundbreaking producers, Don Pascal (Afro Atlantic/Vintage Sounds broadcasts) and Tom Funk (aka The Sultan’s Swing), team up with an incredible trio of special guests in saxophonist/flautist Tamar Osborn, drummer Myele Manzanza, and percussionist Ozan Nidayi (of Natural Lateral) on a superb limited-edition 7inch release, September Sun.
London’s Soul Bank Music is releasing a much-anticipated 2xLP live concert recording featuring electronic jazz and broken beat pioneer and multi-instrumentalist Mark de Clive-Lowe and a superb cast of LA’s most creative musicians, performing a tribute to spiritual jazz living legend Pharoah Sanders.
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.
