Saxophonist Ron Blake Releases His First New Album in 15 Years with "Mistaken Identity"

Ron Blake marks his return to the recording studio after 15 years’ absence by reuniting with an old friend for the October 13 release of Mistaken Identity on his own label 7tēn33 Productions. The tenor and baritone saxophonist partners for the record with esteemed guitarist Bobby Broom (who also serves as producer), enlisting as well a superb rhythm section with bassists Nat Reeves or Reuben Rogers and drummer Kobie Watkins on a smart, heartfelt collection of nine tracks that include band member originals, a standard or two, and compositions by jazz greats that have personal meaning for Blake.

Recorded in two sessions—in 2018 and 2021, pre- and post-pandemic—Mistaken Identity is something of a sampler platter that reintroduces Blake to the jazz-listening public. Best known for his nearly 20-year membership in the Saturday Night Live Band and his work in the Grammy-winning Christian McBride Big Band, Blake nevertheless “suffers from a case of mistaken identity because he is underrepresented as the leading tenor saxophone stylist that he is,” writes Broom in the liner notes. “This album makes for an almost undeniable suggestion that all this should finally change.”

The music on the album bears out Broom’s strong words. Blake offers a stunning slow burn on the opener, Duke Pearson’s “Is That So?”; suffuses Broom’s “No Hype Blues” with soulful flavor; puts elegant tenderness into Johnny Griffin’s “When We Were One” and his own “Grace Ann” (the latter with a beautiful open tone on baritone sax); and delivers the Benny Golson standard “Stablemates” with seasoned wisdom. He also pays tribute to his Caribbean roots with the calypso title track, a tune by his fellow Virgin Islander Victor Provost, and tips his hat to his idol Sonny Rollins with the saxophone colossus’s “Allison.”

Key to the album is the profound chemistry between Blake and Broom. The saxophonist and guitarist have collaborated for more than a quarter century, and here they show their hand-in-glove understanding of each other’s ideas and techniques. Add in the support of a superlative rhythm section, and Mistaken Identity truly brings Blake’s gifts as a bandleader into sharp and unmistakable relief.

Ron Blake was born September 7, 1965 in Santurce, a district of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He grew up in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, with a father who loved jazz, and passed that passion down to the youngest of his four children. First trying his hand at guitar as an 8-year-old, Blake by 10 had settled on the saxophone, playing alto at school. By 14 he’d come far enough on the instrument to attend Michigan’s famous Interlochen Arts Camp for three straight summers.

His success in the Arts Camp led Blake to enroll at Interlochen’s Arts Academy, where he completed his last two years of high school before attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It was in nearby Chicago where Blake encountered and began working with Bobby Broom, who after initial success in New York had established himself on the Windy City’s fabled jazz scene.

Aside from a brief return to St. Thomas, Blake remained in Chicago until 1990, when he took a position at the University of South Florida; two years after that, he made his way to New York and found himself in the quintet of the young trumpet prodigy Roy Hargrove. He also worked with Art Farmer, Me’shell Ndegeocello, and the multicultural ensemble Yerba Buena, as well as releasing his debut album as a leader, Up Front & Personal, in 2000. (He made three more albums in the 2000s for the Mack Avenue label.) In 2005, an audition with the Saturday Night Live Band led to Blake’s landing his own seat in NBC Studio 8H; he’s been at SNL ever since, taking home multiple Emmys in the process.

In addition, Blake has earned three Grammys as a member of the Christian McBride Big Band; been a regular member of the Mingus Big Band and Love Rocks NYC House Band; taught for over 15 years at the Juilliard School; completed a master’s degree in jazz studies at NYU; and founded the Caribbean Jazz Institute at the Snow Pond Center for the Arts in Sidney, Maine.

“Mistaken Identity is the culmination of my efforts to be true to myself in the creative process,” says Blake. “I have always maintained that paying homage to those I admire and who have supported me on my journey is a great point of reference in my recordings. This by no means limits my viewpoint and output to what is traditional or considered past tense, but more so an effort to celebrate the timelessness of so many great artists who made it possible for me to explore and create this great and varied form of music in the present.”

Ron Blake will be performing a CD release show at Dizzy’s, New York City, on Wednesday 11/1 with Bobby Broom, guitar; Reuben Rogers, bass; and Kobie Watkins, drums. 

Matt Cooper recording again as Outside releases new EP ‘A New Beginning’

Matt Cooper, recording again as Outside, makes a surprise return following a 20-year creative hiatus to release stunningly beautiful four-track EP ‘A New Beginning’, which comes out today on Dorado Records.

Studio mastermind and prodigiously gifted multi-instrumentalist, writer and arranger Matt Cooper, aka Outside, has been a creative powerhouse from the time he founded Outside in 1993, to now where he has been Musical Director of Incognito and collaborated on the STR4TA project with Incognito’s Bluey and Gilles Peterson as co-writer/producer/performer on four new tracks from the forthcoming album, including current STR4TA track ‘Lazy Days’ featuring Emma-Jean Thackray.

Outside releases this four-track EP of cinematic, jazz electronica, ahead of forthcoming sixth studio album ‘Almost Out’ which will be released in Spring 2023. ‘A New Beginning’ sees Cooper playing his first instrument, drums, as well as keyboards and most of the instruments. The music was recorded and completed between the 2020 lockdown and creatively assisted and co-produced with Valentina Pahor, in London and Portugal.

The new EP juxtaposes the percussive and the melancholy to hauntingly beautiful effect, drawing on 20 years in the company of soul and jazz legends, and adding a dash of Philip Glass and Steve Reich minimalism. Writing and playing solo, as he first did in 1993, Cooper has come full circle to showcase his unique musical sensibility once again as Outside.

The result is a work of clean lines and pared-down elegance across four tracks. Opening track ‘A New Beginning’ sees slick downtempo beats and keys meet Lo-Fi vibes and basslines with seamless touches of jazz instrumentation. ‘Searching, Finding’ is a minimalist glitchy, electronic soundscape that acts as a backdrop to the hauntingly emotive slide guitar of Francesco Sales and Cooper’s lush keys. ‘Navigating’ is a cinematic feast for the ears, with a deeply yearning, searching groove, and ‘Flying High’ closes the EP and is a soaring, exhilarating, yet minimal sonic spectacle that sees Cooper play his finest syncopated and off-beat drums to take the listener home.

‘I’ve evolved the mixture of modern and retro,’ Cooper says. ‘That’s the Outside sound.’

Matt Cooper was a key figure in the music revolution that rebooted jazz with digital beats in 1990s London. Recorded under the name Outside, his 1993 debut album ‘Almost In’ marked him out when it was released on experimental label Dorado — a contemporary of Talkin’ Loud, Acid Jazz, Mo’Wax and Ninja Tune that was founded by Ollie Buckwell and celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. ‘I wanted to make quality records that would stand the test of time,’ says Buckwell. ‘and I was blown away by Matt’s talent.’         

Mixmag pronounced its second album ‘The Rough & the Smooth’ "the best record of the last two years", Outside released three further albums: ‘Discoveries’ (1997), ‘Suspicious’ (1998) and ‘Out of the Dark’ (2001). Cooper joined cult UK soul act Incognito as musical director and went onto work as MD and instrumentalist for legendary artists including: Chaka Khan; Jocelyn Brown; Whitney Houston; David Sylvian; Paul Weller; Terry Callier; Leon Ware; Marlene Shaw; Freddie Hubbard, and Ronnie Laws.

Eri Yamamoto Trio - ¨A Woman With A Purple Wig¨

Yamamoto, who began writing music at the age of 8, describes composition as a daily habit, “like a diary, very related to what I experience or feel.” Keep that in mind as you listen to the seven pieces that comprise A Woman With A Purple Wig, her second recording for Mahakala Music, on which the veteran pianist, a melody-maker par excellence, presents her response to the dislocations and traumas of life in locked-down New York City following the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020.

“After the former President’s remarks on the ‘China virus,’ many Asians, especially women, were targeted,” recalls Yamamoto, born in Osaka, raised in Kyoto, now a midtown Manhattan resident. One day, a month or two after lockdown, she rode her electric bicycle to an outdoor session downtown, then waited for the other musicians. “Suddenly a huge guy snatched my helmet out of the air and said, ‘You fucking Chinese messed up my life and the world’ – then he stepped on my backpack with my small keyboard inside. I’m a strong New Yorker – fortunately, my instrument was okay and I did the session. I’d never had that kind of experience. To me, New York welcomes people from all over the world. Of course, I’m Japanese, but I never thought of myself as an Asian – and all of a sudden, that’s how some people see me. I got very scared. For two years, I went out only once a month, and I bought a purple wig to hide myself when I had to go outside, along with big sunglasses, a mask, and a hat.”

As always in her life, Yamamoto expressed her feelings through the medium of notes and tones. In a concentrated burst of creative activity, she penned five instrumental compositions and, for the first time, two songs with lyrics – “A Woman With A Purple Wig” and “Colors Are Beautiful.” Then she made a demo on her iPhone. At a rehearsal for an imminent recording session with bass giant William Parker, a dear friend who has availed himself of her talents on nine recordings since 2002, she asked Parker to listen. She had a singer in mind, but Parker immediately suggested that Yamamoto sing it herself.

“He told me, ‘Your voice is more connected to the lyrics you wrote; this is your experience and your voice has the honesty of a child singing,’” she says. “I wasn’t sure – but then I decided, yeah, why not? I want to speak out to the world what I felt. And I did it with my trio.”

A Woman With A Purple Wig is Yamamoto’s eleventh trio album, and her seventh with bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Ikuo Takeuchi, who’ve developed their breathe-as-one simpatico over close to two decades of a three-nights-a-week sinecure at the Greenwich Village boite Arthur’s Tavern. She recalls meeting Takeuchi – her drummer-of-choice on gigs and albums since 1998 – when both attended the New School in the late 1990s. A trained classical pianist during her years in Japan, Yamamoto had “almost zero exposure to jazz” until undergoing a “conversion experience” after hearing Tommy Flanagan’s trio at Tavern on the Green on a visit to New York in 1995.

“I knew Mal Waldron’s song ‘Left Alone,’ and he was playing at Sweet Basil the week I got to New York,” Yamamoto says. “After the first set, I asked Mal Waldron to help me to find a school or teacher to teach me jazz. He introduced me to Reggie Workman, who was playing bass; Reggie wrote on a paper napkin the address of the New School, ‘tomorrow, 1 o’clock’ and ‘you’ll be okay.’” For her audition, Yamamoto played a blues and “Autumn Leaves,” which “I’d transcribed, mixed up, and memorized.” She was accepted.

During Yamamoto’s three years at the New School, Workman consistently offered encouragement and sage advice. “Reggie told me trio was perfect for my style, and to find a bass player and drummer in school,” she says. “While I was walking around, I heard Ikuo playing a session and loved what I heard, so I asked him. It was fortuitous, because that was his last day at the New School. I got a restaurant gig every Friday. Reggie told me, ‘Just play. Make mistakes. Jazz is music to play for real people, not a practice room music.’ I didn’t have experience, but I have perfect pitch. If I hear it, I can re-play. So I was imitating people. People thought, ‘Ah, Eri has zero experience in jazz, but she is not fooling around.’ At first everything was written and messy, but after a few years, I felt pretty comfortable. 

“I thought it was important to learn bebop vocabulary and the blues to have a good foundation to express my music – so I focused on that. But I was thinking that, as a Japanese in New York, trying to play like a musician who grew up in America is not the real me. I was wondering what I can do. Then I went to a festival at the old Knitting Factory, where everyone from Cecil Taylor and William Parker to Wynton Marsalis was playing. I heard a trio with Paul Motian, Gary Peacock and Paul Bley, who I was not familiar with. I felt so relieved. I didn’t know this is also called jazz. Bley’s improvisation was sometimes folky, sometimes bluesy – such a mixture. I found the similarities what I really hear in music and really want to pursue.”

You can hear snippets and murmurs of the vocabularies and syntaxes of the aforementioned refracted in Yamamoto’s playing – elegant and primal, nuanced and urgent, endlessly melodic and rhythmically piquant, always oriented to collective imperatives – throughout the proceedings. But the sound, as throughout Yamamoto’s 20-years as a recording artist, is uniquely her own, bearing out yet again Herbie Hancock’s encomium, “She’s found her own voice.”

COOKIN’ WITH JAWS AND THE QUEEN: THE LEGENDARY PRESTIGE COOKBOOK ALBUMS

Craft Recordings celebrates the centennial of Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis with a brand-new, four-album collection, featuring the tenor saxophonist’s incendiary 1958 Cookbook albums with organist Shirley Scott. Set for release on February 3rd in 180-gram vinyl 4-LP, 4-CD, and digital configurations, Cookin’ with Jaws and the Queen: The Legendary Prestige Cookbook Albums compiles four classic soul-jazz albums: Cookbook, Vol. 1, Cookbook, Vol. 2, Cookbook, Vol. 3, and Smokin’, all of which were recorded in stereo by the celebrated engineer, Rudy Van Gelder.

Cookin’ with Jaws and the Queen has been newly remastered from the original analog tapes by the GRAMMY®-winning engineer, Bernie Grundman. Produced by Nick Phillips, the all-analog 4-LP edition (limited to 5,000 copies worldwide) is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI, while each LP is individually housed in a tip-on jacket, featuring the original Prestige Records album artwork. The 4-CD and digital editions feature three bonus tracks that were recorded in the 1958 sessions but didn’t appear on the original LP releases: “Avalon,” “Willow Weep For Me,” and an alternate take of “But Beautiful.” Rounding out the vinyl and CD packages is a deluxe booklet featuring recording session photos and offering new, in-depth liner notes by jazz journalist Willard Jenkins, who serves as the artistic director for the DC Jazzfest.

When tenor saxophonist Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Hammond B-3 organist Shirley Scott entered Rudy Van Gelder’s hallowed Hackensack, NJ studio in 1958, it was clear that something special was about to take place. For roughly three years, Scott and Davis had been at the forefront of the soul-jazz sound, setting the gold standard for the tenor sax/organ combo. At 36, “Lockjaw” (also known as “Jaws”), was already a veteran of the New York City jazz scene, having spent much of the 1940s playing in the bands of Lucky Millinder, Andy Kirk, and Cootie Williams. But the horn player was also a stylistic chameleon, who straddled the line between the classic big band era and the emerging sounds of hard bop.

24-year-old Shirley Scott, meanwhile, was a rising talent from Philadelphia, who stood out as one of the few female musicians in the male-dominated world of jazz. Scott, who would soon become known as the “Queen of the Organ,” formed a creative partnership with Davis in 1955, and made her earliest recordings alongside the horn player. By 1958, they were a well-oiled duo. In his liner notes, Jenkins underscores this magical pairing with a quote from saxophonist James Carter: “Every successful artistic partnership has members that truly work together in simpatico towards a common goal, which in this case is groovin’ and swingin’ their listening audience beyond good health! [Scott] never fails…to provide the perfect underpinning for Lockjaw to either soar above or to dig into to achieve the ultimate goal of a great musical encounter every time. Lockjaw really listens to Shirley and takes his cues particularly on ballads, but she’ll put some gentle, intense fire under him on up tempos and inspire the best out of Lockjaw.” Jenkins adds, “This is classic Black vernacular jazz.”

Accompanying Davis and Scott in the studio was multi-reedist Jerome Richardson, who played the flute, baritone sax, and tenor sax. Bassist George Duvivier and drummer Arthur Edgehill rounded out the talented lineup. The sessions, which took place on June 20th, September 12th, and December 5th, 1958, were captured by a 34-year-old Rudy Van Gelder at his Hackensack studio, while Prestige Records’ Bob Weinstock and Esmond Edwards served as producers.

The repertoire that comprises four albums’ worth of material is a delicious combination of Davis-Scott originals and jazz standards. The Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Cookbook, Vol. 1, originally released in June 1958, features several highlights, including the bluesy radio hit, “In the Kitchen.” Clocking in at just under 13 minutes, the mid-tempo, Johnny Hodges-penned track offers plenty of time for each musician to showcase their talents. Ballad “But Beautiful,” is another standout track which, Jenkins notes, is bolstered by “Lockjaw’s opulently expressive tone…[and] his beautifully legato, conversational solo.” Scott’s solo, he adds, is “soul personified in the keys.”

The momentum continues with The Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Cookbook, Vol. 2, released in December 1958, which features interpretations of the Hoagy Carmichael-Mitchell Parish standard, “Stardust,” as well as originals like “Skillet” and opener “The Rev.” The latter piece, as the title conveys, features an expressive, conversational delivery between the musicians, as if between a preacher and his parishioners.

Cookbook, Vol. 3, which dropped in 1960, features such highlights as the George and Ira Gershwin classic, “Strike Up the Band,” the Shirley Scott original “The Goose Hangs High,” and the reflective “My Old Flame,” which Jenkins remarks, “elicits the kind of wistful posture from Jaws that one might expect from the lament of a love lost, befitting its title. Ms. Scott enters as if embodying that lost love’s farewell—‘See ya later, baby.’”

The collection concludes with Smokin’, an album that is also culled from the 1958 sessions but was originally released in 1964. The confident set finds the group jamming on originals like “Smoke This,” “High Fry,” and the self-titled “Jaws,” as well as such classics as Johnny Burke-Arthur Johnston’s “Pennies from Heaven,” Edgar Sampson’s “Blue Lou,” and the George Forrest-Robert Wight tune, “It’s a Blue World.” The latter two tracks, Jenkins notes, exemplify Davis’ unorthodox approach to balladry. “Jaws consistently displays a slightly vigorous attitude towards ballads, rarely actually luxuriating in the moment. His balladic immersion is more that of someone who’s got places to go, people to see, food to cook; nonetheless his reverence for a good ballad is no less than his peers, it’s just that he constantly sounds ready for a more purposeful stroll rather than a casual linger.”

Davis and Scott certainly did have plenty to accomplish, following these phenomenal sessions. The two musicians would continue to collaborate through the end of the decade, recording such albums as Jaws in Orbit and Bacalao (both released in 1959), as well as Misty (1963). Yet, despite the popularity of their work together, the artists went their separate ways, with Davis moving away entirely from the organ/tenor sound that he and Scott made famous. Scott soon joined forces with her husband, tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, and recorded dozens of sessions as a leader during her lengthy career. Davis, meanwhile, would continue to toe the line between small group soul-jazz and the classic sounds of big bands, working with the likes of Count Basie, Kenny Clarke, Gene Ammons, and Johnny Griffin—with whom he’d record multiple “Tough Tenors” albums. But those five years that Davis and Scott worked together were instrumental in shaping the sound of soul-jazz—and these four delectable albums endure as some of their best work.

Eli Wallace's pieces & interludes

Eli Wallace's first studio solo piano album –– pieces & interludes –– is a collection of four pieces (compositions) and three interludes in juxtaposition with each other. The pieces developed through intensive practice with various piano preparations that began before the pandemic. As recording studios shut their doors, the project stalled until it was safe to record again. The pieces were re-developed, reworked, and re-conceptualized until they were ready to be recorded in May 2021 by sound engineer Michael Coleman.

Each piece materialized through a process-based compositional approach, where specific preparations informed the musical material. In turn, the content influenced the further development and refining of the preparations. This back-and-forth method continued up until the recording session. These pieces came into being over time; therefore, they are unequivocally compositions due to the elements that became concretized and established through the process. However, this music is still wholly improvised (there are no scores); the pre-planned musical architecture provides a basic structure for the type of preparations and morphology of the works, but certain elements are still indeterminate. Each performance of these pieces would have a particular shape and arc that are exceedingly similar, but note and sound choices, specific rhythmic placement, dynamic gestures, and even song length would be slightly different each iteration.

The specific preparations congenital in each piece stand out due to targeted recording and mixing techniques and decisions, using different mics and sound designs for each one. Generally, for the pieces, the mix highlighted an intimate sound using close mics, putting the listener in direct contact with the piano strings:

piece 1 focuses on the low frequencies of the instrument, and the mix highlights this deep reverberation.

piece 2 is tactile, and therefore it was recorded and mixed as though the listener were literally inside the piano, adjacent to the action transpiring above the strings.

piece 3 centers around horrific screeching sounds and these high frequencies are emphasized, grating the cochlear organs.

piece 4 is essentially a percussion ensemble within the piano, and the sound design separates and highlights each of these variegated noises.

The interludes are spliced sections of music selected contiguously from a much longer work (28 minutes) centered on pure improvisation. These shorter sections are used as transitional material throughout the album, guiding the listener between the pieces. The preparations for the interludes include one preparational component from each of the four pieces, thus unifying the album's content in a macro sensibility. The approach is also different, relying more on playing notes on the keyboard with the entire piano interior prepared with objects that alter the instrument's sound when one plays a pitch. The sound engineer and producer Michael Coleman mixed the interludes with a "far-off" feeling using different room mics, thus taking the listener out of the piano for a few minutes before dropping them back into the intensity and close sonic intimacy of the next piece. The pieces and the interludes were connected seamlessly without track breaks, stitched together through cross-fading or layering to keep the momentum and energy churning. This decision leads the listener to hear the work in one sitting, maintaining the performative energy. It's not until the end of piece 4 that we finally find a conclusion. However, piece 3 is an outlier, separated from the album's surrounding material through silence before and after. It is necessary due to its abrasive sonic quality and to provide differentiation from the other transitions.

All technicalities aside, the work is about Wallace's relationship to the piano, as he invites the audience to share and revel in the experience. A tremendous amount of movement is involved in actuating the amalgam of sounds inherent to playing piano in this manner. Wallace beckons listeners to share this journey with him, to put people's ears inside the piano to hear what he hears while he's playing, and to imagine the physicality of the movements needed to make these sounds. In so doing, Wallace shares his relationship with the instrument in the most honest and intimate way possible. Through meditative passages, joyfully driving rhythmic and melodic tunes, and jarring sounds expressing the horror and depravity that it is to be human, he is offering an honest and vulnerable version of himself as an artist and human being. Consequently, this recording is a reified artifact about Wallace's life up to this point, expressed through his love of the piano. 

Trombonist/Composer Marshall Gilkes Presents: Cyclic Journey

Grammy nominated trombonist and composer Marshall Gilkes has a singular and distinct voice on the trombone, one that simultaneously expresses beauty, virtuosity, the raw spontaneity of improvisation fused with the elegant, stately architecture of classical music. From playing lead trombone with The Vanguard Orchestra, to performing with The Maria Schneider Orchestra, the Slide Monsters Trombone Quartet, and leading his own projects, producing six critically-acclaimed albums thus far. Gilkes is also a prolific composer, most recently contributing a stunning set of compositions to the WDR Big Band, titled “Always Forward.” In short, the man is a musician’s musician who can do it all. 

Following up his essential album with the WDR Big Band, Köln, and his 2020 release, Waiting To Continue, Marshall Gilkes latest coup de maître is a stunningly beautiful and captivating suite of music, titled Cyclic Journey, available on September 30. On Cyclic Journey Gilkes uncovers and explores the elements of his own journey. “I wrote the music for this album in March and April of 2022, but I’ve had this idea – to bring these two worlds together – for quite some time,” Gilkes explains. “And in terms of the theme, it really came to light through reflection on what’s most familiar to me. That’s how I arrived at the idea to write a soundtrack to my daily external and internal existence.” Gilkes’ daily existence means being able to deliver on a very high level in a multitude of musical situations and partnerships, which he does with a quite uncommon flexibility, and command of his instrument; and taking care of his family as a dedicated father and husband.

The ensemble on Cyclic Journey is an accomplished and unique band, and they bring Gilkes’ vision to life in remarkable ways. Pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Johnathan Blake could be thought of as a modern day version of “the rhythm section,” so cohesive and powerful is their union (as many know, the original “rhythm section” being Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums). Integrated with this dream quartet, is a brass octet comprised of a who’s who of classical heavyweights, including trumpeters Brandon Ridenour (of Canadian Brass fame), Ethan Bensdorf (from the New York Philharmonic), and the omnipresent Tony Kadleck (a much in demand lead player in the Big Apple), horn player Adam Unsworth (Professor of Horn at the University of Michigan and a former member of the Philadelphia Orchestra), the legendary Joseph Alessi (longstanding Principal Trombone in the New York Philharmonic), bass trombonist Nick Schwartz (from the New York City Ballet), euphonium ace Demondrae Thurman (Chair of the Brass Department at Indiana University), and king of the tuba, Marcus Rojas, who has held down the low end for everybody from Henry Threadgill to the Metropolitan Opera. “I feel like with this project it’s not just about the combination of two groups or ideas, but the musicians themselves. Linda’s sound on the bass is just so incredibly pure. Aaron’s touch on the piano, evident, for example, in the way he takes over after that fanfare on ‘Go, Get It!,’ is beautiful. The way Johnathan plays and orchestrates everything just elevates the music. And I have the ultimate cast of characters with these brass players. I feel like I’m very lucky that I was able to bring together the perfect group of people,” says Gilkes. 

The nine movements on Cyclic Journey reflect the elements of Gilkes personal and professional life. “First Light” opens with a gentle chorale (Gilkes composes the hippest, emotive Chorales, which are featured throughout the album), capturing the optimistic mood of a quite house, very early in the morning, while the rest of the world is seemingly still sleeping. “That’s really a piece about the gears of life starting to turn at the beginning of each day,” explains Gilkes. “Up and Down” is about moving out into the world, putting things in play with a hip, understated groove. “The Calm” is an aural depiction of one being able to catch their breath, and on this movement we hear the perfect integration of jazz quartet with classical brass octet in all its glory. Contrasting “The Calm,” is “Go Get It!,” a call to action, the fanfare an announcement of great things to come. After the lovely serenity of “Respite” our hearts are racing again with “Beat The Clock,” which is about having too much to do, and not enough time to do it! Check out “Genre Battles,” which offers contrasting brass octet sections against the jazz quartet absolutely burning over Rhythm Changes, demonstrating, to great effect, Gilkes’ impartial love for these idioms. “I’m honestly someone who adores classical brass playing, but also loves jazz,” says Gilkes. “Musings,” and “Cyclic Journey,” are the resolution and the afterglow, expressing joy and satisfaction, and two examples of Gilkes’ gorgeous sound, his gift as a composer, and his melodicism. The bonus track, worth the price of admission alone!, is one final bow to brass grandeur, as Gilkes and his fellow horn men bring down the house with “Sin Filtro,” (Unfiltered) which boasts some of the leader’s signatures – extreme register jumps, strong melodies, sophisticated harmonies, rhythmic intensity – it’s a Spanish-tinged stunner that spotlights this unbelievable collection of slide and valve virtuosos. – Dan Bilawsky



Piper Street Sound – Hulusi

Piper Street Sound returns with a strident march forward in Hulusi. Conceived during the early stages of a pandemic, with the Atlanta-based multi-hyphenate Matthew Mansfield’s signature blending of production styles, layers of acoustic, analog, and digital performances at last lock in and unfold in time to an insistent Steppers riddim with a pace and message that gets the blood moving.

In collaboration with California based Dub gorgon Subatomic Sound System, and featuring contributions from luminaries that span a wide network of timeless titans and studio assassins, the end result plays like a flag-planting campaign of the past INTO the future.

The title refers to the instrument used to capture the piece’s main theme, an ancient Chinese 3-chambered flute that reads somewhere between melodica and bagpipes, a brash but plaintive melody. Fleshed out and supported by dread performances from Mansfield’s urgent bass, Christo Case on synths and keys, Brian Daggett on pounding drums, and horns by Jonathan Lloyd, the production eventually manifested into the righteous machine presented here.

The digital release features Piper Street Sound’s A-side cut, a trio of edits from Subatomic Sound System’s extended mix of the tune, and an instrumental version with expanded guitar work by frequent collaborator to some of Jamaica’s Pantheon of musical greats, Andy Bassford. Those whose ears perk up at the words ‘extended mix’, be joyous. There’s also a 10″ vinyl offering in the works, featuring full-length dubs by both Piper Street and Subatomic.

J-Lloyd’s horn section stabs in regal staccato before unfurling banners reminiscent of the Golden Days, over an increasingly digital riddim that surges and pulses with militant energy. Guitars by Bassford sting and slash across the piece’s swirl of dub delay and reverbs, accenting the polyrhythmic march of the beat. They shine fully on a track of their own. A stark vocal testimony from none other than Dancehall legend General Pecos recruits listener-soldiers to the Gideon War, a literal “mental, spiritual, physical war” necessitated by the times. If The End is indeed upon us, Piper Street Sound and his cohort intend to meet it head-on and eyes-forward.

New Music Releases: Mike Reed / Sonar Kollektiv presents NEUJAZZ 2 / Trio Xolo / Jim Witzel

Mike Reed - The Separatist Party

Chicago drummer, bandleader, composer Mike Reed announces his new album 'The Separatist Party'. Featuring Ben LaMar Gay, Marvin Tate, and Cooper Crain, Dan Quinlivan & Rob Frye of Bitchin Bajas. An exciting new ensemble conveying a wide array of styles and influences into a groove-oriented expression of communion in the face of crippling solitude. One can glean wisps of Don Cherry’s Organic Music conception, the ecstatic fire of Pharoah Sanders, the cycling minimalism of Terry Riley, the motoric rhythms of Krautrock, the exploratory tones of Sun Ra, and clipped soul of vintage Ethiopian music within The Separatist Party, but no single element arrives wholesale Lead single and album opener 'Your Soul' features the striking vocals of Tate, the longtime leader of D-Settlement. His hectoring, biting oratory conveys an indelible sense of Chicago street culture, as his narratives quietly underline the complex, often contradictory realities of working class struggles, whether through the pernicious veil of racism or fear of connection. 

Sonar Kollektiv presents NEUJAZZ 2

The second installment of the Neujazz series sees label manager Oliver Glage explore a wealth of (mostly) homegrown talent from the Sonar Kollektiv camp. There has always been Neujazz - the improvised art-form by its very nature and definition always delivers something “new”, and despite the popularity of the genre in the late 90s, and the media’s desire to pigeon-hole music as such, “new jazz” has been omnipresent even since the first musicians played together in New Orleans, or even further back to the genus’ African roots. Here then is a family snapshot, rooted in jazz, of the contemporary artists making their mark on our scene in the early 2020s. Some, like Micatone, Radio Citizen and label luminaries Jazzanova themselves are veterans of the movement; others, like WAAN, Tutu Amuse and Key Elements are relative newcomers, experimenting with their sound and finding their groove in this always forward thinking musical clan.On this album you’ll find a number of exclusive tracks and slept on gems, but one thing they all have in common is something that is shared with King Oliver a century ago, and the African drummers that came before - that desire to spread a positive message by use of the musical freedom that jazz gives them.

Trio Xolo - On Flower, In Song

In Flower, In Song is the debut album from Trio Xolo, an improvising group composed of Mexican-American bassist Zachary Swanson, Baltimore-based saxophonist Derrick Michaels, and Lithuanian percussionist Dalius Naujo. With a telepathic ear toward musical interplay, Trio Xolo performs free-flowing stream of consciousness improvisations. The result is true, in the moment composition. The trio moves together dynamically as their voices simultaneously overlap and converge into one. In Flower, In Song was recorded live in one room and unveils a warm, organic sound: Swanson's distinctive use of gut strings produce a dark, woody tone, Michaels draws robust color from a vintage saxophone, and Naujo expresses a nuanced control of energy and dynamics. Through explorations of melody, atmosphere, and texture, they can either embrace or dispel the traditional hierarchy of the trio format. At its core, Trio Xolo creates music that seeks to capture the essence of the moment through deep listening.

Jim Witzel - Feelin' It

Guitarist, composer and educator Jim Witzel has long enjoyed the “organ trio” format in jazz (Hammond B-3 organ, guitar and drum set) as both a listener and as a working guitarist. In his second album, Feelin' It, he puts his own spin on those great recordings of the 50s and 60s (up to the present day) with a project comprising four standards, three of Witzel's originals and a well-known pop tune. Feelin' It is a showcase for Witzel's straight-ahead, modern jazz compositions that reflect the mid-sixties’ Blue Note influence of such players/composers as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and others. Attracted to their lyrical, accessible style, he calls his player inspirations the Great 8, which include Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall, George Benson, Pat Martino, John Abercrombie, and Pat Metheny. The standards on the album feature the organ trio, which comprises Witzel on guitar and two great musicians based in Northern California, Brian Ho on the Hammond B3 and Jason Lewis on drums. Jazz writer Andrew Gilbert has said, “Brian Ho, rising jazz star. These days, Ho is one of the region’s most promising young jazz organists,” while Lewis is an in-demand drummer who has performed with many top names in the jazz firmament. Witzel asked tenor saxophonist Dann Zinn to join the trio on Witzel’s own compositions. Zinn is a renowned reed player who has appeared on over 100 albums as a leader, soloist, and/or sideman. Although Jim Witzel has an extensive resume as a sideman, he is not widely known outside of Northern California. Although he has been flying under the radar for far too long, his highly accessible playing and compositional talents on Feelin' It will certainly garner new fans who are interested in organ/guitar/sax bands or anyone who likes fun, toe-tapping yet lyrical music.

Ibises (New Trio Comprising Members of Tortoise, Isotope 217, Euphone, The Few) Release "In The Swim"

Ibises — the group made up of established Chicago musicians Dan Bitney (Tortoise, Isotope 217), Nick Macri (Stirrup, Euphone), and Steve Marquette (The Few, Ken Vandermark’s Marker) — announced their debut album as a trio. In The Swim was released via American Dreams Records. T

In The Swim comes from an improvised concert by the trio recorded live by  Alex Inglizian at Experimental Sound Studio (aka ESS) in Chicago, IL. Mixed and edited with carte blanche by acclaimed sound designer Casey Rice (Designer, Black Monument Ensemble), it provides a unique example of the open channels of experimentation and liminal crosstalk long characterized by Chicago’s deep, cross-pollinating music community. In The Swim is an asynchronous, longform piece that journeys through sound worlds from redlined and driving, to floating free and in-between.

Dan Bitney is a multi-instrumentalist best known for his work with Tortoise, Isotope 217, Bumps, Spectralina, and early Midwest hardcore punk group Mecht Mensch. Bassist Nick Macri has been a contributing member to many, varied groups including Ken Vandermark’s Audio One, Euphone, Heroic Doses, The Zincs, The Horse's Ha (with Janet Bean and James Elkington), and Stirrup with Fred Lonberg-Holm and Charles Rumback. He has also performed and toured as a sideman and recorded sessions with an eclectic list of artists including Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab), The Sea and Cake, Nina Nastasia, AZITA, Joan Shelley, Tim Kinsella (Friend/Enemy), James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg, Wanees Zarour's Middle East Music Ensemble, Bruce Licher (Savage Republic, Scenic), Tara Jane O'Neil, Daughter of Swords, and more. Steve Marquette is a guitarist, improviser, and organizer. Over the past decade he has toured the United States and Europe in The Few with Macie Stewart (Finom fka Ohmme) and Charlie Kirchen, Kobra Quartet, Instigation Orchestra, and Ken Vandermark's Marker, among other projects. In addition to his work as a musician, he is also a founder and lead organizer of the biannual Instigation Festival - which brings together performers from Chicago and New Orleans for a week of interdisciplinary collaboration in each city.

Avi Adrian - Songs From A Dream II, Featuring the music of Adar Broshi who passed away from cancer in 2019 at the age of 19

Virtuoso pianist Avi Adrian releases a new trio album titled ‘Songs From A Dream II’ with Barak Mori on Bass and Ofri Nehemia on Drums. The second album celebrating of the music of Adar Broshi who died of cancer at the age of 19 after two and a half years of fighting the disease.

Part of our mission of this project is to raise the awareness to Childhood cancer, a disease that claims the lives of far too many children each year and a disease that has seen little medical progress over the last 30 years.

While fighting cancer at the age of 17 and 18, Adar Broshi composed the music on this album. The tracks express Broshi’s memories of joy and happiness, and of an uncertain future, as well as the hope and determination to fight on.

With the exception of the final tune “Remembering Adar” which was composed by Avi Adrian, each composition on the album reflects and fuses the different inspirations of Adar Broshi and each feature a playful dance between two or more musical styles.

Born in Amsterdam - 1999, Adar Broshi was a happy, kind, and an ever-curious boy. When he was two and a half years old his brother was born, and upon seeing his new brother for the first time Adar said : “when the baby will grow up we shall sing a song together.” This prophecy came true when Adar was fifteen and his brother Matan, who learned guitar, started playing together and perform.

Growing up in three different continents: Europe , the Middle East, and North America, Adar was exposed from an early age to many styles of music from Bach and Mozart to Thelonious Monk and Stevie Wonder, From Israeli folk music to Flamenco. The young composer left over four hundred recordings. Some are original compositions and some are renditions of songs he liked.

This is an ambitious album also in the scope of efforts to create the ultimate piano trio sound experience. It was recorded in one of the world’s largest recording studios: Israel’s Jerusalem Music Center, and the audiophile sound quality is powerful yet subtle. Mixing and mastering for the recording was handled by the multi Grammy award winner Rich Breen.

Adar was a gifted musician, filmmaker and animator. In addition to creating original creative and inspiring music, he also made dozens of short films starting back at the early age of 10 years old. By the age of fifteen he wrote , directed, shot, edited and composed the original score for a 34 minute long film titled: ‘Adrians Dream’ which he completed while being hospitalized for cancer. ‘Adrians Dream’ was accepted by the “New York City” ( http://anthologyfilmarchives.org) Film Festival and “Fort Myers Beach Film Festival“ (https://fmbifilmfest.com ) the following year.  

Avi Adrian has played and toured with Dave Liebman, Billy Cobham, Airto and James Moody.

Drummer Ofri Nehemia, who is not yet 30 year’s old is already a regular on European Jazz stages and on a host of recordings on the ECM label. Nehemia has toured and recorded with both Avishai Cohen’s (the bass player and the trumpet player) Ben Wendel and Shai Maestro .

Born in Israel in 1975, Bassist Barak Mori has worked with Kenny Washington, David Hazeltine and many other first call musicians.

Some words from Pianist and Trio leader - Avi Adrian 

I approached this album with enthusiasm and excitement. After the first album I felt a spiritual and mystical connection with Adar. I listened to the materials with the utmost attention, and in order to be true to Adar's work and intention, I felt that I had imaginary dialogues with him asking various questions such as…. “What do you feel is missing here?  and …..Would I be doing justice if I added on to what you wrote,?

The work stemmed from a real passion to express Adar's imagination and I enjoyed every moment of the process.

Adar was multidisciplinary in sounds, visions, styles, feelings and thoughts. He had a lot of different musical influences and a focused intention for the music he wrote. He also had a theatrical sense.

While recording the album, I had a vivid feeling of Adar’s presence, visiting me to say hello. I thank Adar for the gift he left us, and I do not think of him in terms of the past because I feel he is living with us all the time. I am also grateful to his dad for this wonderful and exciting production.

Surya Botofasina's "Everyone's Children," is a heartfelt celebration of Alice Coltrane's Sai Anantam Ashram

Everyone’s Children is the stunning debut album of spiritual avant-garde music from keyboardist and composer Surya Botofasina, out on Spiritmuse Records. The record combines deep jazz excursions with expansive synth passages and intimate piano turns to create a hypnotic, meditative and devotionally expressive suite that soothes, enriches and uplifts the soul.

Botofasina’s upbringing at the Sai Anantam Ashram in the Southern Californian hills involved daily bhajans (traditional Hindu devotional songs) led by legendary jazz harpist and pianist Alice Coltrane. Her musical and religious teachings continue to have a profound effect on the keyboardist, whose career has since gone on to take in acting stints in the TV series Vinyl and Boardwalk Empire alongside a diverse range of musical collaborations with the likes of Reggie Workman, Joey Bada$$, Gangstarr’s GURU, Amel Larrieux, N’Dea Davenport, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. His work as the Music Director of the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers has seen him tour internationally honouring Swamini Turiyasangitananda Alice Coltrane’s devotional music. “The way I play the piano is not the way my friends play the piano” he says. “It forced me to find the place I truly dwell in - the place between the hip hop and jazz, but based in meditative and long form expressions of my spirit.”

Botofasina’s renown has enabled him to enlist a supremely talented, cross generational group of musicians for the project including major LA mainstays such as multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Carlos Niño –– who also produced the album –– jazz singer Dwight Trible, and indie folk vocalist Mia Doi Todd. Brilliantly gifted guitarist Nate Mercereau, saxophonist Pablo Calogero, and drummer Efa Etoroma Jr., round out the guest collaborators alongside Botofasina’s mother, the harpist Radha Botofasina, a key musical disciple of Alice Coltrane’s during her Ashram years and a hugely formative influence on the keyboardist.

Ten years in consideration, the album’s genesis lay in Botofasina and Niño’s long-running creative partnership. The pair first linked up through Niño’s Build An Ark jazz ensemble, by the recommendation of Atwood-Ferguson, in 2011 and –– after Niño suggested recording a Surya-lead project, the idea began to solidify with a series of collaborative concerts in 2018 (still on-going,) that engendered a deep musical bond. Recorded by Jesse Peterson in 3 joyous sessions last year in Glendale, California, the results are grounded in the ashram music that Botofasina grew up with and present his own unique jazz-influenced take on devotional sounds.

That vision achieves heady form in the shape of album opener "Surya Meditation", an epic twenty-seven-minute duet with Niño built around Botofasina’s assorted keyboard textures. Synths hum hypnotically, softly patter like raindrops or drift by like clouds on a hazy summer’s day. Niño’s subtle percussive accompaniment offers a gentle sense of otherworldliness throughout a contemplative, meditative and stunningly beautiful piece that offers feelings akin to floating gently across water. “I knew when it was happening that it would be the focal point, the opus, the centre of this project” says Niño of the recording.

The solo piano piece "I Love Dew, Sophie" melds jazz and classical keyboard notes in warm-toned clusters before the ecstatic spiritual jazz excursion "Beloved California Temple" opens things out into a group setting. Here, Botofasina’s hypnotic piano motifs and Niño’s expressive percussion are joined by Pablo Calogero’s breathy saxophone lines, before Dwight Trible’s dramatic wordless vocals bring things to a rapturous climax to the accompaniment of Efa Etoroma Jr.’s crashing drum crescendos, with the harmonic brilliance of Nate Mercereau’s guitar synth fortifying the whole.

The title track, "Everyone's Children" follows. Featuring Mia Doi Todd –– whose pregnancy at the time of the recording inspired its name –– the track blends her dreamlike singing with the buzzing swoop and swirl of a synthesizer –– a recognizable throwback to the Sai Anantam Ashram devotional sound –– alongside gentle piano runs. Begun in reflective mode, "Sun Of Keshava"’s synthesizer textures build in warmth towards a denouement of radiant keyboard notes that recall the beauty of a summer sunrise.

The cascading "Waves For Margie" features gentle harp textures and vocals from Radha Botofasina. The album ends with a reprise of it’s centerpiece "Surya Meditation", in a shortened and powerful edit that comes accompanied by the potent spoken reminiscences of Swamini Satsang. It’s return marks the closing of an extraordinary musical circle whose singular blend of improvisatory and devotional music defies easy categorization. The warmly reflective solo synth piece for Meghan Jahnavi* was added with the intention to promote mental health and wellness initiatives. “That is specifically what Dew Sophie's and Meghan's pieces are composed for,” Surya reflects. “Their imperative nature and importance to me cannot be overstated. I, and we, are in a place where uplifting our spirits to wellness is the most crucial part of many aspects of human existence.”

Dedicated to the formative influences in Surya Botofasina’s life; his mother, grandmother and Alice Coltrane, his debut album is imbued with a wide-eyed sense of discovery. He explains: “Each piece feels like an inaugural experience in the most spiritually youthful way. Many musicians have many albums - but there is only one first. The Divine energy of a new life is within every second of the music.”

Shiroishi and Kimbrell are Oort Smog | "Every Motherfucker Is Your Brother"

Oort Smog carries the torch of the saxophone and drums duo tradition, beginning in early formations such as John Coltrane and Rashied Ali and continuing through the years via Anthony Braxton and Andrew Cyrille, Sax Ruins, and Dead Neanderthals. As Oort Smog, Mark Kimbrell and Patrick Shiroishi combine elements of brutal prog (both are members of Upsilon Acrux) and free improvisation on their latest release, a long form composition powerfully titled Every Motherfucker Is Your Brother.

“Oort Smog is a duo to the core. Patrick and I lean on each other, pull each other out of our comfort zones, and push each other forward.,” Kimbrell says. “All of that is essential to our process and the music itself.” Every Motherfucker Is Your Brother is the band’s second offering, continuing the complexities of their first record, a hybrid of tightly arranged changes and free jazz improvisation. Daniel Zaidenstadt returns as engineer to help sculpt the sonics, blending and fully utilizing the space of Human Resources to its fullest potential. “When we first started Oort Smog, I was extremely nervous to play with Mark … he is such a powerhouse and technician of the drums,” reflects Shiroishi. “Primarily my idea of playing with guitar pedals and amp was to be able to compete with Mark’s dynamics. Now, almost a decade in, this band has allowed me to experiment not only with effects, but to try new things, write new things, and reach for new things.”

Written over the course of eighteen months and recorded during the pandemic and the explosion of demonstrations around the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Oort Smog drew from a number of influences to create their own sound, one of urgency, heaviness and hope. “We wanted this second record to include a lot of things but still be a cohesive piece of music, and I truly believe we accomplished that,” Shiroishi says. “The extracts we chose are from two sections of the piece that highlight the fluidity and tightness we’ve been able to build through the past eight years. We named the piece after we finished recording it with Daniel and it is a direct, oppositional response to the racial injustice that infects this country." 

Patrick Shiroishi is a Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Los Angeles who is perhaps best known for his extensive and incredibly intense work with the saxophone. Over the last decade he has established himself as one of the premier improvising musicians in Los Angeles, playing solo and in numerous collaborative projects with Claire Rousay, Angel Deradoorian, Ted Byrnes, Luke Stewart, Fuubutsushi, Jessica Ackerley, and many more. Shiroishi is a foundational player in Los Angeles's vast musical expanse, and has over the past few years made a name for himself globally as one of the most creative and prolific living saxophonists.

Mark Kimbrell is a Los Angeles-based drummer, known for his high-energy propulsive drumming style. After a two-year study of commercial music at Musicians Institute, Mark abandoned the pursuit of the mainstream in favor of more esoteric forms, immersing in the fertile creativia of Los Angeles DIY music. This led to a stint in Upsilon Acrux, alongside fellow drummer Dylan Fujioka and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, with whom he formed Oort Smog in 2014. “As long as I’ve been conscious, I’ve known that I was a drummer," Kimbrell says. "Though my extended family is extremely musical, my parents were not. When I got to be a teenager and finally had the opportunity to become a drummer, I realized that I didn’t know shit about music. I didn’t know shit about sound. Nothing. The rest of the story is just relentlessly trying to catch up.”

LONDON BASED COSMIC JAZZ RAVE TRIO, RELEASE "HYPER-DIMENSIONAL EXPANSION BEAM"

The Comet Is Coming, the London-based Mercury Prize nominated synth-sax-drum trio featuring DANALOGUE (Dan Leavers), SHABAKA (Shabaka Hutchings), and BETAMAX (Max Hallett), today announce their fourth studio album Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam set for release September 23 via the legendary Impulse! Records. Their first single “CODE” is released today – an intergalactic head-banger that explores hidden meaning and codes in humans (DNA) and technology – alongside a visualizer. 

The Comet Is Coming grab you by the head and don’t let go with their relentless and fiery sound, “at once eliciting thoughts of impending doom and possible hope” (Pitchfork). The ingredients: 80s synth models, saxophone and drums, sprinkled with visceral punk rock, interstellar jazz blasts, and dance-floor trances.

On their fourth album, Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam, The Comet Is Coming – synth magician/producer Danalogue, drummer-producer Betamax, and saxophonist/spiritual riffologist Shabaka– burn brightly, soundtracking our epoch of change in ways their contemporaries simply aren’t trying to. 

The process: emerging straight from lockdown, the trio went to Peter Gabriel’s Real World decked out studio tucked away in the English countryside. With the help of the band’s longtime engineer Kristian Craig Robinson, the trio embarked on a four-day long recording process guided by collective intuition, sheer skill, and transcendent improvisation. Next, Danalogue and Betamax fastidiously sampled the band’s own creations, alchemically weaving the out-of-body musical collisions with microscopic attention to detail in the production room. This distillation process yields a profound coherent musical message about the future of technology, humankind, spirituality, and the connectivity of the universe. Which just so happens to rock. 

Tracks like “Pyramids,” drenched in layers of controlled synth-syncopation and Shabaka’s iconic minimalism pulsing forward and “Atomic Wave Dance” are stone-cold bangers, made for a nightclub on a space station. “Lucid Dreamer,” on the other hand is a vulnerable and emotional guided meditation led by Danalogue’s Ensoniq synth, which eerily evokes humanoid choir voicings through technology. This album has the unrelenting, driving and fiery muscle that Comet is known for, but creates a space where ideas about the future – dystopian or hopeful – technology, artificial intelligence, hidden meanings and transcendental transformations can exist.

The Comet Is Coming formed when Soccer96 – Danalogue and Betamax’s synth-drum tron-like duo – were playing and captured jazz saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings attention. After some tentative conversations between the duo and Shabaka, he hopped on stage at a show on a trial run and the energy coarsed between the trio and Comet was born. This union was a result of, as Danalogue describes it, “the algorithm of fate.” See, they all attended Guildhall School of Music where Dan and Max met - but Dan and Shabaka were a tale of missed connections as they shared the same saxophone teacher. Thankfully, fate’s algorithm guided the trio together. Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam follows their 2019 Trust In The Life Force of the Deep Mystery, which garnered praise from NPR, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, Washington Post, and their follow-up EP The Afterlife. This is their third full-length studio album. 

BEJA POWER! Electric Soul & Brass from Sudan’s Red Sea Coast

This album is a soundtrack of Sudan’s revolution.

In late 2021, Ostinato Records returned to Khartoum, Sudan shortly after a November military coup and country-wide protests to capture the sound of an ongoing, inspiring democratic revolution that began in 2019.

Scrolling Sudanese Tik Tok, we scouted a mysterious band in Port Sudan, a city on the Red Sea coast and the country’s biggest port. One short social media video opened the gates into a world few have ventured, let alone heard, a world that reorients our understanding of ancient history and politically empowers the present.

In the early 1990s, a young musician named Noori ventured near the scrap yards of Port Sudan only to find the well-preserved neck of a guitar, an uncommon instrument in these parts.

He was later gifted a vintage tambour from the ‘70s, a traditional four-string instrument strummed across the region, by his father, a renowned instrumentalist. Using his own special technique of welding and tuning, Noori forged the two and gave birth to an electrified tambo-guitar, the only hybrid of its kind in existence.

Then only 18, Noori was driven by a passionate cause to keep Beja (pronounced Bee-Jah) music alive and fresh. Beja culture is little known—for very deliberate reasons. Their land in eastern Sudan by the Red Sea is blessed and cursed with vast deposits of gold, largely sold off to foreign companies. Successive Sudanese governments have turned a blind eye to Beja calls for recognition and access to the mined wealth of their own soil.

Under the harsh rule of Sudan’s former strongman, Omar al-Bashir, a campaign was waged to erase Beja language, music, and culture, and deny the right to a dignified livelihood. Their conditions have changed little since Bashir’s ouster in 2019.

The Beja community has been on the forefront of political change in Sudan for decades and Noori believes an unleashing of Beja music would form the most potent act of resistance, in line with the rebellious closure Sudan’s biggest port, a regular demonstration of civil disobedience by Beja activists in their quest for equity and justice.

Few older Beja recordings were produced. Even fewer, if any, remain. This is the first ever international release of the Beja sound, a six-track portal to another time and place, of melodies long forgotten and never before interpreted by an electric and brass-driven ensemble. Beja Power! is a living archive of the finest, most heartfelt Beja songs—each composed at a different stage in its long history, each in its own world.

A truly ancient community, Beja trace their ancestry back millennia. Some historians say they are among the living descendants of Ancient Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush. They are even depicted in the hieroglyphics.

Beja melodies—nostalgic, hopeful and sweet, ambiguous and honest—are thousands of years old, which explains an evocative composition like “Qwal” and the mystifying, regal imagery of the pharaoh’s courts it conjures. Yet, somehow, their sounds are also reminiscent of Dick Dale’s 1963 “Misirlou” and jazz great Charlie Rouse’s 1968 “Meci Bon Dieu”.

This album could be 6,000 years, 60 years, or 6 months old and the only difference would be the instruments used—and only a truly special instrument is worthy of the Beja cause: Noori’s tambo-guitar. Along with his Dorpa Band, formed in 2006, their instrumental Beja music forms the latest link in an unbroken chain of an inherited, arresting sound that is local as it is global, a gift of a storied past and the exchanges of the well-traveled, fabled Red Sea.

Electric soul, blues, jazz, rock, surf, even hints of country, speak fluently to styles and chords that could be Tuareg, Ethiopian, Peruvian or Thai—all grounded by hypnotic Sudanese grooves and Naji’s impeccable, airy tenor sax. The world is quite literally housed in Beja music.

Ostinato Records is honored to bring the nearly forgotten Beja sound in all its nostalgia, sweetness, honesty, and power, recorded and mastered to maintain the warmth of Sudan’s signature aesthetic, to your sound system.

This album is a testament to music’s timeless ability to realign the world’s ear and heart towards a long marginalized people’s enduring struggle, ensuring Beja culture, their true gold, is never again discarded to the scrap heaps of its own country or history. There is, as the track “Al Amal” translates in English, hope.

Madrid’s El Combo Batanga (latin funk / afro-cuban)

El Combo Batanga is a musical explosion at the intersection of Afro-Cuban rhythms and Latin funk. A group of powerful musicians who blend son, timba, latin soul and bogaloo for people to enjoy.

The history of El Combo Batanga starts in Havana. Ale Gutiérrez, the band’s vocalist, comes from there and arrives in Madrid at the end of the 90s. His group Habana Abierta spearheaded the new Cuban music in Europe.

Meanwhile, some of the most prestigious musicians of the Madrid scene meet for a weekly residency on Mondays at La Negra Tomasa. Regular collaborators of Amparanoia, Jerry Gonzalez, Alain Perez and many others start, in an almost improvised way, a project under the name of Los Chocolatinos.

Ale Gutiérrez saw Los Chocolatinos live and fell in love with a sound that was reminiscent of Cuba, but with a very special flavor. Yago Salorio on double bass, Julian Olivares on guitar, Rodrigo “El Niño” on drums and pailas and Pepe Prat on congas distilled a very personal sound that draws from the Latin and Cuban tradition. Just three weeks later he was already playing with them, in what would be the seed of El Combo Batanga. This project quickly established itself as one of the strongholds of the Madrid-Cuba musical connection, two distant points vibrating on the same frequency through several generations of Cuban musicians relocated to Madrid.

In 2018 Rodrigo “el Niño” is commissioned to assemble a band to accompany the legendary Joe Bataan on a tour of Spain. The backbone of the band was already there, Los Chocolatinos, and they only need to recruit a rocky brass section and a keyboardist. The chosen ones were Aarón Pozón, Javier Martínez and César Medina on horn, and Rubén García on keys. The chemistry of the band is palpable, and brings overwhelming results: magic on stage, a devoted audience… a big party mood. Among the audience, record label Tucxone approaches them and asks them to record.

The recording process is easy, with a band of super musicians, who understand each other perfectly. Their sound is classic and at the same time unique. Boogaloo and Latin Soul, with the punch of Funk, but crossed with Timba and Son, with Cuban soul. All recorded in Carabanchel, Madrid, with the complicity of a group of musicians who have been playing together for 17 years.

Their first work, Who Cares, was released in the pandemic turmoil of 2020. Now this album has become part of the Lovemonk Discos Buenos catalog and has been remastered. Three new 7 “s will be released this year. The band has finally started playing gigs, starting at Transmusicales Rennes: an unstoppable train delivering groove and flavor. Watch out!

"Pigeon Pit" by Estonian band Lexsoul (yacht soul)

Based in Tallinn, Estonia, Lexsoul Dancemachine is a 6-headed, smoking-hot funk beast known for tearing venues apart with its energetic performances on stage. Active since 2013, the aim of this machine is to hypnotize feel-good music lovers with thumping bass lines, syncopated rhythms, irresistible grooves and soulful vocals. It’s the kind of music you can breakdance to, although in between those hard-hitting sounds you’ll find some more tender moments.

Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign the band entirely self-produced its debut album “Deus Lex Machina”, which was released on CD, LP and digital download in December of 2015. It went on to gain praise and support from DJs and listeners alike, with single “Beef Grinder” getting picked up by the mighty Craig Charles for his “Funk & Soul Show” on BBC 6 & BBC 2 and even being included in his compilation “Craig Charles Funk & Soul Club vol.4” out on Freestyle Records. The following year was busy with live gigs in the Baltic-Nordic region, including Tallinn Music Week, Positivus, Funky Elephant and Pori Jazz Festival in Finland.

Lexsoul Dancemachine‘s next single was “Coconuts”, an irresistibly catchy tropical funk delight that was released digitally in July 2016. After stunning the region’s crowds with its unique sound and exotic feel it took off abroad, receiving air time worldwide, support from the funk-soul-disco communities throughout Europe and topping local radio charts. The enthusiastic reaction to the track encouraged Lexsoul Dancemachine to pursue this direction further and record their next album with a decidedly more latin funk and tropical disco influence. Sophomore full-length “Sunny Holiday In Lexico“ came out on Funk Embassy Records in 2018 and further cemented the band’s standing as as sweat-inducing groove machine.

As the band prepare for the release of their third studio album, there’s no doubt the raw funk beast shines first and foremost in a sweaty live setting. They’ve yet to leave a crowd unfazed as evident from the first UK tour in February 2017 when the Dancemachine made people stomp their feet in London, Bristol, Manchester and Leeds. Among the dates was a sold-out evening at the iconic Band on the Wall venue during the Craig Charles Funk and Soul Club evening.

Whether it be live or recorded, one thing is for sure, Lexsoul Dancemachine is here to wake you up, make you stomp your feet and jive with their raw street funk on one side and sweet soul on the other!

 

"Shake the Blues (Outta Your Shoes)" by Danny Toeman (rhythm n blues / funk)

A vibrant and powerful performer, Danny Toeman seamlessly blends the classic vibes of Funk and Soul’s golden age with his own inimitable London edge that modernises his work, giving it a fresh ‘neo-vintage’ flavour. His gravel tones combined with an altitude-defying falsetto set him apart, creating a sound oozing with character and emotion. With his backing band The Love Explosion, Toeman stages an electrifying show filled to the brim with feel-good funky soul, designed to make everyone get on up!

Born in London, Danny was well acquainted with the Soul, Funk, and Rhythm and Blues of artists such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Ray Charles from an early age, before graduating onto the hard-hitting Southern Soul of artists like Wilson Pickett and Bobby Womack, and the refined uptown Philly Soul of artists like the O’Jays and The Spinners. A guitarist since the age of seven, and a singer before that, he grabbed any opportunity to perform his songs on stage for an audience.

Danny Toeman truly set out on his musical career after graduating University (where he won the regions official Battle of the Bands contest). Soon after, he was in demand as a supporting act for a number of great Soul artists, including Charles Bradley of Daptone, Michael Kiwanuka, Queen of Rare Groove Betty Wright, and 4-time Grammy winner Robert Cray. Around the same time, Danny’s music reached a worldwide audience when a song of his was discovered on Soundcloud by scouts, and placed on the in-store playlists of Abercrombie & Fitch. Since then, his music has appeared in film and television shows around the world, most notably Saturday Night Live (NBC).

Danny continued to perform nonstop around the UK, occasionally traveling to continental Europe for appearances. From 2019-2021, he hosted and promoted a series of headline shows at the famous Pizza Express Jazz Club, which garnered sold-out crowds every night. The pinnacle of the support slots came in 2019, when Danny was chosen as the primary support act for funk legends Kool and the Gang at their o2 Arena show in London, in front of 10,000 spectators.

In Mid-2020 Danny was approached by LRK Records to release his track “She’s Got Something About Her” on vinyl. Within 3 months of release it went completely sold out, taking the European Soul Scene by storm. It garnered multiple radio plays, including from BBC 6 Music’s Craig Charles, and veteran BBC DJ Robert Elms pronounced it his “new favourite song”.

In 2022, Danny received his first spin on BBC 2 for the single  “Shake The Blues (Outta Your Shoes)” and was chosen by industry professionals out of thousands of competitors to act as the opening act for the legendary Diana Ross at one of her rare UK performances. Even more recently, his latest single “When the Lights Go Down” has reached No.20 in the Official UK Soul Chart, and orders for the ’45 vinyl on LRK Records are moving swiftly!

As the world continues to open up, Danny looks forward to taking his show across Europe and around the World.

 

THE ANO NOBO QUARTET: THE STRINGS OF SAO DOMINGOS

In 1989, as the Berlin Wall collapsed in front of the world’s eyes, a burly soldier from Cabo Verde stood on the East German side. Nicknamed “El Bruto” or “The Brute” because of his “brutally” good prowess on the guitar, Pascoal watched the end of an era in full uniform, the ever dutiful soldier. As a member of the FARP, the armed wing of Cabo Verde’s independence struggle, which was backed by the Soviet Union, Pascoal was dispatched the world over—from Cuba to Crimea to East Berlin.

Being stationed in Cuba gave him access to a world of guitar music. His stints in the Caribbean and the Crimean Peninsula were alongside soldiers from elsewhere in Lusophone Africa and the former colonized world. Not required on the battlefield, these military postings became cultural gatherings and, quite simply, jam sessions, where sounds and techniques were exchanged.

Today, along with fellow guitar maestros, Fany, Nono, and Afrikanu, Pascoal leads The Ano Nobo Quartet, named after Cabo Verde’s most legendary composer, Ano Nobo, Pascoal’s mentor and father to the rest of the group. Till today, Ano Nobo’s face graces murals across the archipelago.

Ostinato Records has delved deep into the sound of this cluster of 11 islands floating 400 miles off the West African coast. Critically acclaimed compilations like Synthesize the Soul, Leite Quente Funaná, and Pour Me A Grog provided three chapters of Cabo Verde’s story: 1980s synthesizer dance music, the 1990s diasporan sound in Europe, and the accordion heavy Funaná sound, all born in the same island of Santiago. 

But the Covid-19 pandemic called for a departure in the fourth chapter. A different story needed telling. Pascoal is a soldier, able to weather hardship, adapt, and maintain a clear-eyed focus. In short, the man to lead a pandemic-era recording that demanded a shorter recording period to lessen the chance of transmission along with abrupt restrictions and limitations on gatherings and recording locations.

The Strings of São Domingos is not only a tribute to Koladera, or Coladeira, a guitar-driven, subtly rhythmic sound of a lighter spirit, but to Pascoal’s rich life history shaped by the Cold War and the legacy of Ano Nobo. But these tracks aren’t your traditional Koladera, the original recipe first cooked up in the island of Fogo and popularized by Cesaria Evora. 

The Ano Nobo Quartet’s Koladera is a global story with Cabo Verde at its center, a creole melting pot in the middle of the Atlantic attracting the best from four continents: hypnotic, haunting Koladera guitars inflected with twangs of Salsa Cubano, Spanish Flamenco, Brazilian Samba Canção, Jamaican Reggae, Argentine Tango, Mozambican Marrabenta, and finished with a dash of Black American Blues. It’s all here. Pascoal even picked up a few notes from a group of Chinese guitarists—a traditional instrument in China resembles the cavaquinho—who arrived on a socialist cultural exchange in Cabo Verde. Absent percussion, the quartet’s sound still drips with rhythm.

This album was recorded in three locations on Santiago Island: in Pascoal’s home in São Domingos, the small hometown of Ano Nobo that sits amid the cascading hills of the countryside; in a secluded, remote recording space in the north of the island; and near Santiago’s northern beach cove without any electricity. Each location used a mobile recording studio equipped with different mics placed near and far to capture both the Spanish and Chinese-made guitars and the natural environment that shapes the saudade, a melancholic longing, of Koladera. Each space has its own atmosphere heard in the interludes.

The maiden voyage of our new Ostinato Acoustics series, The Ano Nobo Quartet confirms humanity is at its finest when we break life down to its essential parts and fundamental simplicity. A sound and approach cast from the depths of personal and world history that obliges us to seek humbler ways in the years ahead and hold the delicate yet sharp, serene yet swaying strings of São Domingos as the soundtrack to exit a brutal time, guided by brutally good music from brutally good guitarists.