Back catalogue: Jazz

Review: The much loved and always essential Jazz Is Dead series hits instalment number eight here. The project was only conceived in 2020 by musicians and producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad and aims to work with jazz legends on new material. This time it is Gil-Scott Heron's famous partner Brain Jackson in the spotlight. There are plenty of languid grooves that float on airy drumming with acoustic piano and electric bass also weaved in. Afro-Cuban flavours colour closeR 'Ethiopian Sunshower,' which is the most sedate of the lot.

Review: LA's Jazz Is Dead series is brilliant and always has been. The aim is to put younger and older jazz artists in the same studio and get them to work on music that tapes into both respective backgrounds, talents and perspectives. Adrian Younge is at the heart of it all and this 17th installment brings together cosmic jazz specialists Lonnie Liston Smith with Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Magic happens across a bunch of stylish new cuts that bring traditional and contemporary sounds together in innovative new ways. This is yet another crucial installment.

Review: At 88, Ghanaian highlife and afrobeat legend Ebo Taylor made his first-ever journey to the US, performing in the Jazz Is Dead concert series. These shows, which sold out across the country, led to an unexpected and electrifying collaboration between Taylor, Adrian Younge, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. The result is a psychedelic afrobeat album, recorded at Younge's Linear Labs studio, that's bound to thrill fans of both classic West African funk and afrobeat purists. The album channels the raw energy of Ebo's 70s recordings, with swirling horns, fuzzed-out guitars, and the unmistakable polyrhythmic percussion that made Taylor a revolutionary figure in African music. "Collaborating with Ebo Taylor is a bucket-list accomplishment," says Younge, likening the experience to working with another afrobeat pioneer, Fela Kuti. The analog recording style, embracing the gritty textures of 70s Africa, gives this album an authenticity that's impossible to ignore. Tracks like 'Beye Bu, Beye Ba' and 'Kusi Na Sibo' exemplify Taylor's profound lyricism. His reflections on love, spirituality, and gratitude echo his decades-long career, while the ensemble of Ghanaian vocalists adds a spiritual depth that transports listeners back to his prime. Ebo's son, Henry Taylor, also features, proving himself a formidable talent in his own right. This album is not just a nod to the past but a crowning achievement in Taylor's enduring legacy. For connoisseurs of afrobeat, it's a standout moment in both Ebo's catalogue and the growing canon of the Jazz Is Dead series.

Review: At 88, Ebo Taylor, the legendary Ghanaian highlife and Afrobeat pioneer, made his U.S. debut at the Jazz Is Dead concert series, captivating audiences nationwide. This historic visit coincided with the recording of Ebo Taylor JID022, a groundbreaking psychedelic afrobeat album produced with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Younge expressed the significance of this collaboration, likening it to working with Fela Kuti, emphasising the dream of capturing Ebo's essence on analog tape. The album features swirling horns, gritty guitars and polyrhythmic percussion reminiscent of Taylor's seminal 1970s work, alongside spiritually rich backing vocals that evoke a sense of nostalgia. Ebo's heartfelt lyrics, exploring themes of love, peace and spirituality, resonate with nearly a century of wisdom. Tracks like 'Beye Bu, Beye Ba' and 'Kusi Na Sibo' impart life lessons on gratitude and divine provision, solidifying Ebo Taylor JID022 as an essential addition to his storied catalogue and a crown jewel for Jazz Is Dead. This release coincides with his eagerly anticipated tour across the Americas, showcasing the enduring legacy of a true musical icon.

Review: 'Linear Labs: Sao Paulo' on vinyl offers a deep dive into Adrian Younge's masterful blend of analog textures and global influences. Featuring unreleased gems from projects like 'Something About April III' and Snoop Dogg's 'Don't Cry for the Devil', this LP brings together a rich array of soundsifrom Brazilian samba with Samantha Schmutz to ALA.NI's Parisian jazz and Bilal's soul-infused tracks. The album resonates with Younge's signature analog warmth and forward-thinking production. Pressed on vinyl, this release is an essential piece for collectors and fans of psychedelic soul and genre-defying music.

Review: Adrian Younge's latest in the Something About April series is a stunning analogue opus that blends a 30-piece orchestra with breakbeats, synth work and Brazilian psychedelia. It has reportedly been years in the making and is the culmination of Younge's sonic vision as well as being his most expansive and experimental work to date. Brazilian vocalists, fuzzed-out drums and lush orchestration evoke MPB greats like Verocai and Os Mutantes and hip-hop kings Wu-Tang in equal measure. Tracks like 'Nunca Estranhos' and 'Nossas Sombras' are richly cinematic and deeply soulful standouts. More than a closing chapter, this record cements Younge's legacy as a visionary composer.

Review: Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad share the 21st volume in the 'Jazz Is Dead' series, the LA-based "love story" founded by the pair in the fallout of the latter's involvement in A Tribe Called Quest. Jazz Is Dead is a longstanding series committed to unearthing and re-sharing the jazz artists who, after initial releases, found continual success in the continua of hip-hop and pop, especially by way of being sampled by other artists. That said, all the artists featured share new contributions to the series, rather than reissued goldies. A new eight-track record, this is yet another LP, one that multiplicitously celebrates and continues the legacies of the greats: chief among them this time is Ghanaian highlife and afrobeat pioneer Ebo Taylor - whom at 88 years old contributes the jolly synth-sonic rivulet 'Obi Do Woa', a sagacious modernising of his originally 70s and 80s psycho-beat sound - and Antonio Carlos e Jocafi, who updates, in the label's own words, "some of the sweetest samba-soul of the 1970s by way of Salvador, Bahia," Brazil. An all-out arsenal of differential Afrobeats (among other kinds of beat), packaged and presented for the modern listener gripped by an insatiable curiosity for the past.

Review: Over the last 12 months, Adrian Younge and A Tribe Called Quest member Ali Shaheed Muhammad have been inviting some legendary musicians to swing by the former's Los Angeles studio to make fresh tracks with vintage equipment. The results are detailed on "Jazz Is Dead", a superb album that combines elements of dusty soundtrack jazz, soul, jazz-funk, Latin jazz and head-nodding live beats influenced by the duo's hip-hop roots. Highlights include the atmospheric, slow-motion warmth of Roy Ayers collaboration "Hey Lover", the floor-rocking fusion heaviness of epic Azymuth hook-up "Apocaliptico", the languid sweetness of 'Down Deep" (featuring Doug Carn) and the samba-soaked sunshine that is Marcos Valle composition "Nao Saia Da Praca".

Review: Since launching the Jazz is Dead series two years ago, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muuhammad have released eight studio albums - each a collaboration with a different figure from the jazz and soul spectrum - and a compilation of instrumental takes. It makes sense, then, that volume 10 is a remix album, with a variety of producers putting their stamp on cuts from the pair's expansive joint catalogue. As you'd expect, it's packed to the rafters with killer hip-hop, downtempo and broken beat reworks, with highlights including Cut Chemist's head-nodding, cinematic hip-hop take on Gary Bartz hook-up 'Soulsea', Shigeto's contemporary spiritual jazz revision of Brian Jackson co-production 'Nacy Wilson', and DJ Spinna's squelchy, house-not-house rub of Azymouth collaboration 'Rendor Do Samba'. Soulful, jazz-fired perfection.

Review: Jazz Is Dead is a series that welcomes contemporary musicians to revisit jazz storied of old. This collection challenges Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad to utilise vintage equipment to create new master soundscapes, and they really come correct. Roy Ayers, Gary Bartz, Marcos Valle, Azymuth, Doug Carn, Joao Donato, & Brian Jackson are some of the legends who feature and the album is a free flowing delight that touches on soaring and soulful highs as well as bossa-tinged shufflers and plenty in between.