Review: Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington are unquestionably two jazz titans and they finally teamed up for a rare studio session that's pure magic. Though they'd known each other since the mid-1920s and often shared stages, official recordings together were few and far between. This album breaks that drought with Armstrong lending his unmistakable touch to Ellington's iconic compositions. Duke joins in on piano, while Louis is backed by his All Stars minus regular pianist Billy Kyle. The result is a meeting of swing royalty, full of charisma, chemistry and classic tunes reimagined by two of jazz's most legendary voices. It's as good as you'd hope.
Review: Rising Glasgow-based quartet Azamiah return with another engaging new EP that bridges their acclaimed debut In Phases and what's to come. Blending UK jazz roots with atmospheric electronics, dub-infused basslines and James Blake-esque textures, this one showcases the band's evolving sound and emotional depth as tracks move fluidly between moody introspection and radiant optimism, all played with a raw, fresh intensity. This outfit's promise as one of the UK jazz underground's most exciting crossover prospects is more than realised with this deeply moving new outing.
Last Summer In Rio (feat Jean Paul 'Bluey' Maunick) (8:36)
Review: It has been a full half a century since legendary Brazilian outfit Azymuth made their debut and their new album, Marca Passo, reaffirms their place as legends of jazz-funk. It was recorded in Rio and produced by Daniel Maunick and is the group's first album since drummer Ivan "Mamao" Conti's passing, with bassist Alex Malheiros now the sole founding member. He's joined by Kiko Continentino and new drummer Renato Massa to continue Azymuth's tradition of blending samba soul, funk and cosmic jazz. Highlights include a tribute to Conti, 'Samba Pro Mamao,' and a refreshed take on 'Last Summer In Rio.' The album is a vital, heartfelt continuation of Azymuth's enduring legacy.
Last Summer In Rio (feat Jean Paul 'Bluey' Maunick) (8:36)
Review: Released 50 years after their self-titled debut, Azymuth's Marca Passo feels less like a comeback and more like a confident continuation, with the legendary Brazilian outfit carrying its past into the present with all the same vigour that marked their winding career. The formula remains intact: Brazilian jazz-funk, dreamy synths, and loose but locked-in rhythm. There's something moving in how naturally the trio i with Alex Malheiros still at the helm i navigates loss, memory and legacy without turning sentimental. 'Samba Pro Mamao' is a tender nod to Ivan Conti, but the record never lingers in nostalgia. Daniel Maunick's production keeps things warm and fluid, and there's joy in hearing Incognito's Bluey drop in on the rework of Last Summer in Rio. Not flashy or forced. Just a deep, grooving reminder that Azymuth's music still flows from somewhere timeless.
Review: Anorax Records' motto and hash-taggable suggestion is to #eatsleepcollect, as if we weren't doing so already! This time they deliver on the highly anticipated 'Tighten Up' by Melbourne soul collective The Bamboos. First released in 2006 on Kenny Dope and Keb Darge's Kay-Dee label, this instrumental version of Archie Bell & The Drells' 1968 hit quickly became a favourite in soul and acid jazz circles. Rhythm-made by The Bamboos' leader, Lance Ferguson, this one stands out for its vocal absence, offering a quirky, irresistible take.
Review: American songwriter and composer Patricia Barber's marked her breakthrough with Modern Cool, an album driven by her captivating take on The Doors' 'Light My Fire.' Her performance of the album at The Jazz Standard caught the attention of Blue Note's Bruce Lundvall and lead to a celebrated run of releases and international acclaim. Modern Cool became an audiophile favourite thanks to Jim Anderson's meticulous recording and Barber's sharp songwriting and artistry, and it still sounds super here as reissued by Impex on VR900-D2-pressed 180-gram vinyl. It's the perfect way to enjoy a real jazz classic.
Review: Game-changing samba king Jorge Ben's 1963 debut album Samba Esquema Novo marked the beginning of a legendary career in Brazilian pop. Featuring the iconic tracks like the oft-imitated but never bettered 'Mas Que Nada' and 'Chove Chuva,' the agenda-setting album showcases Ben's early blend of vibrant bossa nova rhythms, rich choruses and his distinctive minor-key guitar style. While not yet embracing the Afro-rock influences of his later work, this release highlights a light yet energetic sound with big-band arrangements adding punch to the infectious melodies. It's a timeless album that remains a joyful and essential listen and captures the roots of a unique musical voice destined to shape Brazilian music for decades.
Review: A striking departure from the classic piano-bass-drums format, this 1962 session brings together a rare quintet configuration, weaving trumpet and guitar into the fabric of post-bop elegance all based around New Jersey-born pianist Evans. The interplay is both literal and musical between the musicians. With trumpet lines that alternate between burnished lyricism and bursts of fire and guitar passages that glide with subtle precision, the ensemble creates a sound that is both spacious and tightly knit. The repertoire leans into standards, yet each tune is rendered with a fresh rhythmic spark and harmonic sophistication. 'I'll Never Smile Again' shimmers with wistful melancholy, while 'When You Wish Upon a Star' is recast with a gentle yet cerebral charm. Fans of more intimate trio settings might initially find the added instrumentation unfamiliar, but there's an undeniable allure in the expanded sonic palette. The drummer drives the group with crisp energy while the bassist anchors with subtle authority and the collective chemistry elevates the session beyond typical quintet fare. This is a bold, beautiful detour in the legacy of modern jazz and one that rewards the listener. A reissue worth revisiting, or discovering anew.
Review: The New Jersey-born pianist returns to the studio here for the first time since the sudden loss of bassist Scott LaFaro, whose death in 1961 marked a devastating rupture for one of jazz's most intuitive trios. Now joined by Chuck Israels on bass, Evans leads with a newfound clarityiless conversational, more contemplative. Recorded in 1962, this was the group's first step into a quieter but no less daring phase. 'Re: Person I Knew' (an anagram of producer Orrin Keepnews) sets the tone: ghostly, elliptical, and harmonically dense. 'I Fall in Love Too Easily' and 'Polka Dots and Moonbeams' drift by in breathy half-light, while 'Very Early', a waltz penned by Evans, closes the set with delicate finality. In the absence of LaFaro's dancing counterlines, Evans doesn't fill the space, but lets it speak. The result is a study in restraint: American post-bop pared down to its emotional core. Not a debut, nor a reinvention, this is a quiet reckoning and a beautifully unresolved response to loss.
Review: The latest deep dive into Galaxy Sound Co.'s Black Hole series is another carefully dug out delight featuring three essential jazz-funk-psych cuts. Joe Pass' 'A Time For Us' opens with beautiful cinematic strings, sparse drums and ghostly guitar that has been famously sampled by J Dilla and the Slum Village crew, and sounds powerful in situ here. Milt Jackson & Ray Brown's 'Enchanted Lady' follows with hypnotic modal swing, again famously flipped, this time by Pete Rock, De La Soul and Knxwledge. Closing out is Archie Whitewater's 'Cross Country', which is a funky, soulful groove with brass and keys that have been immortalised by Kanye and Common, but remains a burner here in its original form.
Review: The Blackbyrds, Washington Direct-Current pioneers of jazz-funk from the early 70s, overloaded the jazz circuit with City Life, a hair-frying album renowned for its flowing, fulminous rhythms. Core tracks 'Happy Music' and 'Rock Creek Park' set the stage for a long sampling legacy: the latter was famously sampled by both De La Soul and Nas, on 'Bitties In The BK Lounge' and 'Fried Chicken' respectively. This reissue, cut from the original tapes (AAA) by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI, reupholsters the Blackbyrds' debut worm-catching funk pecks for the world's ears to witness once more.
Review: Don Blackman's 1982 self-titled debut is an underrated jazz-funk gem that fuses soul, funk and jazz-fusion into a sophisticated groove-laden journey that was produced by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen for GRP Records. The album showcases Blackman's keyboard wizardry and soulful vocals across standout tracks like 'Heart's Desire' and 'Holding You Loving You.' With playful cuts like 'Yabba Dabba Doo,' it balances polish with joyful experimentation and though not a commercial hit, its influence has quietly grown and ir has been sampled by hip-hop greats and revered by collectors alike. This reissue reaffirms its status as a cult classic and a crucial slice of 80s funk.
Review: Calibro 35 recalibrate with Exploration, a fresh dive into cinematic jazz-funk marking their first full-length LP on the independent since 2023's Nouvelle Aventures, continuing the path set by last year's 'Jazzploitation' EP. Yarning vintage soundtrack stylings with contemporary groove, the Milan group balance reverent covers - like Roy Ayers' 'Coffy' and Bob James' 'Nautilus' with bold, golden originals. Lead tune 'Reptile Strut', not to mention 'The Twang' and 'Pied De Poule', twine round taut rhythms, lush horn lines, and evocative cinematic textures. The band tips its hat to touchstones like Herbie Hancock, Lalo Schifrin, and Italian great Piero Umiliani, whose 'Discomania' appears on the accompanying limited clear blue 7" single, backed with 'Jazz Carnival'.
Review: After a wild shelf-clearer came by way of a reissue of 'Ordinary Joe' earlier this year, we've now a second Outta Sight reissue of yet another gladly intoned Terry Callier deep cut on our hands. Born and raised in Chicago's Cabrini-Green, Callier came up alongside a generation of soul and jazz innovators but always stood apart. After his debut LP The New Folk Sound fell into obscurity, and his 1968 Cadet single 'Look At Me Now' slipped past unnoticed, he was brought into his mentor Jerry Butler's Songwriters Workshop, a game-changing move. This stirring early statement works in much inner commentary on manhood, stage fright and vital moment seizure - "now my people think I just fake it / I know I do things they don't understand / so I've got to show them I can take it / I've got to show 'em I can be a man" - aches with the strain of double consciousness in a performance society.
Freedom Day (part 2 - feat Weedie Braimah, Milena Casado, Morgan Guerin, Simon Moullier, Matthew Stevens) (4:08)
Review: American jazz drummer, composer and songwriter Max Roach's original song 'Freedom Day' formed part of his landmark 1960 album We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, made with lyricist Oscar Brown Jr. and sporting a searing vocal performance by Abbey Lincoln. The piece infamously rejoices at the emancipation of enslaved people in the US, yet it also refuses to shy from the continuation of racial injustices in the present day. Now, still amid the post-COVID fug, whence the messages of BLM and other movements resound as relevantly as ever before, Terri Lyne Carrington and Christie Dashiell's new reinterpretation of the Roach anthem hears a revivifying remix over jazz, electronics, and soulful vocals, retrofitting the original with signature percussions, electronics with a vibrant ensemble of Matthew Stevens, Simon Moullier, Morgan Guerin and Milena Casado.
Review: Boston-born baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff was an early bebop innovator who delivered his defining work with Blue Serge in 1956. He was admired for his lyrical agility on an often unwieldy instrument and apparently overcame some personal struggles to record this standout session for Capitol Records, which finds him backed by jazz greats Sonny Clark on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass and Philly Joe Jones on sticks. The album features a simmering, relaxed set of standards, including 'A Handful of Stars' and 'All the Things You Are' plus his own 'Susie's Blues.' Blue Serge is a timeless testament to Chaloff's unique sounds and a gem of West Coast cool.
Review: Clifford Jordan's dynamic live set At Condon's was originally recorded in 1990 and is now reissued on vinyl for the first time. The tenor saxophonist's deep, bluesy tone shines through in this 16-piece big band setting and it has been captured by Maple Shade Records' audiophile-grade production. The session features standout performances from jazz luminaries like Dizzy Reece, Benny Powell and Junior Cook with classics like Ellington's 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore,' Gillespie's 'I Waited for You' and Jordan's 'Third Avenue' all adding up to an album that is a thrilling document of late-era brilliance. Jordan was truly spiritual jazz innovator and one of the most expressive saxophonists of his time.
Review: Scotland's jazz elite negotiate a past-present equity merger, dispatching one of its most influential bands for a fresh spin on The Blue Nile's classic 1989 album Hats. The Blue Nile are in turn a sophisti-synth band pinup, whose proto-trip-hop moods and svelte wardrobe heard to an indelible mark on the present pop landscape. The Colin Steele Quartet now reinvent tracks like 'Easter Parade', 'Heatwave' and 'Let's Go Out Tonight', layering trumpet melodies over new jack-jazz phrases, mirroring the nighttime vibe of the first. Steele's trumpet, often compared to Paul Buchanan's understated vocal style and even Miles Davis's phrasing, adds warmth and subtlety throughout. Recorded in a single session at Castle Sound Studios, where The Blue Nile made their records, the project also nods to Buchanan's solo work with a rendition of 'Mid Air'.
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