Jazz Recommends Jazz March 2021

Review: Brenda Boykin is a renowned American jazz vocalist was a super warm, deep, inviting sound. She is the latest to serve up her wares on One World Records with two super strong sides of soul tinged jazz on this essential 7" slice of goodness. 'Love Is In Town' has it all - lush sax solo, rolling rhythm sections, horn stabs and loose percussion, all finished with that special voice. On the flip is the more funky 'Hard Swing Travellin' Man' with electric guitar riffs and steamy Rhodes chords bringing a gospel feel next to more great brass and wind sounds. These are cuts that manage to make you feel all the feels while also encouraging you to dance.

Review: The cult Black Jazz label put out a real treasure trove of material back in the day and much of it is hard to find. Right now it is being carefully and rightfully reissued however, and in the case of Rudolph Johnson's Spring Rain, for the first time ever. Ohio's Johnson drew comparisons to John Coltrane for his expressive playing style, and eschewed drugs and alcohol to instead spend his life meditating or practicing his horn. This was his debut release for the label and finds him explore the upper register of his playing with bee bop, 60s Blue Note and funky grooves all featuring.

Review: Amancio D'Silva was an Indian-born jazz guitarist known for his own recordings and collaborations with other British musicians, such as Joe Harriott and Stan Tracey. He continued to perform until his health made it impossible in the mid '90s. He also taught extensively, first at Jenako Art in London's East End, and later at the Krishnamurti International School in Hampshire. D'Silva passed away in 1996. Konkan was his third and final solo release originally released back in 1996 on Vocalion, which receives a worthy reissue on Australia-based The Roundtable. An unofficial sequel to Dream Sequence, it further explored the uncharted possibilities of an Indian music-jazz fusion.

Review: 1966 is when Lee Morgan laid down this immensely sleek and beautiful record for Blue Note, but it was shelved until, amazingly, 1984. Next to the trumpeter himself, the quintet here features Hank Mobley on tenor sax, plus Cedar Walton on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. They are all in fine fettle and the record has a number of standout tunes such as the Duke Pearson gem 'Is That So' and the lush title track by Morgan. This is another essential reissue from the on going Blue Note Tone Poet Series which paces high focus on the wealthy of each recording.

Review: This marks a first 7" from bassist and composer Shay Hazan playing alongside his quintet in their native Tel Aviv, Israel. The a-side is a dedication to a giant of the Israeli jazz scene and a sometime mentor of Hazan, saxophonist Albert Beger, with uptempo chord work and swirling drums that make you want to spin around like you just don't care. After that bit of joyous but sophisticated jazz comes 'Old Tart', a more slow burning tune that builds through big horns, spare but dramatic chords and tumbling percussion until you are in raptures. This is likely the start of big things for this crew.

Review: Since launching two years ago, Tony Higgins and Mike Peden's J-Jazz series has become an indispensable guide to Japan's modern jazz scene. The third volume continues in a similar vein to its predecessors, gathering together sought-after, overlooked and little-known cuts from across the jazz spectrum (think spiritual, modal, fusion, post-bop and Latin), all of which were recorded by Japanese artists in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. The standard of music is, somewhat predictably, breathtakingly high throughout, with highlights including the weighty post-modal bop of Koshuke Mine's 'Morning Tide', the sun-kissed Brazil-inspired brilliance of Hideo Shiraki's 'Groovy Samba', and a string of funk-fuelled, dancefloor-friendly workouts from Hiroshi Murakami & Dancing Sphynx, Shigeharu Muka and the Ryojiro Furusawa Quartet.

Review: Blue Note are working hard on a wealth of reissues and the latest is the third and final album from jazz bass virtuoso Paul Chambers. He was only 22 years old at the time but already well celebrated for his skills and this is a superbly seductive album with stalwarts Hank Jones on piano, Kenny Burrell on guitar, and Art Taylor on drums. There are a number of highlights for smooth jazz lovers such as the gentle and meandering 'Dear Old Stockholm' and more upbeat drum work of 'The Theme.'

Review: Clifford Brown is one of history's finest trumpet payers. Here he adds his style to nine engaging tunes recorded in 1955 with the Max Roach Quintet. One of the leading hard bop gangs of the time, tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Richie Powell, and bassist George Morrow all featured and gave rise to these lively and energetic cuts. The likes of 'Cherokee' certainly blow away any cobwebs with the fluid and florid trumpets dancing over sizzling drums, and the more swinging (and excellently named) 'Gerkin For Perkin' is super short but sweet.

Review: In 2017, saxophonist Tony Burkill asked musical collaborator Neil Innes to put together a backing band to play on his debut album, Work Money Death. Now officially a musical collective named in honour of the album, Burkill and his band returned to the studio last year - in a socially distanced manner, with each player being recorded separately, one after another - to record two epic slabs of spiritual jazz inspired by the works of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane. Both the expressive 'Dusk', which makes great use of tampura and harmonium and well as some stellar improvisation, and the more laidback and picturesque 'Dawn' are really rather good and should delight anyone who loves lengthy but focused jazz excursions.

Review: For avant-garde jazz collectors, Black Unity Trio's sole album, 1969's Al Fatihah, has long been a genuine "holy grail" record. The Ohio-based outfit pressed and distributed just 500 copies, making it one of the rarest free-jazz sets around. Happily, Gotta Groove has decided to reissue it, presenting the atmospheric, experimental and decidedly cosmic set in freshly remastered, audiophile-quality sound. The set itself is breathlessly brilliant in places, with wild, exuberant alto saxophone solos, sharp cello sounds and rubbery double bass rising above sweaty drums and a variety of chaotic percussion sounds. While undeniably freeform in parts, the album is also extremely expressive, offering a powerful musical commentary on what were notoriously turbulent times for the USA. No wonder it still sounds so relevant in 2020.

Review: Once of the more creative jazz singers, Nanette Natal was active in the mid-'70s after switching from a career as a classical singer in the 1960s. .Originally released in 1981, both of the tracks on this dynamite 7" are taken from the private press album My Song of Something. They feature outstanding vocal work over high energy, superbly kinetic jazz dance grooves that brim and bristle with more energy than a whole junior school full of children after too many sweets. This marks the first tie these two classic jazz bangers have made it to their own 7".

Review: Noise musician Moor Mother offers up a theatrical collection here which is influenced by housing and technology and features confrontational poetry. The music is performed live by Circuit City Band and Irreversible Entanglements and is as futuristic and challenging as it gets right now. Tough not for the faint of heart, this is meaningful music in tune with the ills of the world we live in right now. It only grows more manic and dense with each new track as drums, wind and vocals all collide in a chaotic free fusion.

Review: Dawn Calling marks the debut of Gordon Li's alter-ego Don Glori, a Melbourne-based musician and producer who recorded these hard-to-pigeonhole tracks with the assistance of an accomplished backing band. His main influences seem to be spiritual jazz, deep electronica, broken beat and Brazilian rhythms, but there's so much more to tracks such as opener 'Fly Low' - which also tips a wink to dub and deep house - and the suitably cosmic brilliance of 'Voyager'. Even the more straightforward numbers, such as sun-kissed jazz-funk cuts 'Dawn Calling' and 'Pachinko King' - are far more colourful, imaginative and musically detailed than other similar future fusion exercises. As debuts go, it's genuinely a peach.

Review: "Profile" is the first and only Ken Rhodes LP as a leader. This intimate and rare recording captures an explosive concoction between blues, jazz and a touch of funky swing. Though an acoustic performance, this LP offers overwhelming grooves, breaks as well as introspective moments .

Review: Over the last few years, Adrian Younge has spent a lot of his time working with Ali Shaheed Muhammad legends on the essential Jazz Is Dead series of collaborative albums. Here he finally steps out on his own once more - albeit with assistance from a range of musicians and vocalists - with a stunning set that he describes as "an unapologetic critique, detailing the susyem and malevolent psychology that afflicts people of color". Musically, it doffs a cap to the emotive orchestration of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, with nods to jazz-funk greats such as Bob James, spiritual jazz and the jazzy hip-hop grooves Younge has long been associated with, while the artist's own spoken word vocals are conscientious, hard-hitting and thought-provoking. In other words, it's an exceptional piece of work.

Review: The album Ars Moriendi, from avant Polish trio Bastarda is back in print on vinyl for now! Medieval minimalistic jazz for clarinet, contrabass clarinet and cello. This is the very limited edition repressing of this wonderful album, in an edition of just 73 copies. Each 180gm record comes in the same modified, heavyweight recycled kraft board jacket that the original standard vinyl version came in. This time the cover image on the front of these jackets has been printed on fine art paper, adhered, and then hand spattered with blood red ink, hand stamped and further manually distressed! On the back of each jacket is a copy of the original, large 2 sided textual insert, tipped onto the jacket with black corner mounts. Better grab one fast!

Review: Since emerging in the mid-to-late noughties, Lokkhi Terra has established a reputation for being one of London's most unique bands. Their trademark sound is genuinely little like anything else around, fusing as it does the sounds of Bangladeshi folk music, Cuban rumba, Nigerian Afrobeat flavours and a dash of 21st century London jazz. Cublangla, their first album for almost three years, continues in this cross-cultural vein, offering up-tempo and laidback tracks that mix elements of all of the above, as well as the odd languid trip into reggae-influenced territory. The plentiful highlights include the jaunty title track, the Bangla-dub skank of 'Bhandari (Revisited)' and the broken beat inspired depth of 'Como'.

Review: Since launching two years ago, Tony Higgins and Mike Peden's J-Jazz series has become an indispensable guide to Japan's modern jazz scene. The third volume continues in a similar vein to its predecessors, gathering together sought-after, overlooked and little-known cuts from across the jazz spectrum (think spiritual, modal, fusion, post-bop and Latin), all of which were recorded by Japanese artists in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. The standard of music is, somewhat predictably, breathtakingly high throughout, with highlights including the weighty post-modal bop of Koshuke Mine's 'Morning Tide', the sun-kissed Brazil-inspired brilliance of Hideo Shiraki's 'Groovy Samba', and a string of funk-fuelled, dancefloor-friendly workouts from Hiroshi Murakami & Dancing Sphynx, Shigeharu Muka and the Ryojiro Furusawa Quartet.