New Music: Carlton Jumel Smith; Grupo Baquedanu; Antoine Berjeaut; Christina Dahl Trio

Carlton Jumel Smith - Devoted To You

Carlton Jumel Smith is back on Timmion Records, doing what he does best: grooving, testifying and romancing his way into your heart. His last album for the label '1634 Lexington Avenue' left many contemporary soul fans in awe -  some in tears of joy - and they will be pleased to know that he has something new cooking in 2022. Carlton and Cold Diamond & Mink bring out a new trilogy of tracks that will be first available as a digital EP and soon after on three separate vinyl records flipped with instrumental versions. ‘Devoted To You’ packs everything you could want from a mid-tempo jam. A steady tambourine beat rides a mellow groove, leaving Carlton all the pockets he needs to fill with his ever-funky but delicate delivery. ‘Heaven In My  Arms’ is a melodic beat ballad of the highest order, which should sweep fans of lowrider soul off their wheels, while ‘Loveliness Of You’ has sunday soul written all over it. 'Devoted To You' will be available as a digital EP - the songs will then be released on 3 different 7" singles.

Grupo Baquedanu - Toma Cinco

Grupo Baquedanu’s’ "Toma Cinco" is a hidden pearl in the recording history of Venezuela. “Take Five”, the groundbreaking jazz classic by Dave Brubeck is covered by one of the best saxophonists in the country's history, Santiago Baquedano (1931-2008), along with his group, Baquedanu's. Baquedano established himself as one of the finest sax players in Venezuela during the 50s and 60s when he worked with local band-leaders like Pablo Armitano, Willie Pérez, Willy Gamboa and Luis Alfonso Larrain. As his reputation grew he began playing wider, touring Latin America as well as travelling through Spain, the Middle East, the US and Puerto Rico. The name of musicians he has accompanied is vast but includes Frank Sinatra, Charles Aznavour, Xavier Cugat, Tom Jones and Paul Anka. In the mid-70s he decided to return to Venezuela with the intent of creating his own music, and find his own flavour. Thus, he formed Grupo Baquedanu’s in 1977 and released his version of “Take Five”. Noticeably, he changes the signature 5/4 of the original into 4/4, allowing for a looser adaptation that passes through Latin rock, funk, disco and psych, the perfect recipe for a sophisticated Venezuelan audience who, crucially, also wanted to dance. “Toma Cinco” is the second single from Color de Trópico Vol. 3, the latest instalment of El Palmas Music’ illuminating journey into Venezuela’s musical gems of the 60s and 70s.

Antoine Berjeaut - Chromesthesia 

Following the critically acclaimed album Moving Cities, recorded and produced with Makaya McCraven, Antoine Berjeaut - a stalmart of the European jazz scene - returns with Chromesthesia. Crafted together with some of the most innovative musicians of the French jazz circuit, this exciting new album will be out June 3rd through French-Japanese record label MENACE.Chromesthesia (or sound-to-color synesthesia) is a type of synesthesia in which sound involuntarily evokes an experience of color, shape, and movement. Antoine Berjeaut seeks synesthetic resonances between sound and colors, guided by the intuition that he can write music while using concepts and processes inherent to graphic art; playing with contrasts and nuances the way he plays with scales and keys, and tracing melodic lines in a constantly moving world, both graphic and sonic. “I see songwriting and composition as an ephemeral musical gesture, something like a sonic calligraphy which I hope to be as fluid as possible” Berjeaut explains.Echoing the compositions, London-based Lory Louves’ original paintings invoke a graphic and spatial dimension to music, through his “internal eye”. For the album’s opener “PPDQ”, Berjeaut goes for a cinematic immersion, with a spiritual jazz feel. Recorded in one take with Enzo Carniel (keyboards), Arnaud Dolmen (drums) and Csaba Palotai (guitar) - at the heart of the pandemic when the French government didn’t allow gathering of more than 4 people (“PPDQ” stands for “Pas plus de quatre”; “No more than four in english) - it features a prominent and enveloping flugelhorn solo, sidechained Rhodes synth lines, organic and nuanced drumming, a floating guitar and cutting-edge arrangement. Aptly named “Life in Ocre” (which refers to the colors of brass instruments and horns) is a solar tune which combines field recordings, Prophet synth sequences, a Lo-fi aesthetic and subtle beat music. Third single “Meeting Point” is as conquering as progressive and showcases the band’s wonderful interplay, with the addition of Gauthier Toux on synths. It encapsulates the ambition of Chromesthesia, Antoine Berjeaut’s very personal take on 21st century jazz - urban, poetic and technological - and one of the most forward-thinking and effortless records of the year.

Christina Dahl Trio - Souls of the Wind

In this musical meeting, a unique expression is created in harmony by three dynamic and creatively creative musicians. Christina Dahl Trio consists of three artists, each one with great personality, who together create an original universe of compositional music and improvisation. The trio is not afraid of experimenting with the musical expression and to seek out the nooks and crannies of the musical landscape. The music has a spectrum of sound facets and expresses itself from the simple lyrical to the more complex layers of musical lines and pulse. The trio thrives in its span and adventurous stories are told and put to life in this musical tone univers that is intuitively conveyed and ranges from deep, inner peace to chaos and wildness - clear, beautiful moments to smoldering, intense and whimsical colors of foggy tone language. The music is composed by Christina Dahl and is created from inner pictures and storylines. The music is portrayed by the trio in a mutual, organic, musical image that reflects the eternal dynamics and changeability of the human and life.

 

Celebrating 50 years of Black Uhuru

Legendary Grammy Award Winner Black Uhuru to Celebrate 50th Anniversary with the release of latest album New Day.

To celebrate their 50th-anniversary, the legendary godfathers of reggae Black Uhuru, along with Chico Roots-Rock crew Dylans Dharma, are partnering with SoCal independent label LAW Records to announce the release of their latest album New Day (to be released May 13, 2022). 

One of the most prolific Jamaican reggae bands in history, Black Uhuru has earned an impressive collection of music industry accolades over the years including winning the first-ever Grammy Award for reggae music with eight other Grammy Nominations to boot. Their enduring success, along with having the highest reggae record sales after Bob Marley and the most songs in the genre sampled by other artists, has mad the name Black Uhuru synonymous with the reggae genre as a whole. The upcoming New Day LP carries on Black Uhuru's powerful legacy of conscious roots reggae that started in Kingston, Jamaica, and has now continued around the planet to influence new generations of emerging reggae artists for five decades!

“The band is legendary,” says Black Uhuru founder & bandleader Derrick “Duckie” Simpson. “We’ve been around for over 50 years.  We started when we were youth and the band has come right through all these years in abundance.. There have been a couple of changes over the years with some guys left to do other things, and a couple of lead singers passed through the band: Don Carlos, Michael Rose, Junior Reid, and then Don Carlos again, and Andrew Bees now for like 25 years.  This album is my second up front doing lead vocals.”

“Celebrating 50 Years of Black Uhuru” will kick off with Black Uhuru’s release of the new single “Brand New Day'' (dropping  March 18, 2022) along with the full album pre-order also starting on March 18, 2022. Featuring the band’s iconic founder Duckie Simpson — back out front with his earthy, soulful baritone, trading verses with Dylan Seid of Chico-based Roots-Rock crew Dylans Dharma — the track is a rewrite of a Dylans Dharma song by the same name, with new verses by Duckie that were inspired by events he encountered during his time living in California in 2019. 

After an extensive cross-country US tour, Duckie had retreated to Helltown, a rugged mountain community in the hills of Butte County in Northern California. What he found there was sheer devastation after the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California's history (known as The Camp Fire) had just ravaged the entire area. Duckie was deeply inspired as he witnessed the small community come together with love and positive energy to regenerate and rebuild what was lost. With this deep respect and appreciation, Duckie collaborated with Dylan Seid to musically paint the ties that bind in that unique mountainside community.

The “Brand New Day” single is the second Black Uhuru collaboration with Dylans Dharma following last November’s single “From Jamaica to Here”, an unexpectedly groove-inducing cover of a 1976 folk song by English singer-songwriter Ralph McTell entitled “Clare To Here”.

The new album will also feature collaborations with long-time Black Uhuru frontman and solo artist in his own right Andrew Bees as well as a cover by CA-based singer-songwriter Baharat Karmakar, whose song "I Can See the Light" about The Campfire, inspired the New Day project.

The New Day album captures Black Uhuru at their enduring best, passing the torch even as their flame continues to burn strong, in alignment with the LAW Records mission of discovering and developing a new generation of emerging reggae artists, while simultaneously tracing a living historical connection between the genre’s future and its legendary Jamaican roots.  Owned and operated by the prolific artist/entrepreneurs of reggae-rock band Pepper (Yesod Williams, Kaleo Wassman, and Bret Bollinger), SoCal independent label LAW Records has gained a well-earned reputation as the tastemaker label when it comes to American reggae and reggae-rock. As trailblazers and the unofficial ambassadors of a music scene they are largely responsible for creating, the LAW team has been equally invested in developing the next generation of reggae-rock artists and connecting the genre’s wide-open future with its legendary Jamaican roots. 

“Strategically,” says LAW General Manager Paul Milbury, “what we want to do is connect the burgeoning American-Cali reggae scene back to the original legends, who helped create the scene that inspired this one: Black Uhuru is foremost among those legends. We really want to introduce the old to the new and the new to the old, to ensure the newer generation of reggae fans are aware of the legends and their importance, and hopefully introduce the older reggae fans to some newer artists who are pushing the contemporary reggae scene forward.”

From humble beginnings in Kingston, Jamaica’s Waterhouse District, Black Uhuru took their reggae across the globe and won the unsurprising honor of becoming the best-selling reggae act in history — second only to Bob Marley and the Wailers. Black Uhuru toured with the Rolling Stones and the Police, then bust down the barriers all on their own, barriers that have too often kept reggae stars out of the American mainstream. Several of their albums sold tens of millions of copies, including the GRAMMY-winning Anthem. The BBC called them “THE name to drop.”

In 2018, Black Uhuru returned to the studio for the first time in 15 years to record a new album. As The World Turns. Featuring original songs and strong cameos, it was one of the first times in years Duckie Simpson, iconic founder of the band, had stepped out in front again. To support the album, the band headed out on an East Coast US Tour with stops in major cities New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, & Boston, which culminated in the band’s appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts.

Not long after, Black Uhuru was approached by LAW Records: “Teaming up our label with Black Uhuru is mind-blowing,” says LAW Records founding partner Yesod Williams, “like to the point where it doesn’t even seem real. This is arguably the most legendary name in reggae, a band whose music helped shape me, my band, and the whole state of Hawaii in the 80s and 90s where we grew up.  As I approach this from my fandom perspective, I’m in complete awe. When I approach this from the perspective of LAW, ‘none will escape’. The task at hand is to reinvigorate the world with the Mighty BU, and we won’t stop till Duckie’s magic on “Jamaica To Here” is heard across the world, from now till forever!”

Black Uhuru was one of the first bands to seriously incorporate dub elements into their songs, with its undulating, up-front bass lines, and this single tips the hat to this approach. After spending five decades making music, Black Uhuru still manages to maintain their signature sound, keeping everything on tape, old-school:

“Everything was old-school analog,” says Simpson. The basic tracks were recorded at Helltown Studios in Helltown, California, with both Duckie and Dylan Seid on lead vocals. Then Simpson took the recordings to Leebert Cougar Studio in Kingston, Jamaica to do overdubs and mix in backing vocals by Niki Burt and Elsa Green, guitars by Leebert “Gibby'' Morrison, horns by Everald Ray, and drums by Rolando Alphanso Wilson.

Most of the early production was done by Duckie and Horace “King Hopeton” Campbell of Double Lion Studio (who also played keyboards on the album and is featured on the track Gal Next Door) then the tracks were sent off to be mixed by Grammy-winning producer Jermaine Forde of Ajang Music. Robert Oyugi of Ujama Designs oversaw the process as Project Manager and Artistic Director, while Dylan Seid, Dharma LaRocca & Kopavi Cannon were the Executive Producers.

“Fifty years is a big achievement for any band, and we are so proud to be a part of Black Uhuru’s 50th-anniversary celebration,” says Yesod Williams of LAW Records, “We firmly believe in the magic of music at LAW and honoring where it came from. And in our mission here, we are gonna make sure it is known how integral Black Uhuru has been to modern reggae, Cali Reggae, alternative reggae, and just music in general. We are living i a  “Brand New Day” and this album is the perfect beacon to bring us back together in love.”

Marsha Bartenetti sings McNealy & Kuhns

As an orchestra awaited, jazz singer Marsha Bartenetti entered the iconic Capitol Studios confident yet carrying a heavy burden. The vocal interpreter was tasked with recording a collection of songs by the songwriting team of Jane McNealy and Alice Kuhns that McNealy selected to preserve a legacy, possibly the album that would be the final musical statement from the composers who’ve spent more than fifty years writing music for records, theater, film and television. Inspired by her stage four cancer diagnosis and Kuhns’ declining health, McNealy handpicked music from her catalogue of jazz, pop, soul, funk and folk tunes and spared no expense to record them as she’s always intended them to sound. The album, “Marsha Bartenetti sings McNealy & Kuhns,” was released on April 1.

Bartenetti was drawn to be “the voice” of the project by the duo’s evocative lyrics that tell stories that resonate. Surrounding the singer’s elegant, inviting and expressive voice are lavish orchestrations and deft arrangements crafted by Mike Watts.

Earlier this month, the album opener, “Why Does The Sky Keep Changing,” dropped as a single and a video was lensed that will premiere in conjunction with the album release. The dramatic number written for the McNealy & Kuhns-penned musical “Gauguin” is illumined by sublime strings and Bartenetti’s impassioned, captivating performance.

“Marsha Bartenetti sings McNealy & Kuhns” is a jazz vocal album capable of standing alongside a collection of contemporary classics and standards culled from the great American songbook. Bartenetti, who is also an actor and a prominent voiceover artist, exquisitely renders the emotion apropos of the weighty assignment with aplomb. 

 

Canadian Jazz Singer Mary Lou Sicoly Spices Up a Timeless Standard with New Release of “Blame It On My Youth”

Holding on to a slice of childhood innocence should never be ill-advised as it can enhance the sweet moments in our lives, and make the inevitable sour times easier to swallow. With that in mind, JUNO Award-nominated Canadian jazz vocalist Mary Lou Sicoly is serving up a deliciously spicy take on romantic naivete with the release of her new single, “Blame It On My Youth” — available now.

Written by Oscar Levant and Edward Heyman in 1934 and recorded throughout the decades since by the likes of Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Connie Francis, Chet Baker, Holly Cole, Aaron Neville, and Jamie Cullum, “Blame It On My Youth” has stood the test of time as a relatable tale of guileless love.

“I fell in love with the lyrics and, of course, the gorgeous melody,” Sicoly notes as to why chose to record this classic. “Being raised in a household where a sense of humour was the recipe for keeping young at heart, I’ve always had a sense of whimsy.”

That sense of whimsy found its way into the recording as well. Originally a ballad, Sicoly’s bright version of “Blame It On My Youth” is full of sunshine and rhythm. It’s an intriguing musical dichotomy of a lyrical lament set against a very festive soundscape. For that unexpected, bold and ear-pleasing treatment, Sicoly gives full props to her longtime musical director.

“This song was arranged by my brilliant Musical Director, John Ebata,” Sicoly shares. “In a completely different style than the original, he gives it a Latin feel — cradled in a blend of colourful percussion and driving, Cuban-style bass which makes the vocals pop.”

“Blame It On My Youth” is the first single from Lemon Meringue Pie, the 10-song debut album Sicoly and Ebata started working on pre-pandemic. For these two past JUNO nominees, it’s been a labour of love and much needed creative focus over the past two uncertain years. Lemon Meringue Pie will see its highly anticipated release on May 10th with a launch concert at Toronto’s famed Jazz Bistro. It will be as much a celebration of a great musical partnership as it will be for the music itself.

“I feel that collaborating and working with people has to begin with a mutual respect for each other’s talents as well as a genuine chemistry that allows the flow of ideas to make good music,” Sicoly says. “I am blessed to have that dynamic both with my Musical Director and the musicians with whom I work.”

Lemon Meringue Pie may be Sicoly’s debut jazz album but that’s just the latest accomplishment in a career that has seen some wonderful milestones so far for the Toronto-based singer/songwriter. She has written and recorded five children’s albums, including the JUNO nominated Chase a Rainbow. Sicoly, Ebata and Nova Scotian vocalist Mark Riley recently toured a “classic duets” album and, currently, Sicoly, Ebata and Dora Award winning multi-instrumentalist, composer and vocalist Waleed Abdulhamid are working on an equity, diversity and inclusion project called “Songs For Humanity.”

Also an esteemed music educator, Mary Lou Sicoly is a recipient of the CARAS (JUNO) Award for Music Education, a TVOntario Award for Innovation in Music Education and was the 1999 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence. A presenter at several education conferences, Sicoly has also toured the Arctic with “Strings Across the Sky”, leading music camps in Tuktoyaktuk and Iqaluit.

From singing with her dad’s dance band in Sault Ste. Marie to jingles and commercial spots, to performing in various solo, ensemble and big band shows everywhere from the CNE to the Hockey Hall of Fame, Mary Lou Sicoly has years of diverse and exciting performances behind her and many more ahead of her too. A tour to support Lemon Meringue Pie is in the works for Ontario and the Maritimes later in 2022/2023.

Now, with “Blame It On My Youth”, Sicoly is offering a first bite of her upcoming album that is bursting with flavour, zing, and a lot of the ingredients found in her own personality.

Punku, Sylvia Falcón and Grimaldo del Solar, Release "Ancestral" (Novalima Remixes)

Six Degrees Records has announced the debut single from Punku, a new project created by Sylvia Falcón and Grimaldo del Solar (Novalima) that mixes Andean traditional music with traditional instruments and modern genres including electronic music and rock. “Ancestral,” the first single from their upcoming album, evokes an ancestral ceremony in the middle of the high amazon jungle that is haunting and beautiful at the same time. “Ancestral” also gets a driving remix from Novalima, keeping Sylvia’s hypnotic vocals over dubbed-out basslines and infectious rhythms. The single with the Novalima remixes is out now and can be listened to here: http://punku.lnk.to/novalimaremixes with a stunning music video (https://youtu.be/p3UVzMZD6vM).

Sylvia Falcón is an innovative singer who brings a wealth of talent and history to the duo. Her music has travelled from the traditional songs of the Peruvian Andes, through the mestizo folk melodies and the Andean coloratura repertoire that made Yma Sumac (whose life centennial will be celebrated in 2022) well known around the globe. Sylvia’s impressive vocal range (4 octaves) of high, mezzo and low frequencies can be appreciated in her four solo studio albums; Killa Lluqsimun "When the Moon Rises" (2008), Inkario (2014), Fantasía Pokcra (2016) and Qori Coya "Golden Lady” (2018). Sylvia Falcón was born in Lima and has developed a strong bond with the Andes due to the influence of her parents, who were born in Huancavelica and Ayacucho provinces. From a very early age she demonstrated the artistic virtues that were developed throughout her childhood and adolescence. Sylvia Falcón is also an anthropologist focused on the study of traditional musicians in the Peruvian Andes. As an artist she is devoted to capturing and projecting the beauty of the ancient Inca culture. 

Grimaldo is a Lima born producer and musician, who started playing guitar at 14. Soon after he worked with many bands that played a pivotal part in the 80s underground metal hardcore punk, and the 90s psychedelic/acid-rock Peruvian scenes. During the late 90s, Grimaldo started exploring traditional Peruvian music through an electronic music lens, which led to creating Novalima, a collective that fuses traditional Afro Peruvian music with DJ culture. Their discography spans 5 albums and numerous remix projects, which led them to touring internationally at major festivals and events. Novalima has inspired a generation and has revolutionized the music scene in their native Peru by bridging a longstanding divide between the mainstream and the minority Afro-Peruvian community, who have struggled against discrimination and cultural dissolution for generations. 

Grimaldo was experimenting with new quechua rhythms with Novalima. He found Sylvia Falcón and invited her to collaborate on the single Chusay. After working together at several concerts with Novalima, Grimaldo and Sylvia wanted to join forces to continue a new sound they were developing and Punku was born. 

Grimaldo shares how “Ancestral” is a perfect introduction to their project. He states, “this single is special because it's not the typical kind of music we would create. It is not exclusively about traditional Peruvian songs, like the ones Sylvia sings as a soloist and it is not the electronic music that I create in Novalima either. The whole project  came out without any planning. Unconsciously, we both were looking to make music that connects to mother earth and our historical ancestors.” The results are Andean electronic music with intense vocals and soft atmospheres. 

The duo concludes, “we deeply believe in music as an extraordinary healing medium, especially in these times challenging the world. We hope our entire musical project contributes to reflecting a tiny ray of light uplifting the spirit. As Punku is a new project created just before COVID, the quarantine has helped us to work on the recordings without any time or pressure.” 

“Ancestral” is just a taste of what’s to come from this exciting new project. Stay tuned for more music, videos, and the debut album from Punku dropping in Spring 2022 on Six Degrees Records.

Brian Auger uncovers back catalogue gems in 'Auger Incorporated' (jazz-rock / fusion)

For over 50 years, Brian Auger has been a musician’s musician. Jazz pianist, bandleader, session man, Hammond B3 innovator, and key player in the rise of jazz/rock fusion, Brian has done it all and then some. An incredible gentleman with one of the most varied careers in music, he has incorporated jazz, early British pop, R&B, soul and rock into an incredible catalog that has won him legions of fans all over the world.

Auger’s unique musical career started at a very early age, learning to read notes and copy the player piano in his family’s house in London. By the age of eight he was being invited to play at all sorts of parties, but aside from playing the pop tunes of the day, Brian’s ears lit up when he started listening to his older brother’s record collection with names like Count Basie and Duke Ellington. With his fondness for jazz piano came a gig in London on the West End, and from there the self-taught musician started playing regularly, drawing a number of big name artists who were touring London, such as Billie Holiday.

Playing in clubs, Auger won the Melody Maker jazz poll in 1964 and became a commodity in swingin’ London’s burgeoning music scene. Auger was particularly intrigued with technique, and, in 1965, when he heard Jimmy Smith albums, he decided to get involved with the Hammond B3, an organ few British musicians could play, largely because the bulky instruments were virtually non-existent in England. Around this time, the Yardbirds called Auger for session work, resulting in the song “For Your Love” which went straight to number 1 and kickstarted the Yardbirds recording career, as well as making Brian an in demand session man around London.

In 1965, Brian’s exposure got a huge boost when he got call from Long John Baldry, asking him to put a band together. Auger rounded up guitarist Vic Briggs, and John got Rod Stewart. Brian also recruited a young, mod singer named Julie Driscoll. The band had a wide range of influences; Julie was into a range of things from Nina Simone to Motown, where Rod was a mix of Chicago blues and Sam Cooke and Long John was straight Chicago blues or gospel. They called themselves Steampacket. Sadly, Rod’s manager, Brian’s manager and John’s manager feuded over whose label the record should come out on, so they never really recorded anything and the outfit collapsed in 1966 after only one year. However, a live concert video exists of Steampacket playing the Reading Jazz and Blues Festival in 1965, and it is truly a rocking’ experience today.

After the band broke up, Brian decided to focus on various musical styles and founded the Brian Auger Trinity, a combination of blues, Motown and Messengers. In November 1967, their first album, Open, was released in France, and the French just went crazy. As Brian explains, “All of a sudden we were booked at the Montreux Jazz Festival as the headliner in 1968—no rock-jazz band had ever done that, these were pure jazz festivals. Following that, we got the Berlin Jazz Festival the same year—one of the most purist of all.” 

The next album, Definitely What, was Brian’s solo album and was released the same year that Brian and Julie’s hit “This Wheel’s On Fire” went to number 1 in England. After the success of that track, the Trinity obtained a large following, particularly in Britain, with Julie being the lead vocalist. Her soulful voice and mod look, made her the “it” girl of the moment and one of the poster girls of the mod years.

Streetnoise, the third album, was done in 1969 in preparation of Auger’s first US tour which was “a musician’s dream!”, as Brian fondly remembers. Creating their own works, along with a take on the Jose Feliciano version of “Light My Fire”, it all fell together: to this day it is considered one of the Trinity’s finest albums, and contains a number of stand out tracks. The euphoria of the American tour soon dissipated however, when the manager’s mis-management dealt Auger a big blow upon returning from the U.S. Brian was handed a bill for 5,000 UK pounds by manager Gomelsky, and that was the end of that. He did one more album with the Trinity called Befour released in 1970, but recorded without Julie, as she had decided she needed complete rest after the trauma of the Gomelsky fiasco, and her promising career never recovered.

Brian wanted to continue with cutting-edge music, so the Oblivion Express started up in 1970. Versatile Jim Mullen asked to be the guitar player and Barry Dean was selected as bass player, with Robbie Macintosh (who later found fame with the Average White Band) as the drummer. Brian initially did the vocals, but fearing he wasn’t up to par, then asked Alex Ligertwood to join as lead singer. Alex joined up in ’71, after Oblivion had already done one album, A Better Land, so Ligertwood’s first album as vocalist for the Oblivion Express was Second Wind.

The band collapsed suddenly when Alex moved to Paris where his wife preferred to live, and MacIntosh was hired by AWB. In preparation for a European tour, Auger got Godfrey Maclean on drums and conga player Lennox Laington and magically Jack Mills appeared. The new line-up of Oblivion Express rolled into the 1970s, cutting Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues” as well as originals “Light On the Path” and “Happiness Is Just Around the Bend” on the Closer To It album in 1973. Believing in his music, Brian contacted his agency to see if they could book a tour of America. They could, and Brian went into credit card debt to finance it, in spite of label RCA trying to dissuade him.

The tour was a success, and Closer To It was followed by Straight Ahead, which also landed on both the R&B and jazz charts. The Express opened for Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin and others, bridging rock, jazz and R&B genres, and sometimes did straight R&B gigs. Oblivion Express kept rolling through most of the 70s, until the group finished touring in 1977. In 1976 and’ 77, Brian was voted the Number One Jazz organist in the world in Contemporary Keyboard magazine, largely behind the strength of his live playing with Oblivion Express. Visiting London in 1977, Auger invited Julie Driscoll to do another album again, and thus the album called Encore came about in 1977, and one more with Julie followed. After a year off, Brian did Planet Earth Calling after being approached by Head First Records.

From 1979 to 1983, Auger settled in California and took it easy for a while, taking music courses at Marin College and San Francisco State. It also gave him an opportunity to spend more time with his family, playing occasionally in local clubs. “People weren’t knocking the doors down at the time because punk and disco had suddenly come in, you know, and “anything that smacked of jazz, you can forget it”, Brian remembers of the dreaded disco era. In the mid-80s, however, Brian toured Europe again, especially Italy and Switzerland, and released Keys to the Heart in 1987.

Brian would have been content touring Europe occasionally, but fate intervened once again. In ’89, he got a call from Eric Burdon (of the Animals), who needed someone to put a band together. During the next four years, Auger was able to tour the whole world (even going behind the Iron Curtain). But Brian grew dissatisfied with how Burdon wanted to stick to Animals repertoire, and in 1993 Auger decided to leave Burdon and concentrate on his own music. In the mid to late 1990’s, Auger formed his own family version of the Oblivion Express, with his children Karma on drums and Ali performing as the lead vocalist, along with a bassist and guitarist Auger has selected. Before releasing Auger Rhythms, his first career retrospective, Brian toured Europe, where he drew large crowds at several jazz festivals, including a two night gig at the famed Montreux Jazz Festival.

So the career of this most incredible man has come full circle. In so doing, Brian is always amazed at the undying affection his fans have for him and the body of work he’s created in nearly forty years of recording and touring. “It always amazes me”, he laughs. “We’ll be playing in some small town in Europe and a small club or town hall. We’ll be loading in and doing sound check and I’m always a bit nervous that no one will show up. Then the sun goes down, and suddenly the hills are alive with the sound of my B3, and fans come out of the woodwork. Many have the old albums they want autographed”.

There is no one on the planet quite like this amazing guy who still comes to a gig ready to play, and not just walk through a set of oldies, but inject his music with the fire and passion that only a true original brings to the bandstand or studio. Brian Auger is a true original, and we are fortunate to have him and his musical legacy as a vibrant part of today’s music scene.

The Bogie Band ft. Joe Russo | 'The Prophets In The City'

The Bogie Band featuring Joe Russo releases its debut album, The Prophets In The City, via Royal Potato Family. A collaboration between old friends, the New York City-based collective merges tenor saxophonist Stuart Bogie's fiery arrangements with Joe Russo's dynamic drumming. Utilizing only wind and percussion instruments, they are joined by a supporting cast of musicians whose resumes run through some of New York City's most beloved bands, including Antibalas, The Dap-Kings, Red Barat, Budos Band, St. Vincent and David Byrne's American Utopia. The resulting efforts on debut album, The Prophets In The City are riotous and jubilant, pushing the boundaries of instrumental music.

"The music we've created here revels in the human mysteries that unfold in New York City, basking in its connections, ironies, and myths," explains Bogie. "Through observing its humanity, we hope to invoke the underlying world of the spirits."

Indeed, The Prophets In The City presents a soundtrack to life in NYC that is at once ancient and immediate. The collection's nine tracks paint images of crowded streets, joy and fury together on the sidewalk, golden light shining through scaffolding, and characters that carry mysteries and truths in their hearts. The dynamic arrangements are built on the propulsion of Russo's drumming, alternating through transcendental minimalism, raucous humor and revelatory wonder; passages of bold gleaming brass ring back and forth in overtone rich harmonies, conjuring new melody in the listener's imagination.

"These are deep, thoughtful, beautiful and powerful compositions that could have only come from the mind and heart of Stuart Bogie," says Russo. "I'm so proud of this record and can’t wait to share it with the world." 

Stuart Bogie has worked with artists such as Arcade Fire, TV On The Radio and Iron & Wine, though he's best known for his time as member/conductor of Antibalas. He also wrote the score for the Oscar nominated film, How to Survive a Plague. Russo's career has included performing and recording with Furthur, Gene Ween Band and Benevento/Russo Duo. He currently leads his own group, the highly-regarded Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (JRAD).

The Bogie Band featuring Joe Russo celebrates the release of The Prophets In The City with an album release performance tomorrow, Saturday, March 26 at Brooklyn Bowl. They return on Friday, July 1 to play Peach Music Festival in Scranton, PA. 

New Releases: Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble; The Electric Jazz Room; Spirits Rejoice; Dennis Bovell

Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble - Le Le (LP)

Recorded in the 1980's and snapped up upon arrival in Europe by the Soho Boho's, Acid Jazzuals,Cuboppers, Jazz Massivists and Mojo Jazzmuziker, "Le-Le" by The Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble is a unique one off Spiritual Soul-Jazz outing with Avant Garde touches and more than a hint of Afro-Cuban Orientalism.The percussion drenched title track has that special Worldwide Sound and the Cool Jazz Get Down Groove of "Wet Walnuts and Whipped Cream" is a DJ's delight, whether played over the Airwaves or to a crowded Dancefloor. An adventurous jazz outfit that has been playing around Philadelphia since its formation in 1979. The Ensemble was founded by Warren Oree, an acoustic bassist, producer and composer who continues to lead the band. Eclectic and far from predictable, on this album the Ensemble has embraced a variety of acoustic and electric jazz styles combining them with African and Middle Eastern influences and mixed together with the "New Thing" have managed to make a timeless underground classic.

The Electric Jazz Room - The Electric Jazz Room E.P. (feat. Walpataca & Vienna Art Orchestra) (LP)

Two Underground London Jazzfloor hits from Paul Murphy's Jazz Room Records.On the A side Latin Supergroup's wild and infectious "Caliente" with Paquito's Banging piano riff and heavy Bass Line action from Descarga originator Cachao overlaid with Driving vibes from Tany Gil and a Percussion Meltdown from Walfredo De Los Reyes. On the B side the Vienna Art Orchestra provide a dark and mysterious version of the Bud Powell classic "Un Poco Loco" keeping that Be-Bop Afro-Cuban vibe but adding that East of the Border darkness you'd expect from a sound recorded at the time the city was on the Cold War fault line. Gilles Peterson (Worldwide / Brownswood): "Paul Murphy found almost every jazz dancefloor classic. He is the original messenger of jazz. He opened the door to an alternative way of being a Dj. The rest is history.

Spirits Rejoice - African Spaces (LP)

A defining musical statement in South Africa’s jazz canon – pinpointing the moment of social and musical ferment in which the country’s terms of engagement with jazz were irreversibly changed. Forged when township kids were facing down bullets this is an electric mulberry funk – slick, intense and complex. Heavyweight 180g vinyl with remastered audio, inner sleeve with new photographs and additional liner notes by Francis Gooding. At a distance of more than forty years, the radicalism and significance of African Spaces can be seen more clearly. Ambitious, uncompromising, and resolutely progressive, it represents a unique high-water mark in South Africa’s long musical engagement with the newest developments in American jazz – a response to the cosmic call of Return To Forever, and an answer to Miles’ On the Corner. Spirits Rejoice drew together some of South Africa’s most abundantly talented and forward-thinking jazz players and created  a complex and challenging jazz fusion that shifted the terms of South Africa’s engagement with jazz towards new music being made by pioneers such as Chick Corea, Weather Report, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny and others. African Spaces, their debut recording, is one of the key documents in the South African jazz canon. Emerging in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto uprising, and taking its place alongside the crucial mid-1970s music of Malombo, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Batsumi, it is a defining but unsung musical statement of its era.

Dennis Bovell - Dubmaster: The Essential Anthology

A massive tribute to the long career of Dennis Bovell – the British artist who first rose up in the late 70s group Matumbi, then went on to share his production talents with a host of other artists in the decades that followed! This double-length set brings together a career-spanning set of tracks that all were handled by Bovell – a first half that features his own recordings under a number of groups, and a second half that features Bovell production and studio work with a range of other artists too – including some rare and unissued material, in a package put together by Dennis himself! Titles include the Bovell cuts "Choose Me" with African Stone, "Za Lon" with 4th Street Orchestra, "Blood Ah Go Run" by Matumbi, and cuts "Brain Damage", "Chief Inspector", "Dub Master", "Silly Dub", "Caught You In A Lie", and "Oh Mama Oh Papa" – all issued under Bovell's name. The second half features titles that include "African Queen" by Errol Campbell, "Africa Is Our Land" by Joshua Moses, "Take Five" by Young Lions, "Hooked On You" by Delroy Wilson, "Differentah" by Errol Dunkley with Julio Finn, "Silly Games" by Janet Kay, "Get Up Stand Up" by I Roy, and "Can't Go Through With Life (dancehall version)" by Marie Pierre. ~ Dusty Groove

Louie Vega – Expansions In The NYC – Various Artists

What is it about New York City, that concrete jungle that continually inspires the creative spirit? From Warhol’s Factory to Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage to David Mancuso’s Loft, collectives that celebrate and nurture unfettered, organic artistry have been absolutely intrinsic to the story of this sprawling metropolis. Its latest chapter is being written at the hands of ‘The Maestro’, Grammy Award winner Louie Vega and his Expansions NYC parties, the sound documented in his latest album Expansions In The NYC (Nervous Records).

Starting in February 2019 in Manhattan and Brooklyn venues, Vega’s Expansions NYC parties have their origin not in his revered prowess as a DJ but rather his whole-hearted appreciation of the different elements of the dance floor surrounding him: the dancers, the musicians who bring their instruments to join him ad-hoc on the night, the small, dedicated crowd of clubbers whose ears to the ground keep them informed on the underground party information. The events included 6-hour DJ Sets with Louie under his select curation, and would usually end with 3 AM jam sessions involving keyboardists, guitar players and poets all performing in front of a jam packed crowd. In just a few short years the Expansions NYC events have evolved into an NYC-clubland institution, an intimate celebration of house, funk, disco, afro, R&B and more.

As with his parties, so goes his album. The collective vibe that forms the beating heart of Expansions NYC parties is absolutely front and centre in Expansions In The NYC, Vega drawing in one of the most comprehensive lists of collaborators in recent memory. House heavyweights Honey Dijon, Joe Claussell, Moodymann, Kerri Chandler and Anané rub up against legendary vocalists Bernard Fowler, Cindy Mizelle, Lisa Fischer, Audrey Wheeler and Tony Momrelle. Gospel royalty BeBe Winans and Debbie Winans, pop icon Robyn and rising star Karen Harding sit alongside disco-era champions Unlimited Touch, Cuban jazz pianist Axel Tosca, Nico Vega, Two Soul Fusion with Josh Milan and Vega and underground legend DJ Spinna. At the centre of it all, fingerprint on every beat, touch on every groove, sits a master at work, weaving the individual threads into a rich dance music tapestry.

“In the past few years I’ve found new inspiration both from the musicians I’m working with and the audiences coming to see me at my DJ shows,” Vega says. “So for me this album represents new beginnings, bringing together a beautiful mosaic of artistic perspectives to express musically what we call Expansions In The NYC.”

At its heart, Expansions In The NYC is a love letter to New York, as much as melting pot as the city it represents, the scope of its line-up possible only because of the influence and reverence of Vega the artist, the DJ, the producer, the curator. In creating this album, Louie Vega has once again utterly enriched the lives and libraries of music lovers the world over, far beyond the hustling streets of NYC that have so indelibly left their mark on his work.

Manel Fortià | "Despertar"

Barcelona-born bassist Manel Fortià bridges his Mediterranean and Spanish roots with the sounds of modern New York jazz on his trio album Despertar, available May 12, 2022 via Segell Microscopi/Altafonte Distribution.

Meticulously composed and produced by Fortià, Despertar presents a musical self-portrait based on a selection of spirited originals, all inspired by his experiences while living in New York City between 2016 and 2020. The composer creates a mellow and personal music which touches on influences as varied as Charlie Haden, Keith Jarrett, Maurice Ravel and Paco de Lucía, among others.

Fortià’s extraordinary trio features two of the most prolific European jazz personalities of the new generation. Multi-award winning Spanish pianist Marco Mezquida (Lee Konitz, Dave Liebman, Bill McHenry, Chicuelo, Noa), understands Fortià's music deeply and performs with elegance and dynamism. The connection between these two artists and their ability to listen deeply was showcased on their critically acclaimed 2015 duo album My Old Flame. Rounding out the trio is the revelatory French drummer Raphaël Pannier (Miguel Zenón, Aaron Goldberg, François Moutin) with whom Manel recorded the 2018 album Bulería Brooklyniana mixing Brooklyn jazz underground with flamenco. Joining them on that album was pianist Albert Marquès. With his huge palette of textures and sounds, Pannier brings the music to another level, infusing vital and foundational energy into the rhythm section.

“This album is very important to me because it reflects one of the most transcendent moments in my artistic life. I feel that living in NYC changed me tremendously and I grew a lot there,” Fortià says. “It is also the first time I recorded a full album featuring all my compositions. That I can share playing them with two of my favorite musicians with whom I have a great connection personally and musically, is like a dream come true.”   

The Spanish title "Despertar" translates into “awakening,” which references the last tune of the album, while, in contrast, the first one is called "Dormir" ("fall sleep"). Between these tracks we are on a dreamy journey of vital experiences, traveling to different places and moments in a very imaginative way that brings about the magic of Mediterranean culture. 

Like Charlie Haden, Fortià is an extremely melodic and open-minded player, executing performances on the upright bass with deep sound and precision, dropping guideposts, marking turns and grounding the journey while adding the occasional weighty statement on his compositions. His sound on the instrument is his major virtue, easily recognizable as his own. He can play a variety of styles and rhythms without losing his personality. Mellow and powerful, straight and flexible, sober and free, laid-back and energetic... all of these contrasts coexist in his playing. Inside his music we can find New York modern jazz but also some Mediterranean colors, hints of flamenco as well as European classical influences.  

Between the Bach choral-inspired opener "Dormir" and the powerful meditative suite "Despertar," we have seven different episodes of an exciting dream unfolding in NYC. The energetic groove of the JFK AirTrain ("Circular") drives us from the airport to the melancholic, impressionist neighborhood Astoria ("Saudades") where Manel lived while in New York. Then we travel to Harlem with the beautiful gospel-inspired “Espiritual,” an homage to Black American music, where Manel's solo travels from the bottom of his upright bass to heaven. Next is the deep ballad with a Spanish touch called "El Día Después," dedicated to La Rambla de Barcelona where there was a terrorist attack in 2017 while Fortià was in New York, suffering in the distance. We then travel to the iconic Grand Central Station at rush hour which is represented by the frenetic and dynamic song "Crescente.” A calm after the storm arrives courtesy of two beautiful tunes with South American flavors: "Aires de Libertad" is dedicated to Prospect Park, an area of Brooklyn where historically a huge group of jazz musicians have been living, and "Simple" to the Jackson Heights neighborhood in Queens, where we find a huge Colombian community. This musical "American Dream,” is Manel’s self-portrait of life as an immigrant artist during his time in the United States.

Recorded and mixed at El Local Studios (Girona, Spain) by Marc Piña and mastered at Sear Sound (NYC, USA) by Grammy-Award winning sound engineer Jeremy Loucas, Despertar has the perfect balance of sounds between Europe's beautiful harmonies and America's energetic rhythms, bringing us on a journey of different colors and contrasting climates. 

The striking album art highlights original objects the Argentinian artist Fran Pontenpie conceptualized and built after listening to the music and then photographed for the album. On the cover is a wooden upright bass bridge transformed into a human who is awakening from the bass. On the back are four clouds created from bass tuners. Inside is a plant that has three pairs of eyes, for every member of the trio. Pontenpie's visual contributions enhance the listening experience and make the album a unique piece of art. 

Barcelona/NYC-based upright bassist Manel Fortià is in a fruitful moment of his artistic life. His melodic sense, rhythmic precision and creativity have made him one of the most unique and original musicians of the new generation.  In addition to leading his own projects, Fortià is a versatile and in-demand sideman.

His recent work as a leader includes: Despertar (2022, Microscopi) playing fresh own compositions inspired in New York alongside his new European Trio featuring Spanish pianist Marco Mezquida and French drummer Raphael Pannier. Arrels (2021, Microscopi), the debut recording of his new free-flamenco-jazz Libérica project, Antonio Lizana, the award-winning saxophonist and singer from Cádiz. The album was in the top 10 of Best Jazz Albums of 2021 by the prestigious Enderrock magazine. Fortià’s original folk-jazz duo album Fang i Núvols (2020, Microscopi) with the talented Catalan singer Magalí Sare was also critically acclaimed. 

Throughout his career, Manel Fortià has performed with jazz luminaries such as Dave Liebman, Chris Cheek, Eliot Zigmund, Bill McHenry, Ari Hoenig, Arturo O’Farrill, Chano Dominguez, Stephane Belmondo, Scott Hamilton, Dena Derose and Raynald Colom, among many others, at some of the most prestigious international festivals such as Vitoria Jazz Festival (Spain), SudTirol Jazz Festival (Italy), NYC Mediterranean Jazz Festival (USA), Jazz in Sardegna (Italy), PortaJazz Festival (Portugal), and Voll-Damm Barcelona Jazz Festival (Spain)… as well as in famed jazz clubs like the Blue Note and Zinc Bar (New York), Bimhuis (Amsterdam), Pizza Express (London), An Die Musik (Baltimore), Hot Five (Porto), and Cafe Central (Madrid).

In addition, he has appeared in more than 50 albums as a co-leader and as a sideman, including Estándares with Grammy Awarded pianist Chano Dominguez and Antonio Lizana, My Old Flame in duet with Marco Mezquida and Bulería Brooklyniana with Marquès/Fortià/Pannier trio. 

Fortià has been recognized with multiple awards such as the “Jazzer 2020” from the Jazzing Festival of Barcelona. He has also been a finalist at “Terra i Cultura 2019” with Magalí Sare, and a three-time finalist at Castelló Jazz Contest (2012-2014). He won the Jazz Fusion Contest (2013) with Tak! In addition, he combines a performing career with his teaching role at the prestigious ESEM - Taller de Músics in Barcelona and in the Jazz Department of Girona Conservatorium.

He also has been involved with social justice music projects happening in the U.S. including Freedom First (Justice for Keith Lamar), which fights for human rights and equality, led by the musician-activist Albert Marquès featuring Arturo O’Farrill, Salim Washington, Caroline Davis among many others.

Saxophonist Kenny Garrett's Wins "Outstanding Jazz Album - Instrumental" at 53rd NAACP Image Awards

Kenny Garrett’s latest release, Sounds from the Ancestors, is a multi-faceted album. The music, however, doesn’t lodge inside the tight confines of the jazz idiom, which is not surprising considering the alto saxophonist and composer acknowledges the likes of Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye as significant touchstones. Similar to how Miles Davis’ seminal LP, On the Corner, subverted its main guiding lights – James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone – then crafted its own unique, polyrhythmic, groove-laden, improv-heavy universe, Sounds from the Ancestors occupies its own space with intellectual clarity, sonic ingenuity and emotional heft. 

“Sounds from the Ancestors examines the roots of West African music in the framework of jazz, gospel, Motown, hip-hop, and all other genres that have descended from jùjú and Yoruban music,” explains Garrett. “It’s crucial to acknowledge the ancestral roots in the sounds we’ve inhabited under the aesthetics of Western music.” 

Indeed, Sounds from the Ancestors reflects the rich jazz, R&B and gospel history of his hometown of Detroit. More important though, it also reverberates with a modern cosmopolitan vibrancy – notably the inclusion of music coming out of France, Cuba, Nigeria and Guadeloupe. 

“The concept initially was about trying to get some of the musical sounds that I remembered as a kid growing up – sounds that lift your spirit from people like John Coltrane, ‘A Love Supreme;’ Aretha Franklin, ‘Amazing Grace;’ Marvin Gaye, ‘What’s Going On;’ and the spiritual side of the church,” Garrett explains. “When I started to think about them, I realized it was the spirit from my ancestors.” 

The core ensemble for Sounds from the Ancestors consists of musicians that Garrett has recorded and toured with in recent past – pianist Vernell Brown, Jr., bassist Corcoran Holt, drummer Ronald Bruner and percussionist Rudy Bird. The album also features guest appearances from drummer Lenny White, pianist and organist Johnny Mercier, trumpeter Maurice Brown, conguero Pedrito Martinez, batá percussionist Dreiser Durruthy and singers Dwight Trible, Jean Baylor, Linny Smith, Chris Ashley Anthony and Sheherazade Holman. And on a couple of cuts, Garrett extends his instrumental palette by playing piano and singing. 

With his illustrious career that includes hallmark stints with Miles Davis, Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, as well as a heralded career as a solo artist that began more than 30 years ago, Garrett is easily recognized as one of modern jazz’s brightest and most influential living masters. And with the marvelous Sounds from the Ancestors, the GRAMMY® Award-winning Garrett shows no signs of resting on his laurels.

Eri Yamamoto, Chad Fowler, William Parker & Steve Hirsh | "Sparks"

When Eri Yamamoto, William Parker, Chad Fowler and Steve Hirsh settled in for their first recording session together, the engineer shouted “rolling” and sparks flew. But they weren't steel mill sparks: the music unfolding in that moment was more like a crackling campfire, smoke rising slowly, points of light lifting lazily into the breeze — and foreshadowing a greater heat to come.

Such an image is apt for the airy chords with which Yamamoto kicks off the title tune of Sparks, the quartet's new album on Mahakala Music. After her piano begins, like wind chimes playing standards, Parker and Hirsh fall in as if walking up from the woods, and then Fowler's stritch enters, do-re-mi-do, like a sprite carrying memories of a folk song.

“Spontaneous folk music,” says Yamamoto with a ripple of laughter, recalling the phrase Fowler used to suggest the quartet's point of departure that day. And she responded immediately to the premise, as Yamamoto herself has created hybrid free/composed jazz that sometimes harkens back to the traditional Japanese music of her youth, as on her Goshu Ondo Suite. For over a quarter century, she's made waves as she “gracefully bridges the worlds of post-bop and free jazz” according to Time Out New York, with her “evocative songs without words.”

A classically-trained pianist with a vibrant improvisational streak, she's long performed and recorded with William Parker, a composer in his own right and a mainstay of the New York free jazz community. Indeed, playing a session with Parker, who has pursued an unparalleled vision of free jazz since before his days with Cecil Taylor, and whose quartet recordings in this century are legendary, was an inspiration to all. “I've played on nine or ten albums with William as a leader,” says Yamamoto. “He's really been an eye opener for me. It was like he reminded me, 'Ah, I can be free!' And he always writes great melodies, which is very natural for me: start with a good melody, and have a lot of open space.”

With only those sentiments and a brief introductory chat guiding them, the players created these pieces on the spot. And like a strong line in visual art, a spontaneous, striking melody typically jumpstarts each performance on Sparks. That's always been at the core of Yamamoto's playing. “Growing up in Kyoto, I was surrounded by a lot of traditional Japanese music, with very minimalist melodies. I started writing music when I was eight, and I still write the same way. It all starts when I hum some melody. But even with my composed tunes, my approach is to leave a lot of space for musicians to go beyond the form.”

Space is another key element on this album. “Kyoto is a very old city, with a lot of shrines and temples,” says Yamamoto. “And zen philosophy is very prominent there. Sometimes emptiness is more full of feeling.” The space is crucial to even the more lively passages. When Parker announces, “I can pull an old rabbit out of the hat” and launches the swinging “Bob's Pink Cadillac,” Fowler and Hirsh immediately pick up on the groove, spontaneously evoking the classic trio sound of, say, Sonny Rollins' Way Out West. Yamamoto is content to listen, until she's not: reaching into the piano with her left hand, her right hand chops the keys like rim shots. As the tune evolves, Fowler squawks, Hirsh rolls, and Yamamoto is up and down from her seat, first muting strings, then playing traditionally, then plucking the strings like a ragged harp.

“That was completely spontaneous. I don't plan anything, in general. Then after I play, I don't remember anything,” Yamamoto laughs, recalling the performance. “But the piano is a percussion instrument, after all. On that one particular tune, I felt, 'I'm gonna wait until the moment comes.' And then, Boom!”

Such dynamics were typical of the day. As Fowler notes, “We expected this session to be laid back. And there are some moments of beauty and tenderness, but it was anything but mellow, overall.” That's partly thanks to Hirsh's perceptive drumming, ranging from the gentle rattle of shells to to full on Klook-mopping and bomb-dropping as the intensity demands.

Ultimately, the rapid-fire energy, the screeching and hammering, was a natural corollary to the music's spaciousness. For Yamamoto, it's all about dramatic juxtapositions. “I always like contrast in music,” she reflects. “Or in anything. Paintings, poems. The contrast makes art, especially music, more interesting. When I play something, yes, at some points the dynamics get very intense with more notes, but after that, in contrast, having a chunk of space is pretty powerful. That empty spot has more meaning. So I try not to do too much all the time. If I say something, then in the other spot I want to have a chunk of space.”

The miracle of these performances was how well each player tuned in to the others' dynamics, in the moment. Though Fowler and Yamamoto had each played with Parker separately, the saxophonist and pianist had never played together. As it turned out, they surprised each other with some distinctly Asian touchstones at the core of their playing. “'Taiko' is named after my Japanese grandmother, Taiko 'Jean' Sawyer, who passed at 92 in late April of last year,” says Fowler. “Before we started it, I asked the group to play something as a memorial for a lost loved one. My playing references some music of meaning to my grandma, including a minor key version of 'You Are My Sunshine,' her favorite song. None of that was planned, but it came out as we went.”

All told, there's an infectious joy felt as these players encounter each other in this arrangement for the first time. As Yamamoto says, “That was the first time I'd been in a recording studio for a year and half. New York City was locked down for a long time. And I'd never played with Chad or Steve before. But I could tell, just from our first greeting, that we could trust each other. So, returning to the studio with such wonderful musicians, I felt so alive. I said to myself, 'Yes! Yes!'”

She pauses and reflects on the final product. “The four of us really made one music together. Everything was just one take, and I think we really blended well. No one was shy. We just trusted each other and made one sound. Instead of going, 'I'm saying blah blah blah,' and then answering, 'da da da da,' we made one moment together. Spontaneous folk music. Improvising that moment together.”

Deluxe Edition of "Traitors" by Calibro 35

Record Kicks proudly presents the reissue of CALIBRO 35’s fourth legendary long-time sold out album “Traditori Di Tutti” (Traitors) out Today on limited edition crystal red vinyl and digital “deluxe” edition with bonus tracks. The publication is part of “The Record Kicks Trilogy” that follows the reissue of the first three albums of the band, released in 2020. This time, Milan label Record Kicks will repress on wax of three different colours and on digital deluxe edition, the fourth, fifth and sixth legendary studio albums of the Italian cinematic-funk cult band. The digital deluxe edition of “Traditori Di Tutti” includes 2 bonus tracks: a crime funk cover of “Get Carter”, originally released as a b-side of the “Butcher’s Bride” 45 vinyl, and the unreleased funky stormer “Milan, Michigan”. 

“Traditori Di Tutti” is the fourth album by Milan’s combo, inspired by noir masterpiece novel “Betrayers” published by the father of Italian noir, award-winning crime fiction author Giorgio Scerbanenco. The album contains only band’s original recordings, from floor-shaking first single “Giulia Mon Amour” to groovy “The Butcher’s Bride”, from deep funky “Filthy Bastards” to the dancefloor jazz madness of “Mescalina 6”. The five-piece pays homage to “I Maestri” such as Morricone, Micalizzi and Bacalov with 12 tracks full of funky beats, heavy guitars, groovy bass lines and fuzzy organs. 

There’s one thing that Italians do better than others: funky soundtracks. Quentin Tarantino knows best: soundtracks from Italian movies of the '60s and the '70s are the THING! “Calibro 35 does with music what Tarantino does with films”. They borrow what they love and they make it their own. With Rolling Stone magazine words: “Calibro 35 are the most fascinating, "retro-maniac" and genuine thing that happened to Italy”. 

Active since 2008, CALIBRO 35 enjoy a worldwide reputation as one of the coolest independent bands around. During their fourteen-year career, they were sampled by Dr. Dre on his "Compton" album, Jay-Z, The Child of lov & Damon Albarn; they shared stages worldwide with the likes of Roy Ayers, Muse, Sun Ra Arkestra, Sharon Jones, Thundercat and Headhunters and as unique musicians they collaborated with, amongst others, PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, John Parish and Stewart Copeland and Nic Cester (The Jet). Calibro 35 now count on a number of aficionados worldwide including VIP fans such as Dj Food (Ninja Tune), Mr Scruff and Huey Morgan (Fun Lovin' Criminals) among others.

ANDY OSTWALD TRIO Releases their Debut Solo Record FIELD GUIDE

Andy Ostwald is a San Francisco Bay area-based performer, teacher, and author of the book Play Jazz, Blues, Rock Piano by Ear. He performs as a band leader, sideman, solo pianist, and as a member of Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Orchestra. Now with his own ANDY OSTWALD TRIO he is proud to present their debut full-length release FIELD GUIDE. The album is a true Field Guide for that meadow we’ve seen before but never traversed, featuring intimate and intensely focused improvised musical travels through overlooked gardens and orchards of sound. Grab a copy of the Field Guide and enjoy your trip!

Andy Ostwald has toured the US and abroad with singer Diane Witherspoon and has performed at many of the San Francisco Bay Area’s notable venues, including the SF Jazz Center, Yoshi’s Oakland & SF, Kuumbwa, and the Great American Music Hall. In 2011, Andy Ostwald began performing with fellow Bay Area musicians Ravi Abcarian (bass) and Bryan Bowman (drums), and the ANDY OSTWALD TRIO was born. They largely developed their group sound while performing at Bocce Café in the North Beach district of San Francisco, an engagement that lasted for five years until 2016. It was during this run that the musicians honed their ability to interact freely and play off one another’s musical ideas. 

As a fellow member of Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Orchestra, trumpeter Eric Wayne knew the trio and offered to help them record and release their debut album through his own Digital Victrola label. Andy was prepared with a fully formed album concept, including the title FIELD GUIDE, which allowed them to get straight to the business of finding the best material for the release. Recorded during the pandemic, resources were scarce, and it was difficult to find a studio with a worthy piano; they decided to record in Andy Ostwald’s own home with his personal piano on an 8-track HD recorder. They were able to make the most of the home studio environment, with the craftsman-style wood house giving the recording a warm and full sound.

“Since starting Digital Victrola I’ve always had a desire to record a trio album,” says Eric Wayne. “Even though I’m a trumpet player I’ve always felt that the trio format is the distilled essence of jazz and improvisatory music. Every player has to be fully committed, has to listen with their entire body and mind. It was an honor to work with such musicians under the difficulties of a pandemic and limited resources and space, but I’m very happy to have ‘my trio album’ and I hope you will enjoy listening as much as I have.”

Andy Ostwald’s father played a key role in his early musical development. “My dad made a point of introducing me to his favorite early jazz and classical recordings,” says Andy. “He would also pick up his violin and improvise melodies over the scales that I was practicing on the piano; Dad could breathe life into those scales.” By age 12 Andy began improvising over rock songs, and a couple of years later he attended a clinic by jazz pianist Dan Hearle, who introduced him to recordings by three towering figures of jazz piano: Herbie Hancock, Ahmad Jamal, and Oscar Peterson. “The music these musicians created both moved and mystified me,” notes Ostwald, “and in the end, contributed to steering me in the direction of jazz.”

Ostwald received a BA in music from San Jose State University. While there he focused on performing contemporary jazz, classical compositions, and the Gamelan music of Java, and a few years later he spent a year in New York studying with renowned jazz pianist Harold Mabern. Following his stay in New York, Andy returned to his native San Francisco Bay Area to teach and play music. Soon thereafter he met singer Diane Witherspoon and became her piano accompanist. They performed locally on tour in the States, and then on several occasions in Tokyo. Currently Ostwald is a member of Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Orchestra and freelances as both a band leader and sideman.

Andy teaches piano at his home in Oakland. He’s also an instructor at Oaktown Jazz Workshops, where Ravi Abcarian is also an instructor and the executive director. Ostwald’s book/audio series Play Jazz, Blues, Rock Piano by Ear was published by Mel Bay Publications in 2004. It remains in print today.

Oded Tzur | "Isabela"

On his follow-up to Here Be Dragons New York-based saxophonist Oded Tzur and his collaborators apply their subtle dialect in a more intense space, exploring the nuances and colours of the saxophonist’s self-fashioned raga in a suite-like sequence of quiet meditations and powerful exclamations. Throughout Isabela a heightened sense of urgency prevails, as Oded returns with his unaltered quartet to weave one underlying musical idea through a series of elaborate and impassioned designs. Since their debut appearance for ECM, the group’s interplay has grown more intimate on the road and the deep trust between the leader and his accompanists is a driving and binding force behind the music’s conceptual scope. 

Oded has carved out a particularly idiosyncratic approach to composing on his musical path, blending raga and jazz in a way where the saxophonist is neither borrowing nor imitating musical idioms from elsewhere, but rather applying a comprehensive music-philosophical concept on a universal level. As Oded figures, a raga goes beyond a set of parameters bound to time signatures or notes: “One way to define a raga is to see it as an abstract personality that’s made of sound. Some musician would even refer to it as a presence that you have to make come alive. That’s where it’s not a scale anymore, but something so much more than a sequence of notes. In that sense, the blues is exactly like a raga. It has a scale, but it’s not simply a scale. It’s an abstract personality that is so distinct that you can hear one phrase of it and already go: ‘That’s blues’ – like a person you recognize from afar.” 

Once again joining Oded on his musical journey are pianist Nitai Hershkovits, bassist Petros Klampanis and drummer Johnathan Blake, who infuse the leader’s inventions with effortless musicianship and vivid imagination. Each a pillar in the contemporary jazz scene and with links reaching beyond the genre’s traditional format, the saxophonist’s collaborators are given “freedom to develop the music any way they want,” within the structures and possibilities the compositions offer. The group is constantly discovering new ways to communicate with each other and expand their musical vocabulary in the process: “It’s like we’re on a river with trees around the banks, so we can’t really make out where we’re headed, but we can be sure that it will lead us someplace good.” That place is marked by Nitai’s delicate brush strokes on piano, Johnathan’s fierce and confident percussion work and Petros’ more than reliable foundation in the deep end. 

Downbeat has described Oded’s playing as “quietly fantastical and full of narrative feints” while outlining his tone as “light and sweet, with a whispered airiness,” and the saxophonist’s note-bending, microtonal technique, inspired by Indian classical instruments and touching the “barely audible,” is again at the heart of his voice and the melodies that protrude on Isabela. 

The raga that pervades the album from start to finish is introduced in the opening act “Invocation,” which works like a Chalan in Indian classical music – the skeleton of a Raga that outlines the raga’s structure in the briefest possible way, much as a synopsis does a play. Oded and his quartet develop the concentrated musical matter of “Invocation” and transform it into new shapes and forms in expansive studies of temperament, shifting from pensive introspection in one moment to outgoing and free-wheeling improvisation in the next. “It took me a while to develop the courage to also explore the other extreme, see what happens when you follow the explosion at the other end of the dynamic spectrum. For this album I finally felt comfortable to explore the totality of the dynamic range, the silence but also the eruptions, the bright colours.” 

Neither the silence nor the bright colours that immerse the album in manifold shades could emerge without the distinctive contributions from Oded’s fellow travellers and the group’s performance is highlighted by the crystalline acoustics of the Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in Lugano, where the album was recorded in October 2021.

Jean Carne, Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad | "Jean Carne JID012"

The voice of Jean Carne is an instrument of delicate, aqueous dimensions, shape shifting across era and genre. It has graced some of the most sought-after subterranean jazz and guided several generations of stars to new heights. Now, Jean Carne JID012 brings her magnetic talent front and center, showcasing the legend’s alchemical vocal abilities in the latest offering from Jazz Is Dead.

Perhaps best known to listeners for her collaborations with Doug Carn in the early 1970s, Jean Carne has left a legacy that runs deep. She bridged a generational gap, coming from her earlier recordings that were rooted in Spiritual Jazz, towards Philly Soul, Disco, and R&B. In the process, Carne has worked with luminaries such as Azar Lawrence, Phyllis Hyman, Michael Jackson, Lonnie Liston Smith, Earth, Wind & Fire, and many others. It is near impossible to tune into pop music today and not hear a vocalist emulating, in some way or form, Carne’s distinct vocal acrobatics.

Here, Carne’s unmistakably limber voice flutters across seven tracks, exploring the possibilities and power of love- of self, of community, of powers from above. Reminiscent of masterworks by Weldon Irvine or Carne’s frequent collaborator Norman Connors, the arrangements crafted by Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad stand at the border of introspection and exuberance. “My Mystic Life” invites listeners to “come and find life on Mars” or “listen to the cosmos,” while “The Summertime” is a funky ode to hot pavement and looking your best. 

“Black Love” is an impressionistic journey through soul and sound. The album closer from Jean Carne's upcoming LP for Jazz Is Dead deftly carves around Carne’s voice, giving it the same reverence reserved for a Renaissance sculpture. Continuing the album’s recurring themes of love and spirituality, Black Love is a tribute to the higher power of community. Like ascending through layers of clouds, the vocals build higher and higher, as Carne takes you to the album’s emotional apex. Reminiscent of Sarah Vaughn’s lush scat singing on standards like “Pinky,” Carne’s vocals cease to be of this world, instead only offering abstractions to capture such an immense and indescribable force that can protect, bring one home, and bring people together. 

The mellow Funk percussion and hazy keys instantly recall ice cream trucks, running through sprinklers, and backyard BBQs with cool ease. Built around the universally relatable “feeling good in the Summertime,” the tune confidently cruises the same boulevards as Kool and the Gang and Roy Ayers do each year when the temperature starts to rise. Like the rest of Jean Carne JID012, “The Summertime” showcases Carne’s innate ability to animate the abstract, and to bring collective experiences and emotions to life. 

"Black Rainbows" blossoms from a keyboard fantasy into a more percussion-driven number, all while giving Carne’s voice enough space to showcase her incredible talents. The title and refrain conjure memories of Sun Ra’s afrofuturism with graceful awe. As Carne’s voice fills the space, the tune slowly transforms from a meditation into a call for celebration, giving way to morse-code guitar that beckons listeners towards the dancefloor in the sky. 

More than merely a survey or summary of Carne’s career, Jean Carne JID012 is a celebration of self-perseverance, and invites listeners to seek out and capture joy, and to love unapologetically. 

Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series Set for Release

Craft Recordings and Acoustic Sounds have announced the Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds series, which begins with six album releases from the Contemporary Records catalog, celebrating 70 years of the legendary jazz label. 

Each title, originally engineered by Roy DuNann and/or Howard Holzer, features all-analog mastering from the original tapes by legendary engineer Bernie Grundman (himself a former employee of the label), and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings (QRP) and presented in a Stoughton Old Style Tip-On Jacket. 

The series begins with the May 13 reissue of Art Pepper’s +Eleven: Modern Jazz Classics. Throughout the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, Lester Koenig’s artist-friendly Los Angeles-based audiophile jazz label documented career-defining performances by some of modern jazz’s most influential and accomplished improvisers, including Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Harold Land and Benny Golson. No musician is more closely identified with Contemporary than Pepper, whose cool tone and simmering lyricism made him one of the very few mid-century alto saxophonists to forge a path independent of bebop patriarch Charlie Parker’s pervasive influence.  

Produced by Koenig and recorded in 1959, Art Pepper +Eleven: Modern Jazz Classics is one of the saxophonist’s masterpieces. Featuring brilliant arrangements by Marty Paich, the album elaborates on the lush but lithe sound introduced by the epochal Birth of the Cool sessions, which Miles Davis started to record almost exactly a decade earlier (like Birth, +Eleven kick offs with Denzil Best’s “Move”). Surrounded by the cream of the LA scene, including fellow saxophone masters Herb Geller, Bill Perkins and Med Flory, Pepper brings all his scorching lyricism to a program of modern jazz standards by Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan and Sonny Rollins. 

The series continues on June 10 with 1957’s The Poll Winners, the first of five all-star trio sessions featuring the dazzling interplay of guitarist Barney Kessel, drummer Shelly Manne and bassist Ray Brown. Kessel and Manne are also on hand for the July 15 release, 1958’s Four!, which fills out the quartet scorecard with bassist Red Mitchell and the supremely soulful Hampton Hawes, one of jazz’s most appealing yet unsung pianists. 

August 12’s release is another 1958 classic, Jazz Giant, which showcases the alto saxophone, trumpet and arrangements of triple threat Benny Carter, whose majestic talent awed four generations of jazz artists (he’s joined by a formidable cast including Manne, Kessel and tenor sax titan Ben Webster). The September 9 release, Manne’s hugely popular 1956 trio session My Fair Lady with bassist Leroy Vinnegar and pianist André Previn, paved the way for hundreds of jazz albums dedicated to Broadway shows. 

November 11 sees the release of Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, the altoist’s auspicious 1957 Contemporary debut pairing him with pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones, three-fifths of Miles Davis’ nonpareil quintet.