The Return is a natural evolution from the Yussef Kamaal project, mining the influence of visionary jazz but blended with all kinds of texture, sounds and signals from the over-saturated London streets. The Return will be the debut album released on Wu’s new label Black Focus Records, releases May 25, 2018.
Kamaal Williams – Keys, Pete Martin – Bass, MckNasty – Drums, Richard Samuels – Engineer
favourite things 4.18 – James Creole Thomas, Tenderlonious, Louis VI feat. Mick Jenkins, Eric Biddines, Emune & Sensi, Knxwledge feat. Traffic, The Internet, Horatio Luna, Mo Kolours, Bastien Keb, Lionmilk, Winters, Emma-Jean Thackray, Elusive, Otis Sandsjö, Portico Quartet, Waaju, Jon Hassell, Wilma Archer, Leon Vynehall, Sam Gendel, WVR BVBY, James Blue, Yellow Days, Cleo Sol.
DJM trio breathes fierce artistry into grooved out renditions of Solange, Patrice Rushen, Slum Village, Madvillain, Ohbliv and more. It’s upon this precipice that Dominic James Marshall makes his mark, at the helm and on the keys of Cave Art Two – a slate of scintillating digital sounds, spontaneously arranged, etched in wax. The project is a thoughtful and inventive response to a long tradition of musical sampling.
The DJM Trio is led by Dominic James Marshall, an Amsterdam native who is a current member of renowned British nu-jazz and electronic outfit The Cinematic Orchestra. A rising jazz piano star, Marshall was nominated for the Edison International Jazz Award, and the trio earned a coveted set at BBC’s Manchester Jazz Festival, as unanimously selected by a jury including Gilles Peterson, Jamie Cullum and Jez Nelson.
WVR BVBY (pronounced WAR BABY) is the next link in the chain to the Melbourne soulful sound that has been developing strongly over the past decade. They create cinematic sounds through roaring horns, synth arpeggiation and a rhythm section that sways from meditative grooves to dramatic, complex rhythmic interplay with tight precision. Recorded at Fitzroy’s Plug Seven Studios, The 8 track LP was inspired by mixture of crate digger culture and 70s production techniques, recorded in one take sessions using direct to tape technology.
The album is the sophomore release of independent label Plug Seven Records, run by Plug Seven Records store and studio owner, Ari Roze. Available on Bandcamp.
favourite things 3.18 – DJM Trio, Blameful Isles, Ill Considered, Nubya Garcia & Maxwell Owin, Neue Grafik, Glenn Astro & Hodini feat. Ajnascent, Mildlife, Tristan de Liège, The Motion Orchestra, Louis VI, Bishop Nehru feat. Kaytranada, QSTN, MED & Guilty Simpson feat. Black Milk, IDK feat. Joey Bada$$ & Russ, Tyler, The Creator, Mick Jenkins, Ras G & The Afrikan Space Program, Lojii feat. Vida Jafari, Jaze Baqti, Bugseed, BLVCK SPVDE feat. Bianca Fitzpatrick, Najii Person, Zado, Brenk Sinatra, FloFilz, Nitai Hershkovits feat. MNDSGN, Phil Stroud
The third album from Ill Considered has been a revelatory part of the journey for its members. While the first album was completely improvised in a two hour session involving all four musicians and no pre-written tunes, the second album was a live gig recorded at The Crypt Jazz Club, London, involving mainly compositions.
A session was booked at the same studio in which Ill Considered’s first album was created, and the four musicians met (this time with Satin Singh on percussion) with a view to recording some pre-written melodies as well as some fresh, improvised material. The band soon realised that although the pre-written tunes were to some degree working nicely, there was no comparison with the vibe, energy, spontaneity and overall freedom of the fully improvised material. There is a musical freedom that this particular combination of musicians needs to express – throwing caution to the wind they create soundscapes, atmospheres, dreamy groove based journeys immediately in the moment, held together by deeply felt musical interaction and the interspersion of hooky bass lines and melodies. Using simple but effective motifs, the band again manage to build from delicate, intimate moments of emotion to screaming climaxes and drum and bass inspired head-bangers.
Available on all formats via Bandcamp.
favourite things 2.18 – PRhyme, Era feat. Dave East, Jay Rock & Kendrick Lamar, Smoke DZA feat. Joey Bada$$, Curren$y, JD Reid feat. Jay Prince, Mick Jenkins, CZARFACE, Dabrye feat. Shigeto, Stono Echo, Lojii, Rejjie Snow feat. Jesse Boykins III, Jericho Jackson feat. Amber Navran, FloFilz & Psalm Trees, SiR, Jordan Rakei, Hector Plimmer feat. Emma-Jean Thackray, Idntrmmbr, Swarvy, Sape J, Surly, The Natural Yogurt Band, Kuzich, Blameful Isles, Quiet Dawn, Ryan Porter, Sons Of Kemet, Culross Close, Blue Lab Beats feat. Kaidi Akinnibi, Kerem Akdag, Horatio Luna, The Expansions, Underground Canopy, Jeremy Talon.
In the years following the World War Two, Japan developed one of the most insatiable, dynamic and diverse markets for jazz. For a crucial period of little over a decade – from the late 1960s to the early 1980s – Japanese jazz culture progressed at an astonishing rate, producing an extraordinary array of artists, recordings and record labels that created some of the most forward thinking and impressive jazz to be committed to tape. This amazing journey is explored on ‘J Jazz’.
This compilation from BBE uncovers some of the most sought after and rare material from this period and pulls together key artists who shaped the postwar modern jazz scene in Japan. ‘J Jazz’ includes obscure and sought after rarities like the bass-driven power jazz of Koichi Matsukaze’s ‘Earth Mother’, the holy grail rarity of Aizawa Tohru Quartet’s ‘Dead Letter’ and the loping majesty of Takeo Moriyama’s ‘North Wind’.