Juno Recommends Brokenbeat / Nu Jazz: March 2022

Review: Compost has been knocking these Future Sounds of Jazz collections out for time (well, since 1995 to be precise, and they have been so successful that Future Jazz is a genre in its own right these days). Now up to volume 15 but with no signs of dipping quality levels, the latest is a massive one with eight sides of wax all jam packed with heat from a range of players. Michael Reinboth is the man who has put it together and in all there are 21 tunes, eight exclusives and likely plenty of jewels you might not have heard. Our favs come from Don Carlos who goes deep, DJ Deep & Romain Poncet's superbly jazzy remix and DJ Nature's signature beatdown sounds.

Review: American music obsessive and archivist Jerome Derradji's Past Due Records label has got a fine compilation on its hands here. It gathers upside of the very best sounds that San Antonio-based funk band Horizon ever put out. They had a hardcore and devoted local following in the early 89s and secured a number of big radio hits. They were all released on 7"s that you will struggle to ever track down. Thankfully, each one gets assembled here across four fantastic sides of vinyl. What's more, no fewer than ten previously unreleased tracks also make the cut. These are authentic lo-fi funk gems with powerful rhythm sections and seductive vocal sounds.

Review: Robert Grasper very much announced his arrival on the world stage with Black Radio 1. And Black Radio 2 only took him into the stratosphere. Both records proved him to be a master of hip hop, broken beat and jazz and able to call upon some of the biggest names in those scene from Jill Scott to Erykah Badu. Both of those timeless records, as the title suggest, are steeped in Black music traditions and so is this third one. Here the award winning Glasper (nine Grammy nominations and four wins) works with modern greats such as Gregory Porter, Q Tip, BJ The Chicago Kid, Ty Dolla Sign and many more to cook up another powerful statement for these troubled times.

Review: Worldwide FM, Tuck Shop Music and Eglo boss Alex Nut have all been banging this new Dance Regular 12" pretty hard of late. And no wonder, it is some super classy bruk step goodness from Szajna who chops up vocals, lush chords and fast basslines into groovy lines you will not be able to resist hovering up. Our fav is the deep garage shuffle and lush neo-soul vocal of 'Pavement Groove' (feat Yemi Bolatiwa) but the bustling, bristling beats of 'D R Juice' will also light up any floor. The deepness returns with the Rhodes laced 'Feeling' which features a gorgeous vocal from Crystal Alice.

Review: Dutchman Martijn Barkhuis aka DJ Maestro is one of the most renowned DJs of the electro-jazz scene, having produced nine albums for the prestigious Blue Note Records, as well as for Verve and Bethlehem in New York. He and some specially selected guests turned their deft hands at remixing the first album of the legendary Nina Simone back in 2015, which receives a much needed repress here courtesy of Music On Vinyl. Of the many fine moments on Little Girl Blue (Remixed), we were particularly into The Reflex's respectful edit of 'My Baby Just Cares For Me', Maestro himself gets in on the action on his rework of the famed title track and Smoove gets ultra deep for the late night on his rendition of 'African Mailman'.

Review: Killer version of the Lonnie Liston Smith classic monster club track by Incognito side project Citrus Sun featuring Valerie Etienne on vocals.