Alexander Hawkins Mirror Canon - Break A Vase (January 21, 2022 Intakt Records)

After the album "Togetherness Music", british pianist and composer Alexander Hawkins presents another musical panorama: An ensemble in which his trio with bassist Neil Charles and drummer Stephen Davis meets saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings, guitarist Otto Fischer, and drummer Richard Olátúndé baker. For anybody who has followed Hawkins' work since his emergence on the british improvised music scene in the mid 2000’s this is a fresh band full of familiar musicians with whom Hawkins has played in a wide variety of formations. The new pieces that "break a vase" presents emerge from Hawkins' own imagination, but they also capture the thrust of energy in collaborating with these outstanding musicians.

“Hawkins gives one of his most complete performances to date,” writes kevin Le Gendre in the liner notes. “Nothing is perhaps more majestic than the title track, which comes from Derek walcott’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize. ‘Break a vase, and the love that re - assembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.’ Enjoy then all these wily bits and pieces that come together in the kind of daring, courageous construction that is made to last.”

1. The Perfect Sound Would Like to Be Unique

2. Stamped Down, or Shovelled

3. Sun Rugged Billions

4. Generous Souls

5. Faint Making Stones

6. Break a Vase

7. Chaplin in Slow Motion

8. Domingada Open Air

9. Stride Rhyme Gospel

10. Even the Birds Stop to Listen

Richard Olátúndé Baker: Adamo (Talking Drum), Percussion

Neil Charles: Acoustic Bass Guitar, Double Bass

Stephen Davis: Drums

Otto Fischer: Electric Guitar

Alexander Hawkins: Grand Piano, Upright Piano, Sampler

Shabaka Hutchings: Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute

All compositions by Alexander Hawkins (PRS). Recorded July 27/28, 2021, at Challow Park Studios, Oxfordshire, UK, by Will Biggs. Mixed and mastered August/September 2021, London, UK, by Alex Bonney. Intakt Records, P. O. Box, 8024 Zürich, Switzerland.

Cover art and graphic design: Jonas Schoder

Inspired by Karl Gerstner (1930 – 2017)

Liner notes: Kevin Le Gendre

Photo: Onur Pinar

Disc and packaging by Adon Production AG

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Makaya McCraven - Universal Beings (INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM RECORDING October 26, 2018)

Paris-born, New England-raised, long-time Chicago-residing Makaya McCraven has been at the forefront of genre-redefining movements in jazz since 2015, when he introduced the world to his unique brand of ‘organic beat music’ on the breakout album In The Moment. Culled, cut, post-produced & re-composed by Makaya using recordings of free improvisation he collected over dozens of live sessions in Chicago, through incubation & experimentation In The Moment established a procedural blueprint that he has since been sharpening & developing. 

Honing this process on narrower sets of source material, Makaya followed up In The Moment with 2 mixtape releases – 2017’s Highly Rare, a lo-fi free-jazz-meets-hip-hop suite he made from a live 4-track recording, and June 2018’s Where We Come From (CHICAGOxLONDON Mixtape), which he produced using live recordings from London jazz hub Total Refreshment Centre (captured at a showcase called CHICAGOxLONDON). 

Now, after 4+ years of refining his approach, Makaya McCraven puts forth an ambitious new work – Universal Beings – a culmination of concepts conceived by In The Moment, and his most elegant & articulated work yet.

Spurred by a desire to connect with old friends & new collaborators in places where similar spirits & diasporic jazz innovations are thriving, Makaya worked with International Anthem across late 2017 & early 2018 to setup intimate live sessions in New York & Chicago, and pop-up “studio” sessions in London & Los Angeles. Though the contexts and logistics were D.I.Y. (as they almost always are with IARC), the friends & friends-of-friends that Makaya was able to enlist are top tier players across the board. Some might call them super groups of “new” jazz musicians from their respective cities, with Makaya as a common denominator. But more importantly, collectively they make an inspiring display of the organic global inter-connectedness of the Black American music tradition in 2018. 

Physically spanning national & international borders to create an album that musically spans deep spiritual jazz meditations, pulsing post-bop grooves & straight-ahead boom-bap, Makaya McCraven defies the simplifications of revisionism & regionalism while celebrating the sounds, settings & stories that define the provenance of his work. Universal Beings projects an all-encompassing message of unity, peace & power by embracing transcendence in all its expressions.

1. A Queen's Intro

2. Holy Lands (feat. Brandee Younger)

3. Young Genius (feat. Joel Ross)

4. Black Lion (feat. Dezron Douglas) 02:56

5. Tall Tales (feat. Tomeka Reid)

6. Mantra

7. Pharaoh's Intro

8. Atlantic Black 09:10

9. Inner Flight

10. Wise Man, Wiser Woman (feat. Shabaka Hutchings)

11. Prosperity's Fear (feat. Junius Paul)

12. Flipped OUT

13. Voila (feat. Daniel Casimir)

14. Suite Haus (feat. Nubya Garcia)

15. The Newbies Lift Off (feat. Ashley Henry)

16. The Royal Outro

17. The Count Off (feat. Carlos Niño)

18. Butterss's (feat. Anna Butterss)

19. Turtle Tricks (feat. Jeff Parker)

20. The Fifth Monk

21. Brighter Days Beginning (feat. Josh Johnson)

22. Universal Beings (feat. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson)

Tracks 1-6 (New York Side) recorded live @ H0L0,

Ridgewood, Queens, NY, August 29th, 2017.

Brandee Younger (harp)

Joel Ross (vibraphone)

Tomeka Reid (cello)

Dezron Douglas (double bass)

Makaya McCraven (drums)

Tracks 7-11 (Chicago Side) recorded live @ Co-Prosperity Sphere,

Bridgeport, Chicago, IL, September 2nd, 2017.

*Shabaka Hutchings (tenor saxophone)

Tomeka Reid (cello)

Junius Paul (double bass)

Makaya McCraven (drums)

Tracks 12-16 (London Side) recorded @ Total Refreshment Studios,

Stoke Newington, London, UK, October 19th, 2017.

Nubya Garcia (tenor saxophone)

**Ashley Henry (Rhodes piano)

Daniel Casimir (double bass)

Makaya McCraven (drums)

Tracks 17-22 (Los Angeles Side) recorded @ Jeff Parker's house,

Altadena, Los Angeles County, CA, January 30th, 2018.

Josh Johnson (alto saxophone)

Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (violin)

Jeff Parker (guitar)

Anna Butterss (double bass)

Carlos Niño (percussion)

Makaya McCraven (drums)

*Shabaka Hutchings appears courtesy of Verve Label Group

**Ashley Henry appears courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited

Recorded & Mixed by David Allen & Dave Vettraino

Artwork by Damon Locks

Insert Portrait by Fabrice Bourgelle

Insert Design by Craig Hansen

Produced by Makaya McCraven

Executive Production by Scott McNiece

We Out Here - We Out Here (BROWNSWOOD RECORDINGS 2018)

A primer on London’s bright-burning young jazz scene, this new compilation brings together a collection of some of its sharpest talents. A set of nine newly-recorded tracks, We Out Here captures a moment where genre markers matter less than raw, focused energy. Surveying the album’s running order, it could easily serve as a name-checking exercise for some of London’s most-tipped and hardworking bands of the past couple of years. Recorded across three long, fruitful days in a North West London studio, the results speak for themselves: they’re a window into the wide-eyed future of London’s musical underground. 

The album bottles up some of the vital ideas emanating from that burgeoning movement. A reflection of how London’s jazz-influenced music has reached outward into new spaces, the sound of the record draws from a wide pool. There’s plenty of crossover between each of the groups, too, speaking to the close-knit circles which make up the scene; shared line-ups reflect the mutual cooperation and DIY spirit which are second-nature. 

Ubiquitous, much-lauded saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings is the project’s musical director. His own recent projects span from South Africa-connected, spiritually-minded jazz players Shabaka and the Ancestors to Sons of Kemet, who match diasporically-connected compositions with viscerally-direct live shows. His input ties together a deft, genre-agnostic sensibility that’s shared through all the players on the record. 

Nodding to spiritual jazz influences, Maisha’s ‘Inside The Acorn’ is a wandering, explorative rumination, balancing delicate washes of piano and percussion with sharp interplay between flute and bass clarinet. Ezra Collective – whose drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso has toured with Pharaohe Monch – run a tight, Afrobeat-tipped rhythm on ‘Pure Shade’, with the final third changing gear into a melodic, momentous closing stretch. 

On Moses Boyd’s ‘The Balance’, the drummer – who co-produced Zara McFarlane’s recent, critically-lauded album, as well as touring with the likes of Sampha – builds a steadily-paced, atmospheric creation, loosening up the rhythm and intensity as it progresses. Theon Cross – who’s part of Hutchings’ Sons of Kemet – starts his track, ‘Brockley’, with the solo, distinctive low rumble of his tuba. Winding and mesmeric, it sees tuba and sax lines winding together in rhythmic and melodic parallels. 

Showing a similarly controlled approach, Nubya Garcia’s ‘Once’ is taut and carefully-poised, her tenor sax guiding a carefully-built energy to an explosive conclusion. Shabaka Hutchings’ ‘Black Skin, Black Masks’ is typically difficult-to-define: with an off-kilter, shifting rhythmic backbone, repeated phrases – mirrored between clarinet and bass clarinet – shape the track with an alluring hue. 

Triforce’s ‘Walls’ is a performance in two parts: starting with Mansur Brown’s languorous, lyrical guitar, the second half switches up to a low-slung, g-funk-tipped groove. Joe Armon-Jones, whose ludicrous chops on the piano have seen him touring with the likes of Ata Kak, showcases earworm-like, insistent motifs on ‘Go See’, balanced with a playful, improvisatory approach with room for ad-libbing and solos a-plenty. Finally, taking a softer tact than many of the other entries, Kokoroko – whose guitarist Oscar Jerome has been making waves with his solo material – spin a lyrical, steady-paced meditation on ‘Abusey Junction’, matching chanted vocals with gently-played guitar.

1. Maisha - Inside The Acorn

2. Ezra Collective - Pure Shade

3. Moses Boyd - The Balance

4. Theon Cross - Brockley

5. Nubya Garcia - Once

6. Shabaka Hutchings - Black Skin, Black Masks

7. Triforce - Walls

8. Joe Armon-Jones - Go See

9. Kokoroko - Abusey Junction

Sons Of Kemet - Your Queen Is A Reptile (IMPULSE! RECORDS March 30, 2018)

British saxophonist and bandleader Shabaka Hutchings and two of the bands he's associated with – Sons of Kemet (above) and Shabaka & The Ancestors – have signed to the iconic Impulse! label. First formed in 2011, Sons of Kemet have released two albums and made a huge impact on the international festival circuit with their double-drums, tuba and sax attack. The current line-up includes founding members Hutchings on sax and Tom Skinner on drums, rising tuba star Theon Cross and powerhouse drummer Eddie Hick, all of whom feature on the new album, Your Queen is a Reptile, which is released on 30 March. Jazzwise understands Comet Is Coming may also be moving to the label.

The album is entitled 'your queen is a reptile'

The track listing is

1. My Queen Is Ada Eastman [Explicit] (6:41)

2. My Queen Is Mamie Phipps Clark (5:31)

3. My Queen Is Harriet Tubman (5:40)

4. My Queen Is Anna Julia Cooper (5:07)

5. My Queen Is Angela Davis (6:35)

6. My Queen Is Nanny Of The Maroons (6:44)

7. My Queen Is Yaa Asantewaa (7:04)

8. My Queen Is Albertina Sisulu (5:20)

9. My Queen Is Doreen Lawrence (6:52)

Shabaka and the Ancestors - Wisdom of Elders (2016)

“The grand scheme of this album is to present the musical language that I normally associate with my UK bands in the context of SA musicians and musical sensibilities,” explains Shabaka Hutchings. 

8 men in a studio in Johannesburg; one tenor sax, one alto sax, one trumpet. One on vocals, one on ivory, one bass, one on percussion and one the drums. 800 million voices. 700 years. Millions of bones cracking under the weight of 22 false free years. Innumerable tiny sparks. One uncontrollable blaze.

Released September 16, 2016

01. Mzwandile 13:31

02. Joyous 06:38

03. The Observer 09:02

04. The Sea 11:47

05. The Observed 01:43

06. Natty 09:57

07. OBS 05:14

08. Give Thanks 08:09

09. Nguni 09:29

Shabaka Hutchings - Tenor Sax

Mthunzi Mvubu - Alto Sax

Mandla Mlangeni - Trumpet

Siyabonga Mthembu - Vocals

Nduduzo Makhathini - Rhodes, Piano

Ariel Zomonsky - Bass

Gontse Makhene - Percussion

Tumi Mogorosi - Drums