Eugene “Gene” McDaniels first broke through in the early ‘60s with pop soul hits like “A Hundred Pounds of Clay.” But that was a different time...and a different man. By the time McDaniels recorded his 1970 album Outlaw, he had re-christened himself “the left rev mc d” and penned the soul-jazz protest anthem “Compared to What,” first recorded in 1966 by Les McCann and turned into a standard by McCann and saxophonist Eddie Harris on their 1969 album Swiss Movement.
Indeed, the front cover of Outlaw left no doubt as to the radicalization of McDaniels’ politics. As Pat Thomas puts it in the liner notes that we have added to this reissue, “One sees Middle America’s worst nightmare coming to life. There’s the badass Reverend Lee himself holding a bible. Righteous Susan Jane in a jean jacket and black French resistance turtleneck is wielding a machine gun, and McDaniels’ then-wife Ramona appears as a soul sister with cross your heart Viva Zapata! ammo belts. In the forefront is a large human skull, just in case you didn’t already get the message.”
The Nixon White House sure got the message; legend has it that the administration was so offended by the lyrics to “Silent Majority” (“Silent Majority is calling out loud to you and me from Arlington Cemetery”) that either Spiro Agnew or Nixon’s Chief of Staff personally called Atlantic, asking them to stop working with McDaniels. Politics aside, Outlaw offers a heady blend of soul, jazz, folk, and rock grooves played by Ron Carter, Eric Weissberg, and Hugh McCracken among others, with legendary producer Joel Dorn at the controls and cult favorite William S. Fischer operating as Musical Director. Oft-sampled, and never more relevant, Real Gone’s 50th anniversary release of Outlaw comes in a neon red vinyl pressing limited to 700 copies. And those liner notes we mentioned previously? They come with some pithy McDaniels quotes that confirm his revolutionary fervor remained unquenched till his death in 2011.
An upbeat fusion of soul and funk, featuring live instrumentation, is on full display in Crushed Velvet and the Velveteers' new single, "Good Thang." Founded by multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, sound engineer and producer, Alan Evans—who is also the co-founder of acclaimed jazz fusion trio, Soulive—Crushed Velvet and the Velveteers the self-proclaimed guitar player "alter ego" for Evans.
Filled with a star-studded group of funk and jazz musicians, the track features vocalist Kim Dawson (Matador Soul Sounds, Pimps of Joytime) along with Evans’ musical cohorts Darby Wolf (DJ Williams Shots Fired, Rubblebucket) on organ, Pete Aleksi (Curtis Mayflower) playing 2nd guitar, Brian “BT” Thomas (Akashic Record, BT ALC Big Band) on trombone, Alex Lee-Clark (ALC Funktet, BT ALC Big Band) on trumpet, Tucker Antell (BT ALC Big Band) on alto and tenor saxophones and Jared Sims (BT ALC Big Band) on baritone saxophone.
“Crushed Velvet and the Velveteers is all about spontaneous creation for me and the very creative friends I get to call on to be a part of it. 'Good Thang' is a perfect example," remarks Evans. "Initially I went into the studio, picked up the guitar and let whatever I was feeling come out without worrying about what kind of song it was." He continues, "Before I knew it, I had a really great feeling bed of bass, drums and guitar laid down. From there, I asked my great friends Darby, Pete, Brian, Alex, Tucker, Jarad and Kim to take what I started and record exactly what inspired them to play. That is the best part of making music for me, creating something that will inspire people."
Crushed Velvet and the Velveteers is the alter ego of multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, studio engineer, and producer, Alan Evans, who is also co-founder of the band Soulive. In 2008, while Soulive was on break from touring, Alan spent most of his time recording and mixing bands from around the world in his Western Massachusetts recording studio. On his days off, he would go into the studio and play guitar, yielding a collection of songs that he did not feel were songs for Soulive or those he wanted to release under his own name. Crushed Velvet is for Evans' guitar player alter ego.
Brian Bromberg – Bromberg Plays Hendrix
Brian Bromberg presents a digital remastered and remixed version of his surprising 10-song collection of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix’s hits, which was recorded without the use of a single guitar. In fact, it is just Bromberg and Vinnie Colaiuta on the album. “If it is not drums, then all the instruments you hear are me," Bromberg says. "This project is not a gimmick; it’s very musical and real. It’s all about the music for me.” This new 2020 Remix and Remastered version includes one bonus track written by Bromberg as a dedication to the guitar legend, simply titled "Jimi."
Paul Brown - Ones Upon A Time
Producing dozens of #1 hits for himself and countless Smooth Jazz greats, Paul Brown has helped define the genre’s sensual and grooving aesthetic over the past three decades. Putting a fresh spin on the traditional “greatest hits” concept, the two-time Grammy winning guitarist/composer’s cleverly titled latest album Ones Upon A Time offers exhilarating re-imaginings of classic tracks he originally produced for everyone from Boney James and Larry Carlton to Kirk Whalum and George Benson. In addition to focusing the lead melodies on his inimitable, blues-inflected electric guitarisma, he offers some hip new arrangements and colorful sonic details which take the tunes to another level. On hand to help Brown re-create the magic are Euge Groove, Rick Braun, Gregg Karukas, Richard Elliot, DW3, Darren Rahn and Jeff Ryan. ~ smoothjazz.com
Jana Herzen / Charnett Moffett - 'Round The World
Singer, songwriter, guitarist and Motema label founder Jana Herzen and renowned bassist Charnett Moffett are true jazz legends in their own right. Yet their latest collaboration ROUND THE WORLD so artfully blends soul sensitivity and quirky originality in its acoustic arrangements, it could just as easily be considered alt-pop or modern folk. The collection is a spirited, twist and turn filled extension of the duo’s 12-year creative partnership that includes an initial duo project in 2012 and touring together. Intuitive in their breezy yet sometimes off the beaten path arrangements, they blend graceful and jaunty re-imaginings of classics by The Beatles, Men at Work, Kermit the Frog, Roberta Flack and Maria Muldaur with heartfelt, easy grooving originals that fit snugly and seamlessly amidst the more familiar fare. ~ smoothjazz.com
Multi award-winning saxophonist and composer Nubya Garcia is back with her much anticipated debut album, SOURCE. Her first release on Concord Records, under the iconic Concord Jazz imprint, SOURCE is due for release on August 2020. The album is produced by Garcia in collaboration with the celebrated producer Kwes (Nerija, Bobby Womack, Solange). Garcia returns with Joe Armon-Jones (keys), Daniel Casimir (bass) and Sam Jones (drums).
The album follows her 2018 self-released EP, WHEN WE ARE, the title track of which was described as “effervescent” by The New York Times and named one of NPR’s Best Songs of 2018. Her debut EP, NUBYA’s 5IVE, released in 2017, was hailed as “exceptional” by The Vinyl Factory and sold out on vinyl within 24 hours. In 2018, Garcia also featured on five of the nine tracks on WE OUT HERE, the Brownswood compilation project celebrating London’s young and exciting jazz scene. She won the Jazz FM Breakthrough Act of the Year Award and the Sky Arts Breakthrough Act of the Year Award in 2018, and the Jazz FM UK Jazz Act of the Year Award in 2019.
A collection of sonic mantras to live by, SOURCE is a deeply personal offering in which Garcia maps cartographies around the coordinate points of her identity, her family histories, grief, afro-diasporic connections and collectivism. SOURCE is fundamentally about getting grounded within yourself, so that you can be present with others. It's about a realization of personal and collective power: the evolution of the saxophonist’s values as she re-connects with herself, her roots and her community. Garcia digs deep to present an album with a global outlook: from London to Bogota, Caura to Georgetown, it's a record drawing inspiration from the many places Garcia calls home.
Garcia’s erudite blend of broken beat, soul, dub-step, afro-diasporic sounds - from cumbia to calypso expands further on this record, all whilst never losing her deep jazz foundation. The album takes as much inspiration from Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter as it does from Flying Lotus, Calypso Rose, Mala and Nidia Góngora. SOURCE is about a radical, relentless belief in our capacity to surmount the individual and collective challenges we face now, and those to come.
The record opens with Pace, a purposeful composition, the track swings between spatial quietude and intense peaks, which Garcia likens to crashing waves. The track's relentlessness mimics the hustle and hyper productivity of modern life, a mode of living that can leave us collectively “very isolated and disconnected from ourselves and each other”, Garcia says. As an antidote, Garcia wanted “to think about what makes each of us joyful, what things we personally reach towards to feel grounded.” Moments of rest on the record are “like sweeping your hands for stillness before you go back out again, on whatever journey you’re on.” The irony of the track’s title and intentions aren’t lost on Garcia in the midst of this pandemic - it's a track about reassessing her own values, something the uncertainty of the current moment demands we all do.
Where Pace is about an internal sense of grounding, with its steady, questing solos and capacious grooves, The Message Continues is about taking root in the stories and experiences of our elders. Garcia hones in on the importance of learning about and passing on stories from the past, so that knowledge isn’t forgotten.
The album’s title track, Source, arrives reworked in steamy dub overtones, blending together reggae, jazz and myriad sounds from her youth. The sweltering heat generated in the track’s basslines and Garcia’s militant sax place the track as a paean to personal power. It's a theme that carries over into Together is a Beautiful Place To Be, a soaring ballad dedicated to her late stepfather. Dancing on the outer edges of soul and gospel, it’s a meditative space, a wake of sorts, set to high hat soft blows, a delicate accompaniment from Sheila Maurice-Grey and Joe Armon-Jones’ gentle keys. “I miss him,” Garcia reflects. “I’m thankful that I got to say goodbye. When I take my experiences out of the song, it’s about being with your family, your people and your community.”
Stand With Each Other is built on serpentine nyabinghi grooves. Here, Garcia is joined by Kokoroko’s Richie Sievwright, Cassie Kinoshi and Sheila Maurice-Grey on standout vocals recalling classic reggae harmonies from the likes of the Wailers and The Congos: “I love the three of them singing so much, the blend is like for a really long time - I wanted the vocals to sound like a classic Lover’s Rock tune and they nailed it,” Garcia shared. It’s a celebration of collectivism, particularly of women: Garcia wants to celebrate the incredible artists she’s in community with, and at the same time, wants the industry to move beyond viewing artists only in terms of their genders: “I'm more than a woman. And I'm not the only woman [on the scene],’ she shares.
On La cumbia está llamando, the lyrics say it all: ‘'the cumbia is calling me.’ Last year with the British Council, and alongside other members of the London Jazz Scene, Garcia spent a week in Colombia where she first met multi-instrumentalist Diana San Miguel of La Perla, a young trio celebrating the nation’s traditional music. Garcia was so enamored that she went back this past winter, soaking in the sounds across her travels through Cali, Bogotá (where the track was recorded at the renowned Mambo Negro studios), and Timbiquí.
Curious to know more about her family’s lives and histories, Before Us: In Demerara & Caura follows deep dive excavations into Garcia’s family histories. Musically, Garcia draws from a rich web of Guyanese folk songs and carnival culture both in London and the Caribbean. Through the track, it's an attempt to honor those experiences, and to attend to the alienation she feels from distant homelands.
Anchored on Daniel Casimir’s pliable bass and the haunting control of Chicagoan vocalist Akenya, the album’s closer Boundless Beings, in Garcia’s words, sums up the sentiment of the album. A dystopian anti-ballad, it’s a testament to personal triumph. It brings to mind the erotic - in Audre Lorde’s definition - as a mode of survival, one that is generative not only for each of us personally, but each other and the planet - all concerns that Garcia shares. It's about radical, relentless belief in our capacity to surmount the individual and collective challenges we face now, and those to come.
Garcia studied under pianist Nikki Yeoh at Camden Music, before joining Gary Crosby’s Tomorrow’s Warriors in her late teens and completed her training at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music. She is a member of the contemporary septet, Nerija, and has toured extensively internationally, playing venues and festivals across Latin America, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Garcia’s reputation as a DJ is also burgeoning; she currently helms a hit radio residency on NTS and plays a growing number of live sets across Europe.
Torrential rain poured on the dark and dismal day that Southern Californians were ordered to shelter in place last March due to the coronavirus. Despite the unsettling time, Billboard chart-topping contemporary jazz guitarist Blake Aaron sat down to write a song to communicate hope. Using a tropical soca rhythm and infused with bright energy and joy, “Daylight” is Aaron’s newest single moving up the Billboard chart from the forthcoming “Color and Passion,” his sixth album that drops September 18 on Innervision Records.
“‘Daylight’ was written on and inspired by the day the coronavirus was officially declared a pandemic. It’s a song completely opposite of that rainy, dreary day written with the hope that we would soon see ‘daylight.’ The coronavirus has brought more pain to more people for much longer than we possibly could have imagined. ‘Daylight’ represents my musical hope and celebration of a new day for all of us,” said Aaron, who produced eight tracks, wrote seven songs and co-wrote three tunes for “Color and Passion.”
“Color and Passion” is Aaron’s first collection since 2015’s “Soul Stories,” and like that outing, half of the new album is made up of hit singles that were released over the last few years along with some newly completed cuts, many of which bode to be issued as singles. Two singles from “Color and Passion,” the melodically rich “Fall For You” and “Groovers and Shakers,” a duet written and produced with hitmaking saxophonist Darren Rahn, went No. 1 on the Billboard chart. Invigorating and illumined by a horn section, “Vivid” climbed into Billboard’s top 10 as did “Drive,” another propulsive collaboration with Rahn that was the No. 1 song of 2019 on the Radiowave chart.
In addition to featuring Rahn, Aaron spotlights several more Billboard chart-toppers on “Color and Passion.” He wrote the exhilarating “Sunday Strut” with guitarist Adam Hawley, a song graced by urban-jazz icon Najee on tenor and soprano saxophones. The album closes with a Latin percussive treatment of Stevie Wonder’s anthemic classic “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” that includes Kim Scott’s impassioned flute engaging in a dalliance with Aaron’s fiery electric guitar.
Virtually every song on “Color and Passion” sounds like a single because of Aaron’s innate ability to write ensnaring hooks that he animates with dexterous and technically-astute guitarwork along with an assortment of first-call musicians, the likes of which include bassists Darryl Williams, Hussain Jiffry and Mel Brown; drummers Tony Moore and Eric Valentine; keyboardists-pianists Rob Mullins, Tateng Katindig and Mike Whittaker; horn players and arrangers David Mann, Lee Thornburg and Scott Martin; and strings arranger Craig Sharmat.
“I’ve never been a believer in throwaway album cuts, so I write every song on my CDs with the hopes of it having a good shot at being a radio single. I’ve been lucky because I’ve had quite a few radio singles from both ‘Soul Stories’ and ‘Color and Passion.’ My radio promoter jokes that my albums are like greatest hits CDs even before they’re released.”
Aaron’s catalogue has consistently explored a wide range of musical styles – jazz, R&B, pop, Latin, Caribbean, funk, fusion and rock - and writing and recording over an extended period of time perhaps enhances the diversity heard on “Color and Passion.”
“‘Color and Passion’ refers to the way I see the wonderful and beautiful vast array of different styles and moods of music as colors, how those colors represent different paths, twists and turns on the journey through life, and the passion I have always had for and expressed through my music that hopefully shines through in my playing style, especially on songs like the title track,” said Aaron, who then got introspective.
“Having such a love for so many diverse musical styles and experiences has been mostly a blessing, but also slightly a curse. It’s been a blessing because I have never been bored and have been on this amazing journey both musically and personally that continues to unfold with new and exciting adventures. It has slightly been a curse because I may have gotten to where I was going with my music and my personal life a little faster without so many twists, turns and detours in the road.”
Releasing a new album during this uncertain time is not easy. All of Aaron’s supporting concert dates have been canceled or postponed for the time being. But he remains an eternal optimist and purposely closed “Color and Passion” offering a note of optimism.
“I must admit the one good thing for me that came out this terrible coronavirus situation was it allowed me to focus and finally finish ‘Color and Passion.’ I ended the album with Stevie Wonder’s uplifting and joyful ‘Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing’ because that is the last feeling and encouraging impression I want listeners to take with them. I hope this album provides a musical glimmer of hope and belief that we will get through this together.”
Barbara Lynn - Atlantic Years – 1968 to 1973 (180 gram pressing)
A killer collection of Barbara Lynn's records for Atlantic – a set that includes many of her 45-only tracks, which weren't on her full album for the label – plus one song that was only first issued in recent years! Lynn's a real standout in 60s soul music – a singer with a style that's as deep and personal as any of the best southern soul artists of the time, but also a way of putting over a tune that's maybe even more forthright and confident – partly because Barbara composed a good deal of her own material! A good deal of the work was produced by Huey P Meux in Mississippi – with a vibe that's both different from more familiar southern styles of the time, and even some of Huey's later material in the 70s – one more quality that really makes the work sound quite fresh. A few more tracks were recorded by the great Spooner Oldham – who brings in some sweet Muscle Shoals elements – and titles include the unreleased "Soul Deep", plus "This Is The Thanks I Get", "He Ain't Gonna Do Right", "You Make Me So Hot", "You'll Lose A Good Thing", "I'm A One Man Woman", "Sufferin City", "Maybe We Can Slip Away", "You're Gonna See A Lot More Of My Leavin", "You're Too Hot To Hold", and "Nice & Easy". ~ Dusty Groove
Milton Nascimento - Último Trem
With the success of Maria Maria in 1976 behind them, Nascimento reunited with his writing partner Fernando Brant in 1980 to produce another ballet, Ultimo Trem (Last Train). This time, they chose to tackle a more contemporarily relevant subject, the impact of the closure of a train line that connected certain towns and cities in the North East of Minas Gerais to the coast. Featuring much of the same all-star line-up as Maria Maria – including legendary Brazilian musicians Naná Vasconcelos, João Donato, Paulinho Jobim and members of Som Imaginário, like Maria Maria, the album holds what Milton himself considers to be the definitive versions of some of his most beloved tracks, including 'Saídas E Bandeiras' and 'Ponte de Areia'.
Manfredo Fest – Brazillian Dorian Dream
Legally blind from birth, Brazilian keyboard player, composer and bandleader Manfredo Fest learnt to read music in braille and began studying classical music at a young age. By 17 he had fallen in love with jazz (particularly the music of fellow blind pianist George Shearing) before becoming swept up in Rio’s emergent bossa nova movement in the sixties. Moving to the States in 1967 where he would go on to work with fellow countryman Sergio Mendes, Fest recorded and self-released Brazilian Dorian Dream in 1976, enlisting Thomas Kini (bass), Alejo Poveda (drums, percussion) and Roberta Davis (vocals).Like a turbo-powered, intergalactic elevator ride, Brazilian Dorian Dream builds on the principle of the modal diatonic scales of the Dorian mode, with influences of Brazilian rhythms, North American jazz and funk, and music of the European baroque and romantic era. The coming together of these intergenerational and intercontinental styles coupled with Fest’s visionary use of the Fender Rhodes, Clavinet, Arp and Moog synthesizers (plus a whole load of effects units), makes for an album light years ahead of its time. Manfredo passed away in Florida in 1999, and his music never quite reached the audiences it deserved. Due to the independent nature and limited run of the original release, Brazilian Dorian Dream has to this day remained almost impossible to find on vinyl. Far Out Recordings is making this masterpiece available to new audiences with a remastered vinyl, CD and digital reissue in 2020.
Esther Phillips - Brand New Day: The Lenox, Atlantic, & Roulette Recordings (5CD set)
A fantastic collection of work from the legendary Esther Phillips – one of the most distinct voices in soul music, captured here during some key moments in her career! The box is huge – and begins with a full CD of tracks from Esther's initial years on Lenox Records – a label that helped her mature from "Little Esther Phillips", as a girl R&B singer in the 50s – to the much more mature artist she'd become on CTI/Kudu in the 70s! The set features 20 Lenox tracks – the first a stunning set of country soul material that makes Esther one of the first female artists to take on the work, followed by rare singles and a few duets with Big Al Downing. Next are 77 more tracks from Phillips' years at Atlantic Records – material that initially takes off from the Lenox material, then moves into a really great range of styles – sometimes jazzy and sophisticated, sometimes rootsy and bluesy, sometimes a bit more deep soul too – including some live material that really shows the power she could pack at the time. In between the Atlantic cuts, are also nestled 6 more numbers recorded for Roulette Records in 1969 – especially rare tracks that have a slightly different approach – and which are a key part of the set here, along with some other unreleased material. Stunning – the first time Esther's ever gotten such wonderful treatment – a big box set with detained notes too! ~ Dusty Groove
Tom Ranier – This Way
Pianist, clarinetist, multi-woodwinds player, and composer Tom Rainer, one of Southern California’s finest improvisers, is releasing This Way, his first recording as a leader in 14 years. Ranier is a highly sought-after studio musician, performing regularly at the Grammys, Oscars, Emmys, and Golden Globes. He has also recorded for artists such as Terry Gibbs, Joe Pass, Buddy DeFranco, Barbra Streisand, and Plácido Domingo, among many others. On THIS WAY, Ranier displays the remarkable range of his musical talents. He composed six of the eight tunes on the disc, and he plays the piano and synthesizer, as well as soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxes. He is equally versatile on the Bb, bass, and contra-alto clarinets. Ranier’s music is so compelling because he is a storyteller with a strong visual sense. “You don’t need words to convey ideas or emotions. Like the visual arts, music tells stories through images,” says Ranier. This Way has been a long time coming. As Ranier notes, “Every recording is a snapshot in time of where the artist is right at that moment. This album is the culmination of all my experiences and musical influences over the last 15 or so years.” Accompanied by some of the finest musicians in Southern California, all of whom are first-call studio musicians with extensive recording experience, the music on This Way is rich and complex, yet eminently accessible and thoroughly enjoyable.
Marki Fields – Caught Up
A rising star on the Philly Soul scene, vocalist Marki Fields has been making a name for herself since her discovery by legendary Philly Soul producer and Society Hill chief Butch Ingram, who has put Marki's unique talent to work in the studio on several Society Hill releases. Marki garnered rave reviews for her duet with Society Hill label mate Donnie Tatum on their updating of Maxwell's smash hit "Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)" and for Marki's beautiful rendition of Stevie Wonder's 1984 chart-topper "Overjoyed." Marki was picked as one of the featured vocalists at a recent Phyllis Hyman tribute and she has made appearances all over the Northeast, wowing audiences with her authentic Philly soul sound. Ingram decided it was time that Marki exposed her talents to a wider audience and invited her into the studio to record her long overdue full-length album debut, appropriately titled "Caught Up." Enlisting the help of the Society Hill Orchestra and the Ingram Brothers band, Marki does justice to the Philly Soul sound with an awesome collection of hand-picked songs, hand-picked. Featured on the full-length is a bonus extended mix of Marki's critically acclaimed take on Maxwell's "Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)" and also includes a sensational duet with Donnie Tatum, updating Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes' "Hope That We Can Be Together Soon." Blessed with a unique vocal style and a strong connection to soul music of the past, Marki Fields is destined to bring the new sound of Philly Soul into the future.
Sylvia Bennett - This Love Is Real
Years after discovering her, jazz legend Lionel Hampton exclaimed of Sylvia Bennett, “Man, that lady can sing! Her magic gets to the ears and the hearts of the audience.” The extraordinary, multi-talented Grammy nominated vocalist does just that once again on her exceptional new album This Love Is Real. To the delight of Smooth Jazz fans, Bennett has been part of the genre for much of the new millennium, recording hits with Paul Brown and Rick Braun. Recent smashes featuring Nathan East and Arturo Sandoval lay the buoyant foundation of the new collection produced by Hal S. Batt, which finds Bennett artfully swinging from playful and whimsical to passionate and sensual as she brings smooth grooves and Latin-tinged twists to her all-time favorite subject… love! ~ smoothjazz.com
Deon Yates - Quintastic
Nearly 10 years after being named runner-up in the Capital Jazz Challenge, that launched his exciting and prolific career as a Smooth Jazz artist, Detroit-bred saxophonist Deon Yates is feeling more than great, he's feeling Quintastic. The socially trending title of his 5th solo album literally means “a person aged 50 or more and is still attractive and successful.” That timeless magnetism, relentless hooks and intense, horn-sizzling energy are the driving forces that propelled the title track onto the Groove Jazz Top 100 Smooth Jazz Songs of 2019! Featuring guest producers Chris "Big Dog" Davis, Jackiem Joyner and Darren Rahn, the current single, "In The Moment," features producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Nathan Mitchell! ~ smoothjazz.com
Alfredo Balcacer – 9 Paredes
After the successful release of his debut album, “Suspended Sea,” Alfredo Balcacer joins forces once again with his Sinergia Group. This new collaboration with artists Henry Rensch, Madison George, Otoniel Nicolas (Latin GRAMMY winner & GRAMMY nominee), Yakiv Tsvietinskyi, Caleb Elzinga and Rufus Ferguson was brought to life through a combination of video calls and long-distance recording sessions. Alfredo’s composition incorporates rhythms from his native Dominican Republic, setting the stage for Nicolas’ world-class percussive touch while preserving Dominican heritage across the arrangement. This single was mixed and co-produced by award-winning, GRAMMY nominated engineer JV Olivier at VIBRAR Studios and mastered by the great John Webber at AIR Studios in London, UK.
APKÁ! (with capital letters and an exclamation point), the fifth album from São Paulo’s Céu, consolidates the journey of the singer and composer’s career up to this point. A hot, minimalist record, which brings together sonic, thematic, musical and conceptual extremes, the new album reveals an artist passing through the musical trips made on previous records while eventually leaving her chrysalis, transformed into a new composer and interpreter, ready to start a new phase of her career.
The album’s title comes from Céu’s youngest child Antonino, a word shouted by the one year old to express complete satisfaction. Smiling & happy, Céu’s son with producer and drummer Pupillo, shouts the strange, made-up word to show that he is happy with everything from a meal to a game. It’s a mixture of excitement and gratitude. In its own way, APKÁ! does just that – in the form of music.
APKÁ! features the same team that worked on Céu’s celebrated previous studio album Tropix. French musician Hervé Salters, from the band General Elektriks, repeats his role as co-producer and keyboardist, as well as long-time bassist and faithful accomplice Lucas Martins and Pupillo on drums, programming and co-production. Guitarist Pedro Sá, completes the quartet that accompanies Céu on almost all of the new album’s tracks.
Acclaimed guitarist Bill Frisell has released “Keep Your Eyes Open,” the second single to be revealed from his forthcoming album Valentine featuring his trio with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston. “Keep Your Eyes Open,” which originally appeared on Frisell’s 1997 album Nashville, is accompanied by a new video by Monica Jane Frisell. Valentine was released by Blue Note Records on August 14, and is available for pre-order now on vinyl, CD, and digital formats.
Produced by his longtime collaborator Lee Townsend and recorded by Tucker Martine at Flora Recording in Portland, Oregon, Valentine is a 13-song set that mixes Frisell originals new and old, jazz standards, traditional songs, and covers. The album explores the creative freedom of the trio format and the profound relationship that exists between these three musicians after years of touring.
DownBeat awarded Valentine a 5-star “Masterpiece” rating in their August issue, with reviewer J.D. Considine writing “Even though the selections on Valentine hail from a range of styles the performances represent jazz playing at its most sublime,” and praising how the trio “consistently and strikingly play as one, voices intertwined, completing phrases as if sharing a single thought.”
Guitar World called the album’s lead single “We Shall Overcome” “about as beautiful an instrumental as you’ll ever hear. Frisell’s leads are nothing short of a work of art, letting the powerful melody take up as much space as it needs.” In JazzTimes’ July/August cover feature on the guitarist, Mac Randall calls Valentine “a Frisellian mix of down-home and moody, abstract and endearingly direct.”
Along with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Thom Bell was one of the three people responsible for The Sound Of Philadelphia, a lush, orchestrated take on soul music that dominated the charts in the early to mid-70s. Using the most unusual instrumentation – harpsichords, French horns, sitars – Bell’s arrangements built the careers of the Delfonics and the Stylistics, and reinvented acts as varied as the Spinners, Dionne Warwick and Johnny Mathis.
The distinctive sound of a Thom Bell arrangement is largely down to an upbringing devoid of R&B. Growing up in a middle-class Philadelphia household, he was playing piano, drums and flugelhorn by the time he was nine. “We didn’t have any radio or anything, we were trained classical musicians,” says Bell. “From when I was five ’til I was 17, I studied two or three hours a day. First thing I heard on the radio was Little Anthony & the Imperials’ ‘Tears On My Pillow’. I thought, What kind of music is this? This is nice music!”
He became a singer in a duo with Kenny Gamble. A year later the duo expanded to a five-piece, Kenny Gamble & the Romeos, and started to pick up work as session musicians at Philadelphia’s hot Cameo and Parkway labels. It was another Little Anthony & the Imperials hit, ‘I’m On The Outside (Looking In)’, that inspired him in 1964. “[Writer and producer] Teddy Randazzo, he was my leader – ‘Outside Looking In’, ‘Hurt So Bad’ … now we’re talking. I never got to meet Teddy Randazzo, and I’m sorry about that. Randazzo and Bacharach, those were my leaders. They tuned me in to what I was listening to in a more modernistic way.”
Cameo-Parkway eventually gave Gamble, Bell and Leon Huff (Bell’s replacement in the Romeos) more of a free hand, resulting in some beautiful 45s for Eddie Holman, the Orlons, Dee Dee Sharp and the Delfonics that helped to foment the lush, atmospheric Philadelphia sound. When the label folded in 1967, Bell took the Delfonics with him, and when the group moved on a few years later, he began to work with the Stylistics and then the Spinners, creating even bigger hits. Throughout these years, he kept a close-knit team around him, and the lyricist he worked with the most was Linda Creed. They worked together for nine years – when she died in 1986, aged 37, he was at her side.
As a writer, producer and arranger, Thom Bell’s originality and the quality of his work deserves the same acclaim as that heaped on Nile Rodgers or Burt Bacharach. He prefers to stay in the shadows, though, and over the years has allowed Gamble and Huff to take the Philly soul limelight. Still, when he talks about his work, there’s an acknowledgment of lucky breaks but there is no false modesty. “Some people were like ‘Are all these strings necessary, why don’t you make regular R&B?’ Because I’m not R&B. I make music. Nobody else is in my brain but me, which is why some of the things I think about are crazy – I hear oboes, and bassoons, and English horns. But I’m lucky, I cross styles. I was enthusiated. Not enthused, enthusiated. I had my own language, and I was able to do what I wanted to do.”
Includes tracks by Archie Bell & The Drells, The Orlons, The Delfonics, Lesley Gore, Connie Stevens, Three Degrees, Jerry Butler, Dee Dee Sharpe, Dusty Springfield, The Courtship, The Stylistics, The O'Jays, Ronnie Dyson, The Intruders, Johnny Mathis, MFSB, Teddy Pendergrass, Laura Nyro & Labelle, Dionne Warwick, and The Spinners.
The first note you hear on Ambrose Akinmusire’s fifth studio album on the tender spot of every calloused moment is his own—a somber yet vibrant tone that conveys jazz and the blues in equal measure. In years past, this wouldn’t be the case; Akinmusire is a bandleader who foregrounds collective improvisation. So to hear him take the lead on “Tide of Hyacinth” is a bold leap: Akinmusire not only asserts himself as one of the best trumpeters in the world, he’s using his voice to dissect the complexity of black life in America. Yet he isn’t trying to summon gloom, he’s unpacking it all. Through his trumpet comes the breath of a black man who’s seen the best and worst of the country, and harnesses it into 49 minutes of gorgeous, shape-shifting art.
But that isn’t surprising if you’ve followed him to this point. on the tender spot of every calloused moment is the latest in a rich assembly of music he’s released, each album drawn from very real emotions and instances in his life. Where 2018’s Origami Harvest was a study in contrasts, on the tender spot is a study of the blues in a contemporary context. It continues a theme first established on his first Blue Note album, 2011’s When The Heart Emerges Glistening: On that cover, he has short hair and a cleanly shaven face. For this one, he has locks, facial hair, and a black hooded sweatshirt. “In a way, I was thinking about this as a sequel to my first record [on the label],” Akinmusire says. “I’m returning to the landmarks in my first album.”
Akinmusire grew up in North Oakland in the 1980s, in what he has called a “very black, culturally rich” neighborhood. After living in New York for 10 years and Los Angeles for three, he moved back to his hometown in 2016 and noticed how much it had changed. It simply wasn’t the same Oakland. But it’s the same thing in historically black cities throughout the U.S.; in places like Oakland, Brooklyn, and Washington, D.C., natives are being priced out of their homes due to rising rent. What’s left are new neighbors with no sense of the communities that preceded them. Akinmusire is speaking to that, to coming back home and feeling like a stranger in the place you grew up, where the newcomers see your black skin and assume you’re the one who doesn’t belong.
While on the tender spot scans as jazz, there’s a prevalent blues woven within the LP. It’s in the moonlit melancholy of “Yessss” and the gentle lullaby of “Cynical sideliners,” which, Akinmusire says, is a tongue-in-cheek ode to haters. Over light electric piano, vocalist Genevieve Artadi assures you it’s going to be fine—you’re the brave one; pay no attention to the naysayers. “You are you and they are they,” she sings. “You’ll be brave and they’ll be safe.” Then there’s a song like “reset (quiet victories & celebrated defeats),” a spacious and haunting procession doubling as a trumpet solo. Scant drums and piano chords fill the background; a complex sorrow permeates the mix. While creating this album, Akinmusire says he wrestled with conveying what the blues looks like in modern times: “The blues is about resilience.”
Much like his previous work, on the tender spot unpacks the feeling of “otherness” and what that means in a country with such a fraught racial history. In that way, it resembles Origami Harvest and 2014’s the imagined savior is far easier to paint. But where those records seethed, this one simmers; Akinmusire examines the past with pondering eyes and not a furrowed brow.
Indeed, on the tender spot navigates what it means to simply exist as a black person in America. Alongside drummer Justin Brown, pianist Sam Harris and upright bassist Harish Raghavan—bandmates for over a decade—Akinmusire delves into the internal strife of every person made to think they’re inferior. In a land where political leaders cater to the 1% and justice is reserved for fairer skin, there might be a notion to give up and make yourself smaller to fit in. Akinmusire is rebuking that notion: You don’t have to code-switch or conform to their rules. “You can be yourself and still be successful,” he says. “You don’t have to dance for people if you don’t want to dance.”
On the tender spot also eulogizes another great jazz trumpeter, Roy Hargrove, who died of cardiac arrest in 2018. In the late-1990s and early-2000s, Hargrove was a link between jazz, hip-hop and soul, and appeared on pivotal records by D’Angelo, Common and Erykah Badu while forming his own sonic hybrid. Hargrove’s death rattled the jazz community and Akinmusire himself. “I don’t think I would be alive if I hadn’t met him when I did,” he tweeted at the time. “I am extremely grateful I got to tell him as a grown man to his face.” In turn, the song “Roy,” which draws from the Baptist hymn The Lord’s Prayer, is an almost three-minute reflection near the album’s end. The song feels funereal—equally mournful and optimistic. “Roy was my dude!” Akinmusire says. “We’ve had so many different ways of relating from the age of 15 to 35.”
It all leads to the album’s chilling closer, “Hooded procession (read the names aloud),” which extends Akinmusire’s tradition of remembering the fallen. On When the Heart Emerges Glistening, he had “My Name is Oscar.” On the imagined savior he had “Rollcall For Those Absent,” where a child reads the names aloud: Amadou Diallo, Wendell Allen, Trayvon Martin and Timothy Russell, among others. On Origami’s “the lingering velocity of the dead’s ambitions,” the tribute was implied: In lieu of names being rattled off, the music itself expressed grief. The same goes for “Hooded procession,” where Akinmusire’s sullen keys land exquisitely. As it unfolds, the instrumental track begs for a new set of names to be spoken. That it doesn’t have words and still resonates is the trumpeter’s greatest asset: Across this and other albums, he’s able to say powerful things without saying anything at all.
With the veteran drum legend Jeff Hamilton at the helm of any ensemble swing is not just a given, it’s an imperative. United with the pianist Tamir Hendelman and the bassist Jon Hamar, Hamilton leads a trio that, as displayed on Catch Me If You Can, is committed to upholding the fundamentals of robust mainstream jazz: forthright and economical improvisation, lyricism, and, above all, uncompromising swing. Building on the foundation of Hamilton’s stirring stick and trademark brush artistry, the outfit calls attention to the durability of the enduring piano trio tradition. A reliably inspired entity for almost 30 years, the Jeff Hamilton trio confirms with this captivating new recording that it remains one of the premier ensembles of its day.
While featuring first-rate pieces by the likes of John Williams (“Make Me Rainbows”), Thad Jones (“Big Dipper”), Ralph Burns (“Bijou”) and George Cables (“Helen’s Song”), Catch Me If You Can also takes advantage of the compositional skills of the trio’s multi-talented pianist and bassist. Hendelman title track, and Hamar’s “The Barn” and “Bucket O’ Fat” (the latter highlighted by the bassist’s Ray Brown-like playing) display both the songwriting gifts and the technical chops that each of these expert players brings to the trio. As Hamilton states about the band’s “policy”, “If you want to be featured, you’d better come up with your own composition and arrangement!” Each piece, as well as the interpretations of the Artie Shaw signature tune “Moonray,” the Brazilian standard “Lapinha,” and “The Pond” by Hamilton’s mentor John Von Ohlen, is a convincing demonstration of the unity and second-sight musical telepathy that binds the trio.
As every performance on the album eloquently demonstrates, the Hamilton trio is all about the balance of band cohesion coexisting with emphatic displays of instrumental mastery. Propulsive yet subtle, as only the best virtuoso players can be, Hamilton unites an unmistakable sound on his instrument with a majestic rhythmic underpinning. His compatriots are exceptional stylists who, while displaying their own abilities, also recognize the inestimable value of a group sound. The Hamilton trio, it is clear, has an identity it can proudly call its own.
The group’s responsive interplay is evident throughout, a mark of the clear identification each has for the other’s music making. This empathy can be clearly heard on the ballad, “The Pond,” which highlights Handelman’s sensitive playing, and is an affecting example of the trio’s fellow feeling.
Both “Bijou” and “Moonray” were originally conceived for large ensembles. In the trio’s deft hands, tunes that originally featured other instruments (“Bijou,” which spotlighted trombonist Bill Harris, a star soloist of the Woody Herman band; and “Moonray” which featured bandleader Artie Shaw’s clarinet;
“Big Dipper” was a set piece for the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra) are transformed into piano trio gems. “We enjoy the challenge of playing pieces originally made for big band,” says Hamilton, himself an acclaimed big band drummer, who had early experience in the Herman aggregation in the late 1970s.
As the Jeff Hamilton trio marches into a new decade, it has taken on a major challenge: how to keep the mainstream piano tradition fresh. With Catch Me If You Can it proves, beyond a doubt, it has succeeded.
Jeff Hamilton: A living legend with an international fan base, drummer Hamilton is both the leader of his own trio as well as well as one of the founders of the Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, and the Akiko-Hamilton-Dechter trio. Hamilton has also performed with, among many others, such greats as Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and Woody Herman,
Tamir Hendelman: Israeli native Hendelman, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, has been heard with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Diana Krall, John Pizzarelli, Natalie Cole, and Barbra Streisand, among others. He is also the leader of his own trio.
Jon Hamar: A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Harold Danko and others, Hamar is best known for his four-year association with the vocal legend Ernestine Anderson. Hamar is currently on faculty at the Natalie Haslam School of Music at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
https://hamiltonjazz.com/
“Once upon a time” has to start somewhere. On his last album, 1954, guitarist/composer Ricardo Grilli chose to begin his own story in the year of his father’s birth – a date that also coincided with the dawn of the Space Age and the height of bebop in New York City. With his inviting yet evocative follow-up, 1962, Grilli shifts perspective by leaping forward to a new starting point: this time, his mother’s birth year.
Less than a decade separates the inspirations behind the two halves of Grill’s musical diptych. Yet the eras are markedly distinct: with 1962 the guitarist cast his mind back to a time when bebop had fused with R&B to create the more raucous sounds of hard bop; rock and roll was evolving from its freewheeling origins to take on the rich complexities that would lead to the British Invasion and psychedelia; and his native Brazil was undergoing a tumultuous time period that would soon culminate in the 1964 coup d’état ushering in two decades of military rule.
All of that was on Grilli’s mind, but as on 1954 he avoided explicitly referencing the sounds and styles of the past when composing the music for its sequel. Instead, he focused on the idea of evolution and change that characterized the 1960s and imbued his own music with those themes. Then he enlisted a remarkable quintet with the ability to fluidly explore the guitarist’s modern concepts while harkening to the lessons of the past. Bassist Joe Martin and drummer Eric Harland return from 1954, joined here by saxophone great Mark Turner and pianist Kevin Hays.
Reflecting on the past, Grilli explains, doesn’t necessarily mean looking backwards. In his view, framing his own origins through the lifespan of his parents has allowed him to take a wide perspective of the present day while recognizing the recurrent echoes of history. “With both albums, I wanted to create connections between the past and how the future looks from there. It’s always interesting to think about what was going on back then, the context that my parents grew up in and how their taste in music passed on to me. This music takes those aesthetics and tries to modernize them through my own voice.”
Though 1962 is far from a protest record, it does take a slightly darker view from both ends of its timeline. Grilli’s own birth in 1985 coincided with the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship and the country’s first direct elections. In 2020 things seem to have come full circle with the far right’s rise to power in Brazil along with uncomfortably authoritarian tendencies in Grilli’s adopted home in the U.S. “It’s amazing to see how short people’s memories,” he laments. “It’s a pretty tricky political scenario in Brazil; we went through a few calm years and now it seems like we’re in another edgy period. It makes for more hectic, turbulent times for everybody, and I think that influenced my music.”
Whether it’s those political parallels or simply his concern for his family back home, Grilli found the influence of Brazilian music emerging much more strongly in his music for 1962 than it has in the past, though again the influences are subtle and filtered through his own singular vision. “Coyote,” for instance, is at its core a slow samba, while “Lunàtico” is built on the foundation of a maracatu groove, albeit slightly bent, as the title suggests. The name is also a reference to Brooklyn’s Bar Lunatico, a beloved venue close to the guitarist’s home.
The atmospheric intro “1954-1962” bridges the two albums, with Grilli playing alone through effects-laden guitar tones to suggest a journey through time. The band then enters on “Mars,” which continues the composer’s fascination with astronomy through a soaring piece inspired by the Red Planet. That theme also appears on “Voyager,” another title with a double meaning – in addition to suggesting the exploratory spacecraft launched in the late 70s, Voyager is also the name of Harland’s adventurous band. “Eric’s approach is to have very minimal written material and then just let the music happen. I decided to try that with this tune as my nod to Eric. It’s a fun one to play, and I feel it really takes advantage of his energy.”
In his liner notes, recently retired Smalls Jazz Club founder Mitch Borden writes, “Every decade creates its own Bird, Bud or Monk. But it becomes the goal to be not of an age but for all time.” That idea resonates with Grilli’s thoroughly modern reimagining of the jazz idioms of the past, and for his own generation Smalls was a beacon. “183 W. 10th St.” remains the club’s address, and the piece is Grilli’s take on the forward-looking bop vibe that found a home there for musicians like Mark Turner. It was also a home base for guitarist Peter Bernstein, to whom Grilli pays homage on “Signs.”
“E.R.P.” looks farther back into that lineage, its title both a dedication to bop pioneer Bud Powell (whose birth name was Earl Rudolph Powell) and a callback to “E.S.P.,” the classic Wayne Shorter piece originally recorded by Miles Davis’ second quintet (whose existence roughly coincides with this album’s timeframe, as the first quintet did with 1954). “The Sea and the Night” finds inspiration in the isolation and darkness found adrift in the limitless ocean, while “Virgo (Oliver’s Song)” was written for the birth of Grilli’s cousin’s first son.
Beyond the two timelines suggested by the album titles, Grilli sees this pair of recordings as the two halves of an interstellar journey – if 1954 launched listeners into the stratosphere, 1962 brings them home, wiser but still marveling at the vast expanse of the universe. “This album to me feels to me like we’ve gone way out there, but we’re able to make the trip back. I like to divide the journey into those two periods, with both being equally here and out there but in an inverse basis. I think it provides a nice closure for this project, at least for now.”
Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and based in New York City, guitarist and composer Ricardo Grilli is one of the most prominent voices of the modern guitar. He has performed with such renowned musicians as Chris Potter, Chris Cheek, Will Vinson, John Escreet and EJ Strickland, among others. In 2013, he released his debut album, If On A Winter's Night, a Traveler, followed in 2016 by 1954, which featured Aaron Parks, Joe Martin and Eric Harland. Grilli holds a bachelor's degree in guitar with honors from Berklee College of Music and a master's degree in Jazz Studies from New York University.
ricardogrilli.com
Bassist, composer, and bandleader Eva Kess unveils a remarkable expanded sonic palette on Sternschnuppen: Falling Stars, to be released August 28 on Neuklang Records. The Swiss/German musician heads a septet that also features pianist Simon Schwaninger, violinists Vincent Millioud and Susanna Andres, violist Nao Rohr, cellist Ambrosius Huber, and drummer Philipp Leibundgut—a wholly original take on the concept of chamber jazz.
It’s no mere matter of semantics that Kess calls her ensemble a septet, as opposed to the more common “trio plus string quartet.” The bassist did not simply fuse two working ensembles together but assembled the group from scratch especially for Falling Stars—whose nine tracks she always performs in the same sequence as is programmed on the album. The music is a complex program that depends not on strings accompanying a jazz band, but on all seven members listening to and following each other with as much care as they give to playing Kess’s written notes.
“This is highly contrapuntal music,” she explains, “where every player holds a high degree of melodic and rhythmic responsibility.”
There can be no doubt about that. Whether in the kicky bossa nova of “Porto Alegre,” on which the violins play as integral role in the groove as does the drummer; the bassist’s dramatic enmeshing with the other strings on the pianoless “The Subsequent Use of Yesteryear and Futility”; the every-which-way syncopation of “Experimental Dreaming”; or the bold interactions of “Penta Piece,” it’s clear that Kess’s conception is one that makes great demands on each of her musicians and gives none priority over any others.
This includes Kess herself. Except in her compositional voice, the bassist is no overweening presence on Falling Stars herself: she can emerge from the ensemble with a lustrous solo or powerful obbligato, then disappear again into the groove. “As a double bassist I’m in a team providing rhythmic as well as harmonic information,” she says. “For me it’s about the music as a whole, not only the bass.”
In the case of Falling Stars, the music as a whole is both a reimagination of strings as jazz instruments, and of the fuller possibilities of a jazz ensemble. More than that, it is a scintillating work of art.
Eva Kess was born Eva Patricia Kesselring on April 10, 1985, in West Berlin and grew up in Bern, Switzerland (after spending a few years in Porto Alegre, Brazil). As a child she played piano, advancing enough that as a young teenager she was able to perform a Bach concerto with a symphony orchestra. At 17, however, her world shifted radically. First, she fell in love with the double bass after hearing a street performance by a bass quartet; soon afterward, a friend took her to her first jazz concert, where she fell in love once again.
Taking lessons with bassist Lorenz Beyeler—the bassist she had heard at that first jazz show—and later with fellow Bern bassist Thomas Dürst, Kess made the rounds of the local jazz scene, acquainting herself with both Bern’s musicians and the American and European artists who passed through the Swiss capital. She was soon able to form her own trio. After studying at the Music Academy of Basel, she returned to her hometown where she entered the University of the Arts Bern’s prestigious master’s program in music composition and theory. Among her teachers were pianist/composers Django Bates and Guillermo Klein, both of whom became her mentors.
In 2010, Kess won a scholarship to study in New York, adding the U.S. to Germany, Brazil, and Switzerland in her array of musical and cultural experiences. That same year she also recorded her debut album, Wondering What Is Coming. After seven years came her long-awaited second recording, Flying Curly, followed by last year’s unaccompanied album Bassexperiment and, now, Sternschnuppen: Falling Stars.
“Usually, I am an optimist, so I try to see the pandemic as a time found instead of time lost,” says Kess. “A time in which it is very important to keep going no matter what. At the start I’ve been asking myself: What can I do now for my future? And then I’ve decided to write some music, going for long walks in the forest or at the river, talking more with my parents, watching movies and reading some books. Of course the jazz aspect of interactive music is not possible during social distancing, so the communal experience is missing; many things have become a bit abstract lately. Music live and music online is not the same experience. As humans we are social creatures, it is a deep human need to be around others. Yet compositional processes are still the same and composition is pretty solitary and needs a lot of patience anyway.
“So many things are happening at the same time everywhere around the globe. As creators we take and we convert outside influences as well as inside feelings, experiences, convictions, beliefs, etc. All in all it is a very unique time for creators in which it is very important to stay inspired and to be compassionate with yourself and with others.”
Rising UK neo-soul star Poppy Ajudha has released “Watermelon Man (Under The Sun),” her new version of Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man,” which the legendary pianist first recorded for Blue Note Records on his debut album Takin’ Off in 1962, and later re-imagined on his 1973 jazz-funk classic Head Hunters. The song is the fourth single to be revealed from Blue Note Re:imagined, a forthcoming collection of classic Blue Note tracks reworked by a selection of the UK scene’s most exciting young talents. Previous singles include Skinny Pelembe’s take on Andrew Hill’s “Illusion,” Ezra Collective’s cover of Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints,” and Jorja Smith’s rework of St Germain’s “Rose Rouge.”
Poppy Ajudha: “Herbie’s Watermelon Man was my first thought when asked to imagine a track from the Blue Note catalogue. It’s an iconic song and one that has been with me throughout my life.
I based the lyrics on my research of Watermelon Men in America, aiming to capture what it may have been like to be a black man in America at that time – newly emancipated but still heavily oppressed – and the race relations that had brought him to this point.
I wanted to broaden the concept of the Watermelon Man to the way that black people in the US and UK throughout history have been denied an understanding of where they came from and the truth of a violent history within the western world. It feels ever more relevant today with the BLM movement coming to the forefront of our lives and was an important direction for me to take the song in.”
