Jazz Recommends Jazz May 2022

Review: Master grade edit kings and beat makers Black Cash & Theo AKA Thelonious Beats have a vast catalogue of essential sounds and much of it comes on their Galaxy Sound Co home label in the USA. Their latest is a remastered and limited 7" pressing of the glorious Red Tribe. The title tune is a jazzy number with slow motion beat jumbles and some superb chords and busy as you like guitar leads. On the flip is an edit of 'Peaceful' that comes on slowly but eventually has you in a nice groove with its funky bass and dousing of chords.

Review: This limited hand and numbered 7" features, for the first time ever in this format, Riche Cole's 'New York Afternoon.' On the a-side is the fantastic vocal version featuring Eddie Jefferson while the backside finds this 45rpm coupled with Eddie's wonderful sax skills on the superb jazz dancer that is 'Keeper of the Flame.' It's laced with free flowing chords and busy jazz drums while the groove never quits. The swinging sounds of the a-side might still be the highlight of this fresh little 7", though.

Review: Chris Bangs is actually credited as being the man who coined the term 'acid jazz' and here he shares this new Acid Jazz 7" with Mick Talbot who was of course a founding member of the Style Council. Together they serve up a brace fo brilliantly cheeky but functional jazz cuts to get dance floors in a spin. 'Sumthin' Else' has an almost samba shuffle and plenty of florid trumpets lighting up the busy groove. 'Wiggle Wiggle' then goes direct for your ass with its raw boom bap and noodling chords all finished with some big horn work

Review: Funk fans will of course know that The Vicious Seeds fail from St. Petersburg and for a while now they have been turning out 45s that mix up raw cinematic grooves and deep funk instrumentals. For this newest 7" they sign up vibraphonist Pavel Chiznik who brings with him plenty of flair on top of the well versed rhythm section. These two cuts explore some airy, uplifting and summery jazz vibes a la Roy Ayers with dope beats and plenty of sample-friendly drumbreaks. Add in a load of funky basslines, some carefully psyched-out guitars and lush vibes and you have a vital little 45rpm.

Review: Amancio D'Silva is one of those musical legends whose ability to output new music was thought to have naturally dwindled after his passing in 1996. Think again: the Indian jazz guitarist and spiritual drone composer here posthumously delivers a slew of Carnatic explorations in voice, guitar, piano, and electronic raga-inflected hums that have never before seen the light of day. Recorded in 1982, 'Raag Bhairagi', 'Sapana', 'Song For Francesca' and 'Raag Kafi' are intended as sonic expressions of the unconscious mind, conveying its utterances and flutterings when in its resting state.

Review: Shut has been busy with a great series of reissues of Sun Ra's historic recordings in Egypt. All good things must come to an end, though, and so it does with The Sun Ra Arkestra meets Salah Ragab in Egypt which was recorded with help from the Cairo Jazz Band and first put out back in 1983 on Greek label Praxis. The Arkestra first met Salah Ragab at the home of Goethe Institut ex-pat Hartmut Geerken when they toured the island in December 1971 and later bonded again in 1983. It was then that they got together for these recordings where they played Ragab compositions, 'Egypt Strut' and 'Dawn' amongst others.

Review: British trumpeter and bandleader Ian Carr put out his most revered album in 1972. Its iconic fusion of jazz and rock has become a sought after rarity. Featured musicians include members of bands like Nucleus, Brian Auger's band, Soft Machine and Stan Tracy Group, and they all help lend the record a psychedelic, proggy aesthetic, with swirling melodies making for moody but funky tunes. Tracks like 'Mayday' put expressive solos and complex arrangements front and centre, while 'Suspension' is a more laidback joint for sinking into. The gorgeous meandering lilt of 'Summer Rain' is our personal favourite.

Review: American alto talent Jackie McLean released his Tippin The Scales album in 1979 on the legendary Blue Note. It was a post bob record that has rather remained under the radar in the years since, but will still cost you a pretty penny if you can find a second hand copy. The Tone Poet serve brings it back to the fore with a deluxe reissue package that allows the tunes to really shine. Jackie wrote two of them while Sonny Clark write three and one is a J. Latouche and V. Duke collaboration. The record was recorded on September 28, 1962 and is one of the more traditional records in McLean's oeuvre.

Review: One uptick we've seen of late is labels delving into the catalogues of other labels, sharing in the love. 'Hyperituals Vol. 1' is one such brilliant example; Italy's Hyperjazz, the nu-jazz pushers with a mantra of championing "hyper-intense" genre-shedding music, here look in at fellow, older Italian imprint Soul Note. On the front of jazz, they were Italy's very own CBS, with over 300 LPs to their name. Thoroughly plundering their decade-spanning backlog, Hyperjazz here reissue and sonically pay tribute to only the label's most spiritual, international and ritualistic ends.

Review: Hank Mobley was a magnificent jazz saxophonist who struck a smooth tone somewhere in between the snarl of John Coltrane and the dulcet purr of Stan Getz. This album was originally recorded in 1957 and released as The Hank Mobley Quintet Featuring Sonny Clark in 1984. It features Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Sonny Clark on piano, Jimmy Rowser on bass and Art Taylor on drums, and it serves as a perfect, mellow trip through the hard bop era. It's also long overdue a repress after last being available in limited quantities back when the 1984 issue first came around.

Review: The New Jazz Orchestra was a British jazz big band that first formed in 1963. The band featured Clive Burrows and was directed form 1964 to 1968 by Neil Ardley. Decca has already reissued their superb debut album Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe recently to great acclaim. Now comes this second reissue of their Western Reunion London 1965 album on nice heavy wax. It features them covering classic like Miles Davis's 'Shades of Blue' in sympathetic fashion while there are also more introspective pieces like 'If You Could See Me Now' and high energy big band jazz swing bangs like 'Tiny's Blue.'

Review: Shabaka Hutchings' new label Native Rebel Recordings welcomes understated innovator and educator Chelsea Carmichael for a superb debut album. The River Doesn't Like Strangers is a fresh serving of innovative jazz that finally makes its way to vinyl and features plenty of her hypnotic and warm playing, smart improvisation and subtle sound work. Cultural powerhouse Shabaka Hutchings himself wrote a set of songs for the record which were then perfumed with Chelsea playing alongside Eddie Hick from Sons of Kemet, Dave Okumu from The Invisible and Tom Herbert from The Invisible and Polar Bear.

Review: An overlooked spiritual classic in two parts, Yamash'ta & The Horizon were a one-off project consisting of a hat-trick of musicians seeking to perfect their craft. In 1971, Hideakira Sakurai, Masahiko Satoh, Stomu Yamash'ta and Takehisa Kosugi gathered in Japan to perform an invite-only concert to a handful of friends. Deep and distinctive electric shamishen becomes a sonic centrepiece over the course; handled by Sakurai, the sound is haunting, like a lone voice amidst a sea of percussive nymphs. Sloshing koto, percussion and eruptions of awe from the crowd all dominate the moments of downtime; a timeless snapshot of Fluxus Japan.

Review: Future Jazz Ensemble is a project from Italian producer Nicola Penna, aka Nasty Boy, who has also recorded for Sahko Records and ANMA. Aside from some self-released records, this is the first official offering from the project which offers a noirish sound nodding to nu-jazz in in its subtle assimilation of electronic processes into a jazz context. Skittering drum machine patterns collide with snatches of instrumentation, with noirish Rhodes chords as a common thread binding everything together into a moody, musically dexterous whole. If you cherish fresh approaches which hold true to the roots of jazz culture, you're sure to love this record.

Review: Sambrasa Trio's Em Som Maior from 1965 is a samba jazz great. Somehow, it has never before been reissued on vinyl thankfully Vampisoul right that wrong here. The band was made up of some well known musicians but in the early days of their careers. Airto Moreira was on drums, Humberto Clayber played double bass, and Hermeto Pascoal was the keys man and they all played a blinder with this sunny, shuffling tunes. Flute, harmonica, and percussion all help bring these compositions to life as they twist and turn through up tempo rhythms and more soft, soothing grooves. his record helped usher in a new era of Brazilian music and we are very much here for it.

Review: While he may have been known as a wildcard within the breakout years of free jazz in the 60s, Archie Shepp also had the capacity to temper his errant fluctuations into the more tender end of jazz musicianship. On this 1992 album he teamed up with pianist Horace Parlan, bassist Wayne Dockery and drummer Steve McCraven for a series of ballads. Expressing the vocals of the songs they covered through his powerful but delicate sax playing, Shepp proved he was more than just a noisy upstart, and the whole quartet delivers a career-best performance.

Review: Experimental jazz outfit High Pulp have picked dup plenty of fans from day one. Most of them have been waiting around eagerly for a debut album and finally it has arrived. Pursuit of Ends arrives via Los Angeles's ANTI- Records and finds this group of self-proclaimed outsiders in fine form as they brig their own unique, rule breaking approach to jazz. It is a record of freeness and rawness with defiant sounds, liberating grooves and elements of everything from punk to electronic music, hip hop to shoe gaze and rock. It is well versed in traditional jazz but very much has its eyes set on a future sound, Sublime.

Review: Japanese jazz expert Yusuke Shima is back with a fourth volume of his Silent Jazz Case series. It comes on Urban Discos Japan and fathers eight modern and seductive pieces that fuse contemporary and classic sounds into some super smooth tunes. 'Adhesion' could be a tune by Roerbt Galloper on any of his collaborative albums, 'Line On The Sea' then gets much more edgy and angsty with freeform playing and wild saxophones leading the charge over devilish drum work and 'Japan Beauty' brings back to airy and spring time feels with lush flutes.