New Music: James Brown, Maiara Moraes, Black Market Brass

James Brown - Soul Syndrome

A rare TK Records effort from James Brown – very much in the best uptempo funk mode of the later Polydor years! The groove here is quite similar to those better-known efforts – grooves that are a bit quicker than a few years before, but still played in a core JB funky style – live and lively, with plenty of emphasis on the rhythms! Brown often referred to his style here as disco, but it's a lot more like some of the P-Funk progressions of the period – a mode that's more polished than a grittier funky generation, yet far from smooth club or disco overall. There's plenty of choppy little groovers that make the record great – and titles include the long cut "Rapp Payback", plus "Funky Men", "Smokin & Drinkin", "Stay With Me", and "Mashed Potatoes". ~ Dusty Groove

Maiara Moraes - Cabeca De Vento

Classic choro mixed with contemporary jazz – a beautiful set that offers up a range of lovely lines on flute from Maiara Moraes, who seems to play a few different variations of the instrument on the set! The rest of the group features piano, bass, and drums – plus some added flute and saxes from Josue Dos Santos – and the approach is very strongly jazz, but maybe with just some slight colors and tones borrowed from the older style of Brazilian choro – served up at a level that's got a lot more power, color, and soul than any other effort of this type we can think of! Titles include "Novena", "Bailonga", "Maracatu", "Con Brasil Adentro/Fuga X", and "Caminho De Volta". ~ Dusty Groove

Black Market Brass - Undying Thirst

Beautifully heavy sounds from Black Market Brass – a group who started out with more of a global funk approach, but who emerge here with the intensity of some lost funky soundtrack – all with the sort of edge you might expect from the cover! The style here is really revolutionary – unlike anything else we've ever heard from a group with "brass" in their name – in part because the group has some very cool distortion on the keyboards and guitar, which gives those electric elements a very sinister sound next to the straight ahead fire of the horns – served up with really hard-driving rhythms throughout, in a way that seems to pull together older traditions of Afro Funk, Nola Brass, and even some of the southern college bands – but all with a very 21st Century vision. Titles include "So Who (parts 1 & 2)", "Into The Thick", "War Room", "Cheat & Start A Fight", "Undying Thirst", and "NBT". ~ Dusty Groove