Thursday, October 17, 2019

New Music Releases: The Jazz Room Compiled by Paul Murphy; Strata-Gemma; Petter Eldh


The Jazz Room Compiled by Paul Murphy

UK jazz dance hero Paul Murphy teams up with BBE Music to deliver his first compilation on the label: a blazing selection of up-tempo jazz titled ‘The Jazz Room’. Lauded by none other than Gilles Peterson as “the original messenger of jazz who found almost every dancefloor classic”, Paul began DJing in 1970s London. His passion and unique playing style placed him at the epicentre of an emerging jazz-dance scene in the city, popping off in spots like The Horseshoe (aka Jaffas), The Wag, The 100 Club, The Blue Note and The Electric Ballroom, where he founded the now famous ‘Jazz Room’, after which this album is named. Paul’s influence on UK Jazz culture simply can’t be overstated, from his short-lived but much beloved imprint Paladin Records to his unswerving support of home-grown talents such as Working Week, Morrissey Mullen & Paz. As a DJ, his musical selections still live large in the memories of those who experienced them. As Coldcut’s Jonathon More put it “Paul Murphy used to play the most frenzied and far out funky jazz at my Meltdown warehouse parties”. ‘The Jazz Room’ nicely encapsulates the reason so many greats feel moved to wax lyrical about Paul Murphy’s ear for dance-floor jazz, which is very clearly undimmed after decades behind the decks. Deftly mixing contemporary sounds with trusted bullets that his 1980s audiences will remember well, these tracks are vibrant and potent, with a couple of fiery live recordings thrown in for extra energy and sweat.

Strata-Gemma - Autunno 1

Exploratory Italian electronic jazz trio return with LP of intense weather music. Hailing from Modena, the Northern Italian motor city, Strata-Gemma produce a music of beautiful symmetry, intense craft and surprising angles. Born as a club night, the trio grew out of jam sessions where musicians would play over the records DJ/producer Billy Bogus spun. Their name came about due to the core members finding shared inspiration in records they considered “hidden gems” (gemma means gem in Italian) while paying homage to the Detroit Jazz label Strata Records. Thus from a love of jazz and soul, soundtracks and library music, Strata-Gemma were born. Where Strata-Gemma’s 2018 debut album had a lush, late-night ambience about it, Autunno 1 is more intense and agitated, a reaction to extreme political and weather conditions. As with all things Italian, Autunno 1 is both beautifully sculptured and filled with wild passion while serving as an intense soundtrack to our fractured world. Strata-Gemma are Billy Bogus (beats), Andrea Moretti (double bass, strings) and Luca Cacciatore (brass, wind). For 
Autunno 1 they are joined by heavy friends on drums, synth and Hammond.

Petter Eldh – Koma Saxo

Koma Saxo is a highly potent new five-piece produced by the visionary Berlin-based Swedish bassist-producer Petter Eldh. The lineup brings together five heavy jazz names on the Berlin–Nordics axis, including Eldh on bass, Christian Lillinger on drums and the frontline of three saxes: Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar and Mikko Innanen. Despite the top-billing names, make no mistake: this is not just another "supergroup", but a real working band with their own sound and musical trajectory. Eldh's vision for the Koma Saxo sound is one step ahead of what groovy avantgarde jazz could sound like in 2019, involving postproduction work with the raw material recorded in Helsinki in occasion of Koma Saxo's successful debut at the We Jazz Festival. Both studio and live tapes exist side by side, and Eldh goes deep in molding the final music to be heard on the upcoming Koma Saxo releases. The Koma Saxo debut LP on We Jazz Records is a revelation for anyone seeking contemporary jazz music with edge and vision. From the opener, the brief but fiery ‘Kali Koma’, right into the pastoral finale, ‘Så rinner tiden bort’, Eldh & co are on it, like a tightly-knitted posse of jazz assassins on the run. At times, the pieces fall gloriously apart, just enough in order to be ripe to put back together again. Take ‘Ostron Koma’ for example - from the intense opening seconds full of suspension, the track moves forward with breathtaking swing, then onto full-on free breakout, to be born anew. In addition to scorching originals by all members of the band, Koma Saxo tackle a handful of carefully-picked and highly inspirational borrowed tunes from Finnish legends Matti Oiling, Edward Vesala and the Swedish composer Olle Adolphson. Tense, swinging music, hymns full of genuine serenity and charisma, allowing Koma Saxo to never sound self-indulgent.


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