Kissey Asplund at Jazz Refreshed
Here’s another one of those Jazz Re:freshed sessions at London’s Mau Mau Bar. It was recorded in October 2008 already, but it’s been played only 427 times since.
Soul Power
Zaire 1974. Former world champion Muhammad Ali challenges George Foreman to regain “his” title in a fight known as the Rumble in the Jungle. Hugh Masekela and Stewart Levine convinced boxing promoter Don King to combine this event with a music festival of epic proportions.
Dorian Concept Radio Session
I started the day checking some blogs and came across this video on Creaminal’s site. It’s Dorian Concept playing an improvised concert with another Austrian band called Ginga. It turns out to be an exceptional live jazz…
Rick Wade presents Harmonie Park Revisited
Following their Kenny Larkin collector’s set, Dutch label Rush Hour presents another limited edition from a Detroit legend: Rick Wade. The package contains all three previously released Harmonie Park Revisited 12-inches, a fourth (exclusive) record, and a car refreshener (!) in the shape of Harmonie Park’s logo. There are only 200 available, so better hurry up.
KidVector presents Infinity City
I have absolutely no idea for how long this has been available (probably December), but it is definitely worth an article. Graphic artist KidVector has compiled and mixed a proper mixtape for Eat Concrete. Very much in the tradition of a sound popularized by the likes of Flying Lotus, Prefuse 73, Dabrye or the late J Dilla. The mix comes in a nicely designed package (love the typography!) for those who still burn CDs, or just love a good artwork.
Hajime Yoshizawa – Innocent Nocturne
Sleep Walker’s Hajime Yoshizawa returns with his latest album Innocent Nocturne, already his second longplayer on Village Again in 2008 (following Japan).
Kaidi Tatham – In Search Of Hope
It was shortly after Christmas, when the long expected copy of In Search Of Hope finally arrived. While writing this, I noticed how lucky I was, as both LP and CD are currently sold out at Juno Records (Rush Hour still has copies!).
So I asked around, part 1
Instead of following the usual Best-of talk at the end of each year, I sent some questions to some of the musicians I like. Here’s the first part, looking back at 2008.
Altered Natives – A Thousand Days of Patience
You might have heard of this fellow already, Danny Native had a track on the Our Music Our Culture compilation, as well as some self-released EPs. Now, just as you think that this thing called broken beat is about done, Danny delivers his debut LP with 12 “brukkers” that were made for the dancefloor.
Only the Best!
Like every year at this time, the world feels the need to choose the best of the year. Time magazine has probably the longest tradition in contributing to this: The Person of the Year. Since 1927 (then…
Recomposed New Mixes
Even before Deutsche Grammophon’s Recomposed by Carl Craig & Moritz von Oswald was out, rumours of Ricardo Villalobos remixes made the round. This week, a 12-inch finally proved this to be true – at least one Villalobos remix accompanied by another by Carl Craig made it on the record. As you can expect, both are taking the material originally written by Mussorgsky and Ravel and transform it into more dancefloor-oriented versions, and both break the 10 minutes limit easily. If you ask me, they should’ve added an Isolée remix as well.
I.N.T. presents Welcome To Christmas Wonderland
It’s hard to escape those Christmas tunes on the radio these days. Dutch producer I.N.T. used many of them as samples, locked himself into his studio and came up with a free album for you to download.…
Jazz re:freshed presents Kaidi Tatham
For the final Jazz re:freshed session of the year, it’s no other but Kaidi Tatham returning to London’s Mau Mau Bar to present his new album In Search Of Hope.
Moonstarr – Instrumentals Forever
The second album from Moonstarr is finally available in the rest of the world, following the Japanese release earlier this summer. First of all, Instrumentals Forever is not what the title suggests – an instrumental album. If you love(d) Dupont, chances are good you will like the follow-up just as much.
Hollywood Movie about Chess Records
Cadillac Records is a biographical movie about Leonard Chess, founder of Chicago-based Chess Records. Besides Academy Award winner Adrien Brody as Chess, the movie stars Mos Def (as Chuck Berry), Jeffrey Wright (as Muddy Waters) and Beyoncé (as Etta James).
Sonar Kollektiv 200
Following last year’s 10th anniversary, Jazzanova’s Sonar Kollektiv label is about to celebrate its 200th release with a compilation simply titled SK200. Two-hundred releases, not bad for an independent label, but there already was a big retrospective with Ten Years, Who Cares?
Voices on the Kaidi album
As the release date nears, more details to In Search of Hope emerge. First there’s finally the cover artwork to see, a beautiful photograph of Kaidi on the keys. Then there are voices from Mark de Clive-Lowe, Daz-I-Kue and Dego.
Kaidi Tatham Genius Selekshan
There were a lot of Kaidi Tatham related posts recently, and as the release-date to the new album approaches, Beyondjazz dug out some gems for their latest radio show.
Recomposed by Carl Craig & Moritz von Oswald
The third installment of Deutsche Grammophon’s Recomposed series comes from techno godfathers Carl Craig and Moritz von Oswald (Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound). Together the joint forces of Detroit and Berlin put their hands on classical material from Maurice Ravel and Modest Mussorgsky.
Reel People – Outta Love
Already released on their remix album Seven Ways To Wonder (The Remixes), London’s Reel People have released a 12-inch containing the IG Culture remix of Outta Love with Omar on vocals. It’s different from the rinse that has been played on Worldwide or various other West London sets, but it’s clearly the standout tune and it’s on wax.
Blakai Productions 2009
Mark Force and Kaidi Tatham are both members of the Bugz in the Attic collective, but they also produce music together under the name of Blakai. So far there have been two 12-inches and another track on Dego’s The Good…
Jazzanova – Of All The Things
There were many rumors about the new Jazzanova album weeks prior to its anticipated release. Six years after their debut In Between, the founders of Berlin’s Sonar Kollektiv would deliver a new album, produced and recorded like it’s the 1960s again. However, not everybody seemed to have welcomed that idea, some forums reacted fairly sceptical about it, pushing Jazzanova next to Amy Winehouse.
HayZee – Next Level
A sweet 8-track download comes from HayZee. The young producer from the Netherlands merges 8-bit tracker sounds with a sound very much alike Flying Lotus. Harmonic 313, 8bitpeoples, Dorian Concept.. it’s a bit of everything!
Here Comes Treble
It’s been one of my favourite compilations of the year and I’m late on my review duties – but in fact this blog didn’t even exist when everybody else was loving it already. Today we’re talking about Here Comes Treble, the first compilation from Domu’s young TrebleO label. And it’s a great debut, way too fresh to be put in this blog’s classics category!
Simply Ourselves: Zed Bias Works
Now this is a bit obscure and I’m not only talking about the cover. This collection of Zed Bias produced tracks showed up on Juno this week. It was compiled and mixed by Masato Komatsu aka Slowly (producer of Quasimode) and released through Style Drive. I could not make out any direct connection to Zed Bias or his label, but it turns out to be a nice collection of tracks.
Sleep Walker – Into The Sun
French label Jazzmin has released a new album from Sleep Walker. Well, one might say it’s not a new album, but a collection of their previous 12-inches – either way, for the first time these tracks are officially available outside of Japan and in a digital format.
Jonny Miller – Edits
Manchester’s Jonny Miller (Phuture Lounge) has published a collection of re-edits of as different artists as The Clash, Cameo, Fatback Band, Sergio Mendes, Carly Simon, Ohio Players, Donna Summer and others you surely heard of before. As I understood it, the edits were custom-made by Jonny for his DJ sets.
Kaidi Tatham Quartet at Jazz Re:freshed
Turns out the Kaidi Tatham Trio was actually a quartet and Jazz Re:freshed host Adam Rock captured their performance at London’s Mau Mau Bar on video. More on the classic jazz-tip with Kaidi on keys, Shabaka Hutchin on sax, Karl Rasheed Abel on bass and Richard Spaven on the drums.
Moonstarr – Instrumentals Forever
The speculations came up with the release of Public Transit’s Next Stop, whether there was a new Moonstarr album in the pipeline. As blog-reader Lay-far pointed out, there will indeed be a release on November 11th (official announcement) or October 22nd (Dusty Groove).
Next Stop by Various Artists
Canada’s Public Transit celebrates its 10th anniversary with Next Stop, a compilation available as a free download. The label’s roster is well-represented with founder Moonstarr, LAL, Voice, Think Twice, Arch_Typ, Murr and InsideAmind. Other artists include Karma & Lotus, Incubator, Grahmzilla and Aadm, but the label website does not indicate if these are signings.
Deepblak presents Blaktropolis Volume 1
Deepblak has been stirring up the scene recently with its though soulful and deep, also dark, futuristic, even industrial sound. Playing a healthy mixture of jazz, techno and hip hop, Aybee gathered his label-mates Erik Rico, Afrikan Sciences, Black Jazz Consortium, o1o, Trinidadian Deep, Blaktroniks, Xaphryn Follicle, Dozie and Mattski to put out the labels first compilation. The first impression? It’s an fantastic compilation, has a very black feeling to it, and it keeps reminding me a lot of Volcov’s Soul in Motion from 2002
Carl Craig and Tribe
Detroit producer Carl Craig has re-assembled the remaining members of the Tribe collective to record an album consisting not only of old material, but also new arrangments. Following my review of the Innerzone Orchestra album, I remembered this video about the project.
Thylord on the upcoming Kaidi album
Matt Lord aka Thylord from Bugz in the Attic posted a message on the new Kaidi Tatham album.
hey hey!
just taking a short break from mixing the album and thought i’d write something!… Everything is…
