NEW RELEASES: KENYA – SKIN DEEP: THE COLLECTION; NATE LAPINE – QUARTET: VORTICES; JARI HAAPALAINEN TRIO – FUSION MACHINE

KENYA – SKIN DEEP: THE COLLECTION

A sweet collection of work from Kenya – one of the freshest voices on the neo soul scene in recent years – presented here in a set of remixes that only further expand her groove! The album's a great companion to Kenya's studio records – and often has her wonderful vocals stepping up strongly over some more club-oriented grooves – work that's never in a cheap dance music mode, nor just a simple house-ified approach to her songs – and which instead provides some very thoughtful reworkings of her tunes. Titles include "Take Me Away (Tom Glide rmx)", "My Heart (Mark De Clive-Lowe rmx)", "Brown Soul (Edgewood Agents acoustic rmx)", "Makusmile (Tom Glide rework)", "Let Me (Sean McCabe classic soul rmx)", "Never Giving Up (Edgewood Agents rework)", and "Wednesday Girl (Opolopo rmx)". ~ Dusty Groove

NATE LAPINE – QUARTET: VORTICES

A really wonderful album from the hard-burning contemporary Chicago scene – a set that may not get the global attention as some other records on bigger labels, but one that's equally well-deserving of recognition! Tenorist Nate Lepine is at the head of the group, but the whole quartet is a very cohesive ensemble – working with this equally spaces sense of composition and freedom – very much in the spirit of the Chicago scene of players like Mike Reed or Josh Berman, but also with some of the newer, more personal energy we've really been feeling in recent years too! Nick Mazzarella plays alto sax in the group, and the pairing of horns is wonderful – interlocked at all the right moments, but bursting out with individual voices when needed – and given strong support by the subtle bass work of Clark Sommers, and the well-timed drums of Quin Kirchner. Titles include "Ice Shirt", "Youngblood", "Eve Yeti's Ready For Spring", "Aye Lads", "Hennies", and "The Grass Is Rizz". ~Dusty Groove

JARI HAAPALAINEN TRIO – FUSION MACHINE

No fusion here – at least not in the traditional sense – but the album is a really made fusion of drums, electric bass, and tenor saxophone – the last of which is played by the great Per Texas Johansson, with a force that's more than strong enough to match the other two instruments! The electric bass really rumbles with a lot of power here – modes that are much more dynamic than in traditional jazz, but not really rock or familiar fusion, either – and there's an elasticity from the instrument, as played by Daniel Bingert, that really seems to communicated back and forth between the other two points of the triangle. Jari Haapalainen is on drums – driving the whole thing onward – and titles include "Ingrid 20", "Risk For Halka", "Begynnelsen", "Morka Rummet", and "Ich Bin Ein Berliner". (Limited to 300 copies!) ~ Dusty Groove