Thursday, August 27, 2020

New Music Releases: Homero Alvatez, CeeLo Green, Horace Tapscott

Homero Alvatez Sep7ett  

This is the new project from the composer and guitar player Homero Alvarez who now spreads his wings and releases a first EP with new composed music. A great septet of well known musicians from the Swedish jazz scene. The group includes the following line up. Homero Alvarez – guitars, Karl Olandersson - trumpet, Karin Hammar - trombone, Arnold Rodriguez - piano, Juan Patricio Mendoza – bass, Ola Bothzén – drums, and Andreas Ekstedt – percussion.  Homero Alvarez earlier works has been together with many different Brazilian vocalists in the Swedish jazz scene as Rafa Oliveira Group, Deise Andrade and Simone Moreno. He also formed the samba jazz quartet Latin the Mood who released three albums. The Brazilian rhythms are still represented with both baião and samba rythms in up-tempo beats but there is also bigger space for the arrangments and solists. 

CeeLo - CeeLo Green Is Thomas Callaway 

A fantastic new chapter in the career of CeeLo Green – reemerging here as an old school southern soul singer, with a vibe that's in the best legacy of Al Green and some of the underground talents of his generation! The set was recorded in Nashville, produced by Dan Auerbach, and has a nicely laidback vibe throughout – not smooth soul, but a back-to-basics approach that's more basic than Cee-Lo ever had at the start – with a very strong focus on the strength of his vocals, without any too-pop or hip hop production in the mix. Titles include "You Gotta Do It All", "Doin It All Together", "The Way", "Thinking Out Loud", "Lead Me", "Little Mama", "I Wonder How Love Feels", and "People Watching". ~ Dusty Groove 

Horace Tarscott - The Giant Is Awakened (Black Vinyl Edition) LP 

Horace Tapscott fathered two groups crucial to the flowering of modern jazz in the Los Angeles area, the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (or P.A.P.A.; the name is an homage to Tapscott’s predecessor and peer, Sun Ra), which eventually became part of a larger umbrella organization, Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA). Out of UGMAA came a host of LA-bred musicians, singers, and poets, including Arthur Blythe (who goes by Black Arthur Blythe on this recording), Stanley Crouch (who wrote the original liner notes), David Murray, and Butch Morris among other luminaries. So Tapscott’s 1969 debut record, aptly entitled The Giant Is Awakened, was and is a big deal indeed for modern West Coast jazz…we reissued this previously in a neon green vinyl pressing that sold out in a heartbeat, but this time we’ve pressed it in black vinyl knowing that a lot of jazz fans prefer that format. 


No comments:

Post a Comment