jazz albums
Album Review: Kamasi Washington reaches new spiritual heights with defining album Fearless Movement
Kamasi Washington’s latest offering, “Fearless Movement,” out today, is poised to be one of the standout albums of the year, certainly in Backseat Mafia towers. The album not only showcases Kamasi’s unparalleled talent but also highlights the brilliance of the incredible collaborators who contribute to this musical tapestry. From the breathtaking flute solo by André …
Album Review: Slow Knife – A Hymn Supreme
Todmorden experimentalists Slow Knife have returned with a second album, the fully improvised two track long player, A Hymn Supreme. Taking its lead more than likely (as well as half of its title) fromJohn Coltrane opus, it’s explores spiritual jazz, but alongside noise electronics and lyrically explores the ‘authenticity of spiritual transcendence’. Part 1 lies …
Album Review: DoomCannon – Renaissance
‘Renaissance’ sees DoomCannon’s combine the social inspiration over the last few years, from the global pandemic to the worldwide outcry of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020. Mixing this inspiration with his carefully honed musical talent has seen DoomCannon craft a concept album, that encourages us to dream of a fairer world …
Album Review: Almon Memela – Funky Africa : a South African soul-jazz classic revived.
Call off the search! The chroniclers at We Are Busy Bodies continue their significant excavation of the rich seams of seventies South African jazz with the release of Almon Memela’s ‘Funky Africa’ (remastered by Noah Mintz and available from May 6th). This classic slab of soul-jazz rare groove, hotly pursued by crate diggers, turntablists and …
Album Review: Ilmiliekki Quartet – Ilmiliekki Quartet : Essential atmospheric jazz
Trying to unravel the interconnections and collaborations in jazz is often like code-breaking. Players are likely to be in several groups at a time, they form their own units, perform solo, take a guest spot, record a one-off with new people to keep up that spirit of adventure. The four members of Helsinki’s Ilmiliekki Quartet, …
Album review: Black Flower – ‘Magma’: a perfumed souk of North African psych jazz from the Lowlands quintet
THE WORLD of Belgian Eastern jazz outfit Black Flower is a well-woven and beautiful one; the quintet this week unveil their sixth full-length album for Ghent’s rather groove-obsessed Sdban Ultra imprint, with whom they’ve released two of their past three albums this past five years. Through this arch, if you will, to enter their aural …
Album review: Claude Cooper – ‘Myriad Sounds’: taut, essential Bristol jazz breaks and cinematic LSD groove
CLAUDE COOPER: a jazz breaks legend in his own lifetime, should he even exist; for who CC is remains a complete mystery. Certainly to me. Certainly to you. One physical single, early last year, “Tangerine Dreams” / “Two Mile Hill”, the initial orange vinyl pressing of which is, lemme tells ya, already ker-ching and anyhow …
Album Review: Chelsea Carmichael – The River Doesn’t Like Strangers
Engineered at London’s iconic RAK studios by Will Purton and recorded with Eddie Hick (Sons of Kemet), Dave Okumu (The Invisible) and Tom Herbert (The Invisible; Polar Bear), The River Doesn’t Like Strangers from start to finish is jazz mastery at its finest. Produced by Shabaka Hutchings and released via his Native Rebel Recordings, a new label …
Album review: Spiritczualic Enhancement Center – ‘Carpet Album’: filmic, psychedelic and enveloping – travel deep, travel wisely
IT’S ONE of those sentences you hear periodically when chewing the fat about the music: “Ooh no, though, I really don’t like jazz”. Which, each to their own, live and let live, vive la difference without question; but, which, you imagine may be based on some particularly untethered, free-associating inversion of the style, say, Coltrane’s …
Album review: Scrimshire – ‘Nothing Feels Like Everything’: expansive, opulent soul-jazz with a real beating heart
ALBERT’S FAVOURITES is a label bringing the sounds of the South London scene to the world with heart; genuine heart, and care, and soul, in all iterations of that word. One only need look at the label’s name, and the tribute it pays. I’ve written about this before but it is worth reprising, since it …