Giovanni Falzone Quintet - Pianeti Affini (CAM JAZZ RECORDS 2017)

Jazz has countless possible combinations. Through Pianeti Affini (trans. “Kindred Planets”) Giovanni Falzone and CAM JAZZ tried out an unusual quintet consisting of trumpet, accordion, trombone, bass and drums and, last but not least, electronics. Throughout more than an hour of music, these six instruments just kept pulling apart and then coming together again in an endless variety of amazing expressions of sound, timbre, rhythm and harmony that are forceful or vibrant and syncopated or hallucinogenic, poignant, distressing or graceful.  All the elements in jazz must be mixed with non-stop imagination to obtain this wealth of designs:  improvisation, pressing interaction, exchanges, swing and playfulness, but also all the technical and formal exactness required to “create as they go”. On further reflection, like some breathtaking fireworks, the most stunning musical forms, even impromptu forms, only develop when precise conditions – rules – processes exist, failing which such forms would be unfeasible. Exactness enables the conveyance of the true richness of this musical genre and unveils the underlying, unexpected similarities between worlds that only appear distant.  Listening to Giovanni Falzone on trumpet, Filippo Vignato on trombone, Fausto Beccalossi on accordion, Giulio Corini on bass and Alessandro Rossi on drums makes us discover five Kindred Planets. Their similarity, so intensely sought and found in those thousand expressions of sound, timbre, rhythm and harmony, is nothing but Jazz.

Recorded in Cavalicco on 2 - 3 February 2017 at Artesuono Recording Studio

Recording engineer Stefano Amerio

1 Pianeti Affini 6:22

2 Rosso Marte 9:45

3 Il Sole E La Luna 7:28

4 La Danza Di Venere 6:15

5 Dimensione Oscura 4:17

6 Stella Nascente 6:54

7 Terra 6:32

8 Mari 6:24

Giovanni Falzone ( Trumpet )

Filippo Vignato ( Trombone )

Fausto Beccalossi ( Accordion )

Giulio Corini ( Bass )

Alessandro Rossi ( Drums )

Oscar Feldman - Gol (ZOHO MUSIC 2017)

Naming an uncompromising jazz album in commemoration of a soccer victory is not as strange as it may appear, for sports and the creative arts share an ability to unite diverse people in a sense of community that grows rarer every day. As we become ever more autonomous, as civic and religious ties continue to fray, sports and the arts remain the stages that bring us together and unite us in our passions. The cheers that are heard on “Viva Belgrano” echo those we encounter when the best musicians touch us with their passion, imagination and soul.

I’ve heard Oscar Feldman have that effect on a crowd, whether at a large festival like that in Punta del Este, Uruguay, where I first heard him perform, or in the closer quarters of Buenos Aires’ legendary coffee house El Tortoni, where I was privileged to hear him sit in with one of his mentors, pianist Horacio Larumbe. The saxophonist’s technique is beyond reproach, and his ideas are fresh and commanding, but what really got to me and the other listeners was his passionate, attention-grabbing sound.

“I immediately liked my sound,” Feldman explains with a laugh. “It was primitive, and I learned to develop it, but I was happy with where I started; and playing with a lot of singers made me see that it was important to go for more than just straight jazz technique. Gato Barbieri felt that way, too, that your sound is the source. Some people emphasize lines, where I put more effort into living every note.”

Feldman was born and raised in Cordoba, Argentina, where his father was the Director of Culture and owned an art gallery. “He had bought a saxophone to learn himself, but quickly realized that he didn’t have the time to develop like Coltrane and the other guys he was listening to on records. I got his sax in 1976, and really started to grow when I went to the local conservatory in ‘78,” Feldman explains. After becoming a founding member of the band Los Musicos del Centro and working with two of South America’s most influential artists, Hermeto Pascoal and Dino Saluzzi, Feldman moved to Buenos Aires, where he became immersed in that city’s jazz scene for the next decade. 

In 1992, Feldman won a scholarship to Berklee College in Boston. When his studies were complete, he moved to New York, and over the past two decades has been heard with leaders including Al Di Meola, Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Samuels and Bebo Valdes. He has also previously recorded under his own name, most recently on the 2009 release Oscar e Familia (Sunnyside).

While original compositions were well represented on that collection, GOL (= goal) includes only one. “These are songs that I’ve been playing for a while, and each piece has gotten to the point where it feels like mine,” Feldman notes. “The program reflects how I want to hear music as a listener.” It is also well balanced between Feldman’s two primary horns, the soprano and alto saxophones.

The band Feldman has assembled is comprised of longstanding friends. “We all share the same vision, which means being eclectic enough to play a wide range of music. I can go from a bolero to more contemporary styles, so everyone has to be able to react spontaneously in all directions. Leo Genovese on piano gives me a lot of freedom and a dreamy quality, John Benitez brilliantly commands both acoustic and electric bass, and Antonio Sanchez on drums has grown so much since we met at Berklee. I met composer and vocalist Guillermo Klein there as well, although we’re both Argentinians.”

I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart is an arrangement originally written for Paquito D’Rivera. By stretching the meter, Feldman gives a more contemporary spin to the Ellington classic. “Just repeating something as wonderful as Johnny Hodges’ approach would be pathetic,” Feldman insists. “I want to transform standards so they become one of my songs.” He does the job here with an alto solo that builds in emotion, a path that Genovese also pursues in the subsequent piano choruses.

Composer Klein’s vocal is featured on La Cancion Que Falta. Feldman translates the title as “The Song That is Missing,” and notes a double entendre in the line where the singer says that he will “give it to her,” which reflects the combination of force and tenderness in the soprano solo. After Genovese’s spot, Feldman gives his own heartfelt reading to the mesmerizing melody. 

Viva Belgrano, the lone Feldman original, celebrates a famous goal that sent his hometown football team from the second to the first league. The composer is on alto, and the band moves seamlessly through the shifting form, with the announcer’s ecstatic call emerging out of Sanchez’s cymbals after the solos. “He talks about `the pride of being a pirate, because the team gained the nickname Pirates after some in-game incidents,” Feldman explains. “When they celebrate a goal, they cover one of their eyes like a pirate rather than raising a fist. The announcer thanks God for life, the founder of Cordoba, the Jesuits, and `tonight, which not even a date with the most beautiful babe will beat.’”

Murmullo is a traditional Cuban bolero popularized in the 1930s by composer Electo `Chepin' Rosell's band `Chepin-Choven’. “It’s a very old one,” Feldman confirms. “I played it with a singer and found it so simple and beautiful, a change from the typical ballad standard.” It gets his juices flowing on soprano, and also features a commanding bass solo by Benitez.

The fierce improvising that Feldman (on soprano), Genovese (on electric piano) and Sanchez (over intense rhythm section support) apply on Klein’s N.N. based on the chacarera rhythm, reflects another side of Feldman’s homeland. “The title stands for `No Name,’ which is a reference to the disappeared in Argentina,” he explains. “The song is dedicated to Guido Carlotto, whose birth parents were disappeared during the dictatorship.” 

Beck’s Nobody’s Fault but My Own appealed to Feldman as “kind of Beatlesish, with a George Harrison vibe.” It features alto, electric piano and a lengthy and galvanizing coda. “We had to go through two boring takes to find the groove we were all looking for,” Feldman admits, “but once we found it we knew.” 

Is That So? which shows no strains in its finger-popping rhythm, hides its challenges in its structure. Feldman learned the Duke Pearson classic at one of the jam sessions he regularly attends in Manhattan Plaza, the midtown high-rise where he and many prominent artists live. “I wish I could write like that, straight-ahead but unique, where it sounds easy until you try to play it,” he comments, though any formal shifts are traversed smoothly in the alto and piano solos. For variety, Benitez and Sanchez trade eights.

For the collection’s final transformation, Feldman plays I Feel Fine in a soulful seven, with the bridge set at a slower waltz tempo. “Many people do harmonic modulations, but I find meter modulations interesting, and they work well with this harmony. I love the way it gets `smoky’ at the bridge, then goes back to reality. It has a blues feeling in the main melody, then the bridge gives the improvisers a surprise. You have to change emotional and musical gears to tell the story.” This presents no problem for Feldman (on alto) and Genovese, and takes “GOL” out with a return to a mood of unbridled celebration.
Bob Blumenthal

Produced by: Oscar Feldman. Recorded at: Bacque Recordings, Roselle, NJ on June 14 and 15, 2015. Recording and mastering engineer: Luis Bacque. Studio photography by: Maria Postigo. Album cover and design by: Fran Pontenpie. Executive Producers: Robert Powley, Joachim “Jochen” Becker.

1 I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart 8:18

2 La Cancion Que Falta 7;31

3 Viva Belgrano 8:19

4 Murmullo 7:04

5 N.N. 8:24

6 Nobody's Fault But My Own 11:45

7 Is That So? 8:12

8 I Feel Fine 6:05

OSCAR FELDMAN alto and soprano sax

LEO GENOVESE piano, keyboards

JOHN BENITEZ acoustic and electric bass

ANTONIO SANCHEZ drums

GUILLERMO KLEIN vocals and keyboards (2)

Satoko Fujii w/ Wadada Leo Smith, Natsuki Tamura, Ikue Mori – Aspiration (LIBRA RECORDS September 8, 2017)

Dazzling group rapport sparks brilliant performance on Aspiration

featuring Satoko Fujii, Wadada Leo Smith, Natsuki Tamura and Ikue Mori

"Under Satoko Fujii's leadership, every member of an ensemble is empowered to thrive and when musicians of this caliber thrive, otherworldly improvised music results. Four musicians who regularly aspire for greater heights with each venture reach the summit together on Aspiration." - S. Victor Aaron, Something Else Reviews

The group chemistry is magical on pianist-composer Satoko Fujii's Aspiration, featuring an all-star quartet with trumpeters Wadada Leo Smith and Natsuki Tamura, and laptop player Ikue Mori. The nearly telepathic link among them takes the music into places where it grows ever deeper and more intuitive. Each track on the album is so vividly alive in the moment and with a character so distinct that it seems to become an animate thing independent of its creators. The artists are almost subservient to the music rather than the other way around. The album will be released September 8, 2017, via Fujii's Libra Records.

It's little wonder the album is so subtle and intimate, given the artists involved. Although this is the first time they have worked together as a group, there are ties among them that contribute to the music's beauty and coherence. Smith and Mori displayed an uncommonly close rapport during their duets on Smith's Luminous Axis (Tzadik). "I knew Wadada and Ikue had worked together before," Fujii says, "but that's not why I asked Ikue to join us. Natsuki and I had played with Ikue before on several occasions and we had a great time. When I started composing for the project with Wadada, I heard Ikue's sound in my ears." Of course, Fujii and Tamura share an intimate bond developed over several decades of working together and especially in their duo music, which they've recorded five times since 1997.

Once they came together in the studio, creating the music was easy, Fujii says. "I could feel a kind of calm confidence when we were together. I knew that we were going to make good music."

Fujii's intuition about the quality of the music proved correct. They venture into the mysteries and potentials - and the risks - of the quartet with fearless openness and discipline. On each track, every aspect of sound production is in spontaneous flux-rhythm, melody, dynamics, texture, density, silence. There is no telling where the music may lead. On "Intent," the unfixed quality keeps the listener on edge in anticipation of where the music will flow next. As the members of the band move in and out of the music, each sonic event blossoms with vibrant immediacy, and fades away as the music evolves. "Floating" opens with extraordinarily graceful piano from Fujii while Mori orchestrates textures and rhythms in parallel to her.

About five minutes in, Smith makes a dramatic entrance and a three-way conversation ensues before Tamura brings the piece to a quiet ending. It's one of the most elusive and obliquely lyrical tracks on the disc, and there isn't a note out of place. Tamura's "Stillness" is a piece of complementary contrasts with a contemplative start that suddenly erupts into roiling energy and subsides. Again, there's a sense of inevitability that feels organic. Even the unaccompanied solos that crop up throughout the performances-for instance, Tamura's sculptural opening to "Evolution," or Fujii's solo later in that same piece-are shaped to function within the context of the composition.

Fujii, Smith, Tamura, and Mori gathered without preconceived notions about what must happen as they play. Instead they discovered together what the music could do, and nurtured it to its fullest expression. In the end, Aspiration is about more than music-it is about sharing and working together, about finding something beautiful and making it more so, and about the spiritual bonds that unite us all. 

Critics and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko Fujii as one of the most original voices in jazz today. She's "a virtuoso piano improviser, an original composer and a bandleader who gets the best collaborators to deliver," says John Fordham in The Guardian. In concert and on more than 80 albums as a leader or co-leader, she synthesizes jazz, contemporary classical, avant-rock and Japanese folk music into an innovative music instantly recognizable as hers alone. Over the years, Fujii has led some of the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music, including the ma-do quartet, the Min-Yoh Ensemble, and an electrifying avant-rock quartet featuring drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins. She has also established herself as one of the world's leading composers for large jazz ensembles, leading Cadence magazine to call her, "the Ellington of free jazz." Her ultimate goal: "I would love to make music that no one has heard before."

Trumpeter and composer Natsuki Tamura is internationally recognized for his unique musical vocabulary blending extended techniques with jazz lyricism. This unpredictable virtuoso "has some of the stark, melancholy lyricism of Miles, the bristling rage of late '60s Freddie Hubbard and a dollop of the extended techniques of Wadada Leo Smith and Lester Bowie," observes Mark Keresman of JazzReview.com. Throughout his career, Tamura has led bands with radically different approaches. On one hand, there are avant rock jazz fusion bands like his quartet, whose album Hada Hada Peter Marsh of the BBC described this way: "Imagine Don Cherry woke up one morning, found he'd joined an avant goth-rock band and was booked to score an Italian horror movie."

In contrast, Tamura has focused on the intersection of folk music and sound abstraction with Gato Libre since 2003. The band's poetic, quietly surreal performances have been praised for their "surprisingly soft and lyrical beauty that at times borders on flat-out impressionism," by Rick Anderson in CD Hotlist. In addition, Tamura has recorded five CDs in his ongoing duo with pianist (and wife) Satoko Fujii. Tamura also collaborates on many of Fujii's projects, from quartets and trios to big bands. As an unaccompanied soloist, he's released three CDs, including Dragon Nat (2014). He and Fujii are also members of Kaze, a collaborative quartet with French musicians, trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins. "As unconventional as he may be," notes Marc Chenard in Coda magazine, "Natsuki Tamura is unquestionably one of the most adventurous trumpet players on the scene today."

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music, trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most boldly original and influential artists of our time. Transcending the bounds of genre or idiom, he distinctly defines his music, tirelessly inventive in both sound and approach, as "Creative Music." For the last five decades, Smith has been a member of the legendary AACM collective, pivotal in its wide-open perspectives on music and art in general. He has carried those all-embracing concepts into his own work, expanding upon them in myriad ways. Smith received the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award and earned an honorary doctorate from CalArts, where he was also celebrated as Faculty Emeritus.

In addition, he received the Hammer Museum's 2016 Mohn Award for Career Achievement "honoring brilliance and resilience." In 2017 Smith topped three categories in DownBeat Magazine's 65th Annual Critics Poll: Jazz Artist, Trumpet and Jazz Album (for America's National Parks on Cuneiform.)  Smith was also honored by the Jazz Journalists Association as their 2017 Musician of the Year as well as the 2017 Duo of the Year for his work with Vijay Iyer.  Born December 18, 1941 in Leland, Mississippi, Smith's early musical life began at age thirteen when he became involved with the Delta blues and jazz traditions performing with his stepfather, bluesman Alex Wallace. He received his formal musical education from the U.S. Military band program (1963), the Sherwood School of Music (1967-69), and Wesleyan University (1975-76).

Smith has released more than 50 albums as a leader. His 2016 recording, America's National Parks, a six-movement suite inspired by the scenic splendor, historic legacy, and political controversies of the country's public landscapes, earned a place on numerous best of the year lists including the New York Times, NPR Music and many others. Smith's landmark 2012 civil rights opus Ten Freedom Summers was called "A staggering achievement [that] merits comparison to Coltrane's A Love Supreme in sobriety and reach."

Laptop musician, composer, and percussionist Ikue Mori first gained attention in the late '70s as the drummer in the seminal No Wave band DNA, with fellow noise pioneers Arto Lindsay and Tim Wright. In the mid '80s she started in employ drum machines in the context of improvised music. While limited to the standard technology provided by the drum machine, she nevertheless forged her own highly sensitive signature style. In 2000 she started using the laptop computer to expand on her already signature sound, thus broadening her scope of musical expression.

Mori has released more than 20 albums as a leader or co-leader with innovative bands such as Mephista with pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and drummer Susie Ibarra; and Phantom Orchard with harpist Zeena Parkins. She is a frequent member of ensembles led by John Zorn, and was a featured soloist with Ensemble Modern on guitarist-composer Fred Frith's Traffic Continues (Winter & Winter). Her most recent releases are Obelisk with Courvoisier, Okkyng Lee, and Jim Black; and Highsmith, a duo with pianist Craig Taborn, both on Tzadik.

www.satokofujii.com

Lauren Kinhan - A Sleepin' Bee (Tribute to Nancy Wilson) October 6, 2017

Lauren Kinhan Pays Tribute to Legendary Vocalist Nancy Wilson in Transformative Fashion on the First All-Standards Album of her Career

A Sleepin' Bee uses Wilson's iconic collaborations with Cannonball Adderley and George Shearing as the starting point for a unique take on the tribute album

"Lauren Kinhan is a tremendously gifted jazz singer." - Christopher Loudon, JazzTimes

"Her luscious, velvet voice is a good place to rest your weary head." - Ken Blanchard, Jazznote SD    

"A vocal tour de force" - Jazz Journal, Sally Evans-Darby

CD Release Concerts:

November 8, 2017 - Red Room @ Café 939, WBGO Live Stream - Boston, MA

January 3, 2018 - JEN Convention - Inspiration Stage - Dallas, TX

Whether on her own highly-acclaimed albums, as a 25-year member of the beloved vocal group New York Voices, or as co-founder of two diverse and inventive supergroups, Moss and JaLaLa, singer/songwriter Lauren Kinhan has always forged her own path as a performer, composer and improviser. With her latest, A Sleepin' Bee (due out October 6 on her own Dotted i Records), Kinhan once again steers herself in unexpected directions with a new release that is at once the first all-standards collection of her career, a loving tribute to legendary vocalist Nancy Wilson, and unmistakably a Lauren Kinhan album - with all the unique perspective and idiosyncratic personality that has come to imply.

If the sudden appearance of an album's worth of standards in a catalogue dominated by original songs comes as a surprise, the process of its creation is just as atypical. While Kinhan spent much of 2016 conceiving, rehearsing and workshopping the project, the circumstances of the recording arose suddenly through the auspices of her alma mater, Berklee College of Music. The session suddenly became an educational opportunity as well as a record date, providing a small group of Berklee students the invaluable privilege of observing and engaging in a recording session at the highest level.

First and foremost, though, A Sleepin' Bee is a celebration of Nancy Wilson on the occasion of the genre-hopping singer's 80th birthday. While Kinhan shares Wilson's penchant for blurring stylistic boundaries, her choice of material focuses on Wilson's early jazz albums, particularly her collaborations with Cannonball Adderley and George Shearing. Those recordings proved to be a jumping-off point for Kinhan, who utterly transforms these classic and obscure numbers with the help of pianist/creative partner Andy Ezrin and veteran producer Elliot Scheiner as well as a stellar band featuring bassist Matt Penman, drummer Jared Schonig and special guest trumpeter Ingrid Jensen.

With three brilliant albums of her own songs under her belt, not to mention her game-changing work with three distinctive vocal groups and wide-ranging collaborations with singular artists from Ornette Coleman to Bobby McFerrin, Kinhan decided it was finally time to create an album more in line with the jazz tradition of interpreting a book of standards. Of course, Kinhan has never been one to follow an obvious route, so the results quickly became something wholly her own. "I approached this project similarly to the way I write songs, except that in this case that creativity was expressed in the arranging and approach to the lyrics," she explains. "I wanted to make an album that was inspired by Nancy Wilson but still conveys my point of view in the way that I think about, interpret and reimagine music."

The starting point for the project quickly became Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley, the 1961 album on which the 24-year-old singer was backed by Adderley's incredible quintet with his brother Nat, pianist Joe Zawinul, bassist Sam Jones and drummer Louis Hayes. Kinhan had fallen in love with the album as a young girl searching through her parents' record collection, enamored with both Wilson's soulful voice and her elegant image. "I remember being 7 or 8, staring at the cover of this beautiful woman in a yellow dress and connecting with the songs, the arrangements and the bite of her tone. I know those songs like I know the songs of Carole King and Joni Mitchell. So revisiting them, they feel like a favorite cashmere sweater."

The 12 tracks on Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley were evenly split between vocal and instrumental pieces, and Kinhan interprets all but one of the vocal tunes on A Sleepin' Bee. To fill out the repertoire, she began delving into Wilson's catalogue - only reaching 1964 before she had more than enough to work with. The remaining repertoire is carefully cultivated from Wilson's early-60s releases, the bulk of it coming from The Swingin's Mutual!, Wilson's 1960 collaboration with pianist George Shearing.

"In a way," Kinhan says, "A Sleepin' Bee is also a tribute to Cannonball and George Shearing and the fine musicians that played on the original recordings. The pairing of the voice and great players is what it's all about. It's never just about singing for me; it's the whole creative spectrum of arranging notes and form, and connecting with the musicians."

Those elements are combined and rearranged in disparate and intriguing ways throughout A Sleepin' Bee, from the laid-back swing of "Let's Live Again" to the haunted melancholy of "You Don't Know What Love Is," whether stretching the melody like taffy on "Never Will I Marry" (parried by Berklee classmate Jensen's darting trumpet) or finding a playfully bold character at the heart of the title tune. She effectively melds Nat Adderley's "The Old Country" with Billy Strayhorn's "Passion Flower," and fully imbues "Born To Be Blue" with the remorseful mood inherent in its title. Kinhan's vulnerable, stripped-down version of "Save Your Love For Me" completely reimagines Wilson's iconic take - which Kinhan previously performed both with and for Wilson herself, first on a recording with the New York Voices and later with the Voices as part of Wilson's 2004 induction as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.

Perhaps the most surprising inclusion is Wilson's debut single, "Guess Who I Saw Today," whose lyrics haven't exactly aged well. Kinhan puts a new twist on the tune not only with her sly vocal performance - which acidly comments on a song that frames its tale of infidelity with some decidedly Eisenhower-era social mores - but with an updated arrangement that makes the song her own, apart from Wilson's quintessential version.

"You better have a perspective on this song, especially as a woman who's been an outspoken feminist my whole life," Kinhan says. "It's not that cheating is old-fashioned; it's the way that the story is pitched from the beginning, drawing an outmoded picture of marriage where the woman stays home, does the shopping and dotes on her husband, who spends his day at work. To chew on those words was so strange - but it was also fun to hold that mirror up to society and look at its absurdity."

"(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am" was a fresh discovery for Kinhan in her research for the project. Despite Wilson's recording having won a Grammy in 1964, it was not that version but a less ornate live rendition that grabbed Kinhan's ear, and she takes a similar approach, powerfully singing with gospel-inflected soul accompanied only by Ezrin's lyrical piano and Penman's subtle bass. The at times inane lyrics of "Happy Talk" are sent up in a slapstick carnival atmosphere to close the album on a particularly offbeat note.

Recording the album with multiple Grammy-winner Elliot Scheiner at Berklee's state-of-the-art Shames Family Scoring Stage meant turning the studio into a classroom, a prospect that at first seemed daunting but that Kinhan quickly embraced. "The students brought a performance atmosphere to the session that was beautiful," she says. "Normally recording sessions can make you incredibly self-conscious, often putting yourself under the microscope, but knowing there was an audience was really liberating. The students witnessed great players laying it down right in front of their eyes, and that made for an inspired environment. The added bonus of sharing Nancy Wilson's legacy with them was a Sleepin' Bee we hope to have reawakened for generations to come."

laurenkinhan.com

Jacob Bro - Live in Basel (2017)

1 Gefion

02 Copenhagen

03 Daybreak

04 Mild

05 Sisimiut

06 Motion

07 Evening song

Jakob Bro - Guitar

Thomas Morgan - Double Bass

Joey Baron - Drums

Recorded at Jazz Festival Basel 4 maggio 2017

The Heliocentrics - The Sunshine Makers OST (SOUNDWAY RECORDS 2017)

London psychedelic jazz collective The Heliocentrics have their roots in the ‘90s when drummer Malcolm Catto recorded for Mo’Wax and Jazzman. They recorded their breakthrough album for Stones Throw, ‘Out There’ in 2007 and have since become known for their superb collaborations with legends including Ethio jazz pioneer Mulatu Astatke, jazzman Lloyd Miller and Afro soul Godfather, Orlando Julius.

1. The Sunshine Makers 03:11

2. The History Of LSD 03:17

3. Pretitle 02:40

4. 200 Kilos 01:00

5. Sold Out 03:33

6. Chase Scene 04:09

7. Being Watched 01:39

8. Post Reunion 01:19

9. The Acid Trial 02:36

10. Historic 02:38

11. Escape 01:51

12. Scene Goes Bad 01:03

13. Tim In Prison 02:25

14. Uptown Street Scene 02:46

15. The Trip (Title) 03:22

16. Owsley Bust Scene 01:48

17. The Brotherhood Of Eternal Love 02:01

18. Bikers 02:02

19. Pretitle (Alternate Version) 02:42

Wolfgang Haffner - Kind of Spain (ACT MUSIC 2017)

Tobias Delius / Nicola Hein / Niklas Wandt - Anthropophagus III (IMPAKT 2017)

1. Die Unvorstellbarkeit des Todes für einen Lehrenden 6:20

2. Galoppierende Schwindsucht 9:33

3. Noise And Nothing 10:06

4. Brennstabentwendung 10:08

Tobias Delius tenor saxophone, clarinet 

Nicola Hein eectric guitar 

Niklas Wandt percussion, voice

Recorded on October 11, 2015 by Marko Birkner at Nalepa-Studios Berlin 

Mixed & mastered by Timo Hein at IMM Studios Düsseldorf 

Cover art and design by Christoph Balduin Stroppel 

www.nicolahein.com 

www.niklaswandt.com 

www.impakt-koeln.de

TRIBALISTAS Entire album available!

Fifteen years after the spectacular worldwide success of the first album by the Tribalistas, Marisa Monte, Arnaldo Antunes and Carlinhos Brown are getting together again for a new musical adventure. The new album will arrive by the end of ths month on digital platforms.

On a surprise Facebook Live this Wednesday night, August 9th, Tribalistas revealed, first hand, four of the ten tracks of their brand new album. The unexpected show of the trio formed by Arnaldo Antunes, Carlinhos Brown and Marisa Monte started at 11 PM, Brazil time, and was streamed live at the artists's and Spotify's fan pages on Facebook. Thousands of followers inBrazil and in more than 50 countries joined the 60-minute performance that was broadcasted live from a studio in Rio de Janeiro.

Accompanied by musicians Dadi, Cézar Mendes and Pedro Baby, Tribalistas performed their new songs Diáspora, Um Só, Fora da Memória and Aliança. The trio also answered a few questions sent live by fans and Spotify and explained why it took them 15 years to release a new project.

From today on, the first four singles were made available in Spotify and all digital platforms worldwide. The videos of the four songs, directed by Dora Jobim, can be watched on Itunes/Apple Music and Facebook. The group, in a partnership with Spotify and Facebook, also developed specially for the release an exclusive mobile interactive tool that innovated the digital music consumption: the Hand Album. Whoever access any of their pages on the social network via smartphone will find in a single environment all content related to the songs: lyric videos, chords, production credits, backstage photos and videos excerpts in vertical format. The tool also allows the user to access Spotify to listen the songs.

Released in 2002, the first CD/DVD od Tribalistas reached a more than 3 million sales mark and soon became a phenomenon in many countries around the world - notoriously in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, United States and Colombia.

Un Blonde shares new track from 'Good Will Come To You' Flemish Eye Records reissue

Un Blonde

Shares new bonus track ‘The Real Way (Reprise)’

HERE

‘Good Will Come to You’

Out September 22nd via Flemish Eye Records

“Passion, fear, pain, and understanding...So powerful… Transcendent”

The Fader

“Messages of self-determination, self-care and the beauty found in harmony.”

NOW Magazine

“Good Will Come To You radiates. It radiates love and hope. It’s a record that transcends genre. Gorgeous“

Gray Owl Point

Good Will Come to You, the brilliant newest album by Montreal’s singular talent Un Blonde, sees its first international release through Flemish Eye Records in September 2017.

Un Blonde is the solo project of young Montreal-based musician, producer, and composer Jean-Sebastian Audet. Audet’s musical world is a constantly mutating series of landing points and crossovers, forging unique connections between contemporary RnB, cubist avant-funk, low-key soul, lo-fi indie pop, and confessional songwriting. This heady mixture is combined with subtle, intuitive genius in Good Will Come To You, an album initially self-released on a highly limited (and quick to sell-out) cassette run. A modest self-release that landed a spot on the 2016 Long List for Canada’s prestigious Polaris Music Prize, further cementing Audet’s growing reputation as one of the most compellingly original new artists to emerge from Canada in recent years.

Now Un Blonde is sharing an alternate version of album track The Real Way. Like many songs on Good Will Come to You, the album version of the track teases with its brevity and restraint. At barely a minute and a half, the album track is built on a foundation of finger snaps and writhing, snaky bass. On this alternative version —meant as a reprise that never made it to the album— the  lush instrumentation is wildly different, with only the vocal line tying the two together.  

Jean-Sebastian says of the song "There are a handful of recurring lyrical and melodic notions that, in repetition, express the nuance of a particular sentiment that the original record may not have touched on. "The Real Way" that finds itself on the LP is the searching — the reprise displays what was found."

As the first fruit of his newly-minted recording contract with Alberta’s Flemish Eye Records (home of Chad VanGaalen, Women, Viet Cong / Preoccupations, Braids etc.), the remastered album will be made available once again worldwide on LP and digital formats.

The music of Un Blonde is conceptualized, written, and recorded completely by Audet himself in apartments and rehearsal spaces around Montreal with a very simple and limited recording setup. This approach is a key element of his music. “I spend every day waiting for things to say, and saying them right away”, he says, and this unencumbered and unfussy recording means - instinctual, uncomplicated, familiar - permeates and personifies Good Will Come To You.

In the live realm, Un Blonde exists as a series of constantly shifting permutations, adding and subtracting members to find the right sound. Over the years, the band’s live scope has ranged from large ensembles featuring extra drummers, percussionists, and guitarists, to a stripped-down trio that focuses on group improvisation to raise existing material to new heights. Audet’s live accomplices include players from some of the finest contemporary indie acts going, including members of Nap Eyes, Homeshake, Lab Coast, Monomyth, and Tough Age.

Good Will Come To You comes out on September 22nd on LP and digital formats featuring newly reworked album art and a bonus download-only album of b-sides and alternate versions.

Pre-order link: http://smarturl.it/preorder-GWCTY

Listen link: http://smarturl.it/Listen-GWCTY

Facebook

Bandcamp

Twitter

Tour dates:

03/12 Indianapolis, IN - Hi-fi *

05/12 Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe *

06/12 Brooklyn, NY - Rough Trade Nyc *

07/12 Boston, MA - Great Scott *

* with Chad VanGaalen

UK REGGAE LEGEND GHETTO PRIEST SHARES NEW TRACK ‘GOOD LORD

UK REGGAE LEGEND GHETTO PRIEST SHARES NEW TRACK ‘GOOD LORD’
TAKEN FROM HIS NEW ALBUM ‘EVERY MAN FOR EVERY MAN’

Ghetto Priest 

‘Every Man For Every Man’

Album released 8th September via Ramrock Records

Ramrock Records are pleased to release the new album from musical visionary, Ghetto Priest.

Already known to many as the frontman of Asian Dub Foundation and vocalist on their globally acclaimed single ‘Fortress Europe’, Ghetto Priest has been captivating audiences with his powerful vocals and magnetic stage presence over the past three decades. 

With a raw energy and spirit un-matched by many artists of his generation, he constantly pushes at the boundaries of roots music; his style strongly maintaining the essence of his Jamaican heritage. Produced by On-U Sound supremo Adrian Sherwood, ‘Every Man For Every Man’, is released 8th September.

His latest sermon is a blend of righteous incitements and damning indictments that reflect the paranoia of daily life. Title track ‘Every Man For Every Man’ asks us to reach out to our fellow neighbour while he delivers a sobering message towards the environment and defending if from the evils of a money-motivated government on ‘Sacred Ground’.

On the mystical ‘Good Lord’, Ghetto Priest seeks spiritual guidance and his raw primal energies and forces come to light in a passionate re-working of the Robert Burns poem, ‘I Murder Hate’, before the trials and triumphs of black women are voiced in the Judy Mowatt song, ‘Black Woman’. On the little-known Peter Tosh song, ‘Babylon Queendom’, he passionately announces Babylon’s fall, demanding back the riches she’s plundered.

A long-time member of the On-U Sound family, Ghetto Priest was a former rudeboy and Arsenal football hooligan who was incarcerated briefly after stepping on to the wrong side of the tracks. Turning to Rastafarianism, he began writing lyrics, and he honed his vocal skills and artistic persona around the sound system culture of the early 80s, before becoming part of Sherwood's African Head Charge collective and started MC-ing on the producer's live/DJ sets.

As one of the more flamboyant and creative performers to emerge from the scene, he was invited by Asian Dub Foundation to take on the vocals for the opening track of their ‘Enemy of the Enemy’ album released in 2003 along with lead vocals on the follow-up album, ‘Tank’. His On-U Sound debut came a year later, the critically acclaimed album ‘Vulture Culture’, produced by Adrian Sherwood. 

He went on to record under his own name for a number of other labels including Reggae On Top and Conscious Sounds. More or lesser known artists to have flavoured his guest vocals include The Underwolves, Sinead O'Connor, Groove Armada, James Hardway (aka David Harrow) and Little Axe.

In 2011, Ghetto Priest joined forces with Lucid Mover in a project called Screaming Soul. This resulted in the album 'Ghost Inna Shell' and in 2012, an Adrian Sherwood and Nick Coplowe (aka Mutant Hi-Fi)-remixed companion, 'Ghost Inna Dub'. 

In 2016, he released the single ‘Life Ain’t Easy’ based on Dennis Brown's 'Easy, Take It Easy', via Ramrock Records, and has two more projects in the Ramrock pipeline set for future release.

Ramrock Records were formed in 2014. To date, they have worked with DJ and producer Ashley Beedle, musical supremo Darren Morris, Greg Blackman, the mighty MC D'Oxman, Ghetto Priest, Situation & Andre Espeut, Adrian Sherwood, Duncan Mackay, Taz, Jeb Loy Nichols, LSK, On-U Sound, Loop Records, Electric Wire Hustle and DJ producer, Mr Bird.

BRZZVLL - Waiho (SDBAN RECORDS 6th October 2017)

BRZZVLL interfuse improvised dance music with jazz-fusion, afro funk and rare groove

Belgian fusion band BRZZVLL (pronounced Brazzaville) are set to release their seventh studio album this autumn, entitled ‘Waiho’, released 6th October via Sdban Ultra. 

Founded by Vincent Brijs in Antwerp in 2006, the seven piece interfuse improvised dance music with jazz-fusion, afro funk and rare groove. It is freaky, it is trippy and it follows no rules. Belgium has quite a tradition for jazz and funk infused leftfield grooves from Marc Moulin’s ingenious Placebo to library funksters Les Chakakas / El Chicles to the much sampled JJ Band and BRZZVLL follow in a similar tradition.

Initially re-working arrangements from jazz greats Herbie Hancock, Eddie Harris, Freddie Hubbard and Archie Shepp, BRZZVLL eventually began to construct their own forms of free jazz in an attempt to return jazz to its primitive roots based around collective improvisation.

New album ‘Waiho’ is BRZZVLL at its best: excellent psychedelic jazz-funk in which the band’s solid, characteristic sound comes forward. After two inspirational collaborations with poets and ‘Nuff Said brothers Anthony Joseph (‘Engines’) and Amir Sulaiman (‘First Let’s Dance’), BRZZVLL play the instrumental card.

With ‘Waiho’, the band express their current cry for solidarity within music as well as their daily lives. Nowadays, music is too often used as an individual consumption product. The band centralise the group experience, both in the creation process and in the interaction with the audience when performing live, by being “in the moment” and lifting the music to a higher level, as one. This way, BRZZVLL go back to the roots of jazz and funk.

The  innovative electronics and dub effects on the album encourage this heightened mood. The addition of a second drummer provokes an extra percussive layering and virtuosity. The compositions, inspired by surrealism, absurdism and mysticism, still leave room for improvisation and the collective creation of sound. Get carried away by contagious rhythms and immerse yourself in this delirious trip to a world beyond ours.

Picking up numerous plaudits for their contribution to jazz back in Belgium, the band have performed extensively in their home country and have shared the stage with the likes of The Neville Brothers, Young Blood Brass Band, Marcus Miller and Alice Russell.

Sdban Records is an independent record label, obsessed with sixties and seventies grooves. It is the youngest member of the N.E.W.S. Records family, based in Ghent, Belgium. The label has recently expanded, focusing on contemporary talent. SDBAN Ultra is the sister label focusing on today’s lively jazz and funk scene, which is simply too exciting not to be explored.

Recently released on Sdban: René Costy ‘Expectancy’, ‘Let’s Get Swinging (Modern Jazz in Belgium)’, ‘Funky Chimes: Belgian Grooves from the 70’s’. Recently released on Sdban Ultra: Black Flower ‘Artifacts’, STUFF. ‘old dreams new planets’. Coming soon on Sdban: V/A – ‘Discophilia Belgica (Belgian Private Press Disco, Synthpop & Oddballs)’ + Jack Sels ‘Retrospective’. Coming soon on Sdban Ultra: de beren gieren ‘dug out skyscrapers’.

BRZZVLL

Vincent Brijs · saxophone

Andrew Claes · saxophone, EWI, darbuka

Stijn Cools · drums

Geert Hellings · guitar

Dries Laheye · bass

Maarten Moesen · drums

Jan Willems · keys

1. De Vlijtige Kip

2. Waiho

3. Andromeda

4. Wizzly Whop

5. Mantra

6. Jee

7. Mighty Mylou

8. Zwag

tracks 1,2,3,7 & 8 composed by Vincent Brijs

tracks 4 & 6 composed by Vincent Brijs & Jan Willems

All tracks produced by BRZZVLL

Recorded at Studio Kip Kaas, Mortsel, Belgium

Additional arrangements & editing by Jan Willems & Vincent Brijs

Mixed by Jan Willems

Mastering by Darcy Proper

Artwork by Bert Want

www.brzzvll.com

www.sdbanrecords.com  

www.newsdistribution.be

www.newsrecords.be

GIGS

09/09 September Jazz, Bruges

22/09 De Spil, Roeselare

30/09 NONA, Mechelen

06/10 Handelsbeurs, Ghent

07/10 CC Diest, Diest

12/10 De Casino, St.-Niklaas

04/11 Rataplan, Antwerp

16/12 AB, Brussels