nu jazz
Album Review: Raffy Bushman – ‘Here Today Gone Tomorrow’: More thrilling post-bop nu jazz from the London pianist and composer.
For a musician who puts out an annual album release, pianist, cellist and composer Raffy Bushman manages to keep surprisingly under the muso-radar but you sense that’s just how he likes it. His music is part, yes a significant part, of what he recognises as his whole life. Watching any of the documentary shorts, which …
Track: LA vocalist/composer Sharada Shashidhar announces new album ‘Soft Echoes’ with the succulent, sensitive title track.
You may have been lucky to have caught a glimpse of LA based vocalist/composer/producer Sharada Shashidhar’s debut EP ‘Rahu’ a few years ago. Here was a musician bringing something different to the future soul arena. Yes there were those spikey beats, intricately collaged electronics and no limits influences, but the vocal delivery eased away from …
Album Review: Benjamin Samuels – ‘Dissensation’: New name, nu jazz, new thrills – an album set to make an impact.
Straight after any hugs or handshakes the first thing musicians ask each other when they meet up is ‘Are you busy’? For sax-player, clarinettist and composer Benjamin Samuels the answer for some time now has been a ‘yes’. He’s worked with Californian fusionist Balkan Bump and Brighton’s own global beat pioneer Seb Taylor (aka Kaya …
Track/Video: Jazz/afrobeat fusionists TC & The Groove Family announce new EP with the dynamic ‘Stand Strong’.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from TC & The Groove Family but you can’t keep a good collective down. Led by drummer Tim Cook (TC) and based around players who originally crossed paths in Leeds, the band’s 2022 debut ‘First Home’ (reviewed in BSM HERE) made a sizeable dent in the listening schedules. …
Album Review: Parisian fusion combo Monsieur MÂLÂ deliver a self-titled debut brim-full with energy and ambition.
World Jazz/Jazz Fusion/World Fusion…you sometimes wonder if the genre game is really worth playing. Yes useful for shorthand and signposts but not to be depended on to for the full picture. Enter Parisian five-piece Monsieur MÂLÂ and their self -titled debut LP out now via Bridge The Gap. Looking way beyond any label conventions the …
Track/Video: Dynamic prog-jazzers Emily Francis Trio preview new EP with the drama of ‘After The Rain’.
For many the jazz piano trio is an edifice that shouldn’t be tampered with, the classic enactment of pure jazz, a rhythm section suddenly given license to express itself but with a heritage that binds them together. So any messing with the tradition needs to be done well, with a purpose and conviction. Plucking at …
Album Review: Okvsho – ‘A Place Between Us’: sophistication, groove and sonic depth – a new force in jazz fusion emerges.
Operating out of Zurich the brothers Kiss, Georg and Christoph (a.k.a Okvsho) are on some kind of a mission to shake up the music scene in their city. Unlike say Geneva that throbs to pulse of a vibrant underground art network, Zurich may lack some impetus but the producer/ instrumentalist brothers are looking to pick …
Track/Video: In-demand saxophonist Benjamin Samuels takes to the spotlight with ‘Ambitious Antithesis’ from upcoming debut album.
Sax-player, clarinettist and composer Benjamin Samuels is stepping out from the back line. A musician who’s worked with Californian fusionist Balkan Bump and Brighton’s own global beat pioneer Seb Taylor (aka Kaya Project), plus toured the world in the irrepressible Grouch in Dub’s band, Samuels has recently made time to pause. Except that hasn’t meant …
New Track/Video : Global groove-riders Nubiyan Twist announce new album and tour with the upbeat R n B flow of ‘So Mi Stay’.
Let’s move forwards with Leeds/London global beats collective Nubiyan Twist as they look into 2024 with a spotlight on their new music to come. Led by guitarist/producer Tom Excell, the big band who forge afrobeat, jazz, soul, hip-hop and latin while staying way ahead of the fusion cliché, have been defining their own space for …
Album Review : Arthur Hnatek Trio – ‘Apnea’ EP : bringing new energy to the Jazz/IDM intersection.
To introduce Arthur Hnatek as a jazz drummer only skits across the surface of the soundscape he works within. Sure he has drummed in units led by Tigran Hamasayan and Eric Truffaz but primarily Hnatek’s own musical explorations lead him closer to destinations where electronica and acoustic generated rhythms cross paths. He’s been releasing music …