If like me you are just as comfortable listening to Charlie Parker or Archie Shepp as you are with the likes of I.G Culture or Jazztronik, or the fusion sounds of the 70′s along side the club beats of now. Then hopefully you’ll understand and enjoy the contents of this website.
One of the main aims of eclectic jazz is to share with you some fantastic music. On the music page you’ll find some mixes, I will be adding new mixes on a regular basis and have some great ideas in the works, so check back often. you can also listen to the eclectic jazz radio show that I do live every Thursday on Starpoint Radios. These shows will be added each week along with the playlists.
There are some great clips on the videos page, it’s amazing what turning up on YouTube, here you’ll find an eclectic selection from old black & white footage to modern day quick cut-up edits. When the clip finishes you’ll see other related items, so you can explore further.
The Photos page, feature a small selection of musicians that I have been snapping over the last 20 years. I will be adding to this over the coming months. If you feel like surfing all things jazz, then check out the ‘Surf’ page for info on musicians, record labels, radio stations and of course places to find those tunes !
Enjoy ! - Phil Levene
If you have found this page independently of www.eclecticazz.com please click here
This show and previous shows are available on the
‘Music’ page in a stand alone QuickTime player
Morrissey & Mullen – Slipstream (Beggars Banquet)
Donal Byrd – Return Of The King (Bluenote)
The Silhouettes – Fonky First (Simon S Rmx (Vibe)
Cecelia Stalin – Summers Coming (Firefly)
Mr.Scruff ft. Alice Russell- Music takes Me UP (Ninja Tune)
James Moody – St. Thomas (Muse)
Art Blakey – Ping Pong (Blue Note)
Endangered Species – Ping Pong (V4Visions)
Bitter Suite – Never The Same (Swedish Brandy)
The Natural Yogurt Band - Eastern Promis (Jazzman)
Lyman Woodard organization – Dedicion (Corridor)
Rasmus Fabre ft. Melo – Come With Me (Reel People rmx) (Farplane)
Simbad – Soul Fever (Original) (Raw Fusion)
Omni Trio – Trippin’ On Broken Beats (Carlito mx) (Moving Shadow)
Buscemi - Gloomy Business (Downsall Platics)
Freddie Hubbard – Little Sunflower (Vocal version 79) (CBS)
Lonnie Listen Smith – Beautiful Woman (Columbia)
Jerome Richardson – No problem (Blue Note)
‘THE SURGERY’
3rd Sunday every month 2pm – 11pm – FREE Entry !
Quality, Inspirational Black Music.
With the good Doctor Bob Jones & Mark Webster and
guests…
Sept 19th – Mark Godard & Mark Randle (soul Purpose)
Oct 17th – Guest TBC
Nov 21st – Bob Jones & Mark Webster
The Surgery Xmas Bash – extended session 2pm – 2am
Dec 19th - featuring The Surgery Alll-Stars:
Dr. Bob Jones, Mark Webster, Ginger Tony, Phil Levene, Ed Stokes and Carl D
Xmas bash tax: Free B4 6pm – Then £5.00 after
Deco Lounge, East Village, 89 Gt Eastern St, EC2A 3HX
Click ‘Flyer’ at left of page for more details
ECLECTIC JAZZ LIVE EVERY THURSDAY
be-bop fusion latin bossa
afro-fusion nu-jazz broken-beat
in all their twisted-blended-fused and fractured
forms from yesterday today and tomorrow
Take the journey and expand your mind !
Every Thursday 11pm – 1am
on www.starpointradio.com
Gilles Peterson Presents Havana Cultura: Remixed – Brownswood Recordings
In the 2008 Gilles Peteson, headed for Cuba as executive producer for a project that brought together some of Havanas new generation of musicians and fusing together flavours from Latin, Afro jazz, fusion, hip hop, funk and R&B. After spending 5 days in the Egrem Studios ‘Havana Cultura’ was born. Based around the pianist Roberto Fonseca and his band, Amongst new tunes there’s are some great covers; Fela Kuti’s monster afro-beat epic ‘Roforofo Fight’ Irakere’s ‘Chekere Son’ and from the Blue Note vaults, ‘Afrodsia’ It was an inspired session and very refreshing.
One year on from the release of ‘Havana Cultura – New Cuba Sound’ we get ‘Havana Cultura Remixed’. It was an easy decision for Gilles to create another layer of sound around this set, His Worldwide radio shows feature some of the best in electronic/club sounds. A number of heavy weight remixer were commissioned to do there thang including; Louie Vega, MJ Cole, 4hero, Carl Cox, Rainer Trüby, Gotan Project’s Philippe Cohen Solal, Seiji, Michel Cleis and Mocky. The resulting album is a colourful and multi-textured journey though World Eclectonica, There have been many remix projects in recent years, established records labels giving remixers access to there original master tapes to concoct contemporary version of past hits and I must say to good effect, Verve, impulse and MPS ranking amongst the best. But what I find interesting here is the remixes of the versions mentioned earlier rather than the originals. As they are now 3rd generation.
This process as created a more diluted variation but with threads of the original running in and out, A good example here would be Roforofo Fight’ remixed by Louie Vega’s Elements Of Life, gone is the Afro-beat back bone and is now an Afro-cuban-latin work out with just the original horn arrangement remaining it’s sweet and melodic but quite a bit removed from the Fela’s jam. We get two mixes of Chekere Son‘ both very different first up is Seiji’s rub, hard hitting broken business while Wichy De Vedado rework is a slower discarga style workout. Elsewhere theres the minimalist sound of Skinner’s Owiney Sigoma mix of ‘La Revolucion del Cuerpo’ The soulful 4hero ‘Think Twice’ featuring Danay, described by Gilles as “Cuba’s Jill Scott” one of my favourite tracks is ‘Rezando’ featuring some tantalising piano work from Roberto Fonseca and set against a totally engaging percussive pattern and cleverly remixed by Michel Cleis. Cuban music has always embraced and thrived on a cultural exchange of sound and this is anther development along that path.
The Black Lillies – Freestyle Records
There’s no pre-amble here, the opening track ‘Cannonball’ grabs your ears, fastens the seat belt and takes you on a journey through a range of shimmering moods. It’s Jazzy, it’s soulful, it’s funky with ambient moments and indie-folk touches. 10 original tracks gelling together nicely from start to finish. It was back 2008 when The Black Lillies (originally ‘Universal Funk’) started work on this album, headed by Tonny Svensson and Jens Minke with a little help from keyboardist Hannah Vasanth (Rihanna/Natalie Williams/ Bugz in the Attic, Gnarls Barkley) and vocalist Jo Harrop making up this Copenhagen collective. The end result is a well produced and original collection of tunes that are refreshing and a definite soundtrack for the summer months.
The Root Source – Firewalker – Freestyle Records
There’s been a welcome return recently to Jazz-dance, the title track ‘Firewalker’ fits into this bracket perfectly and will freshen up any jazz-dance set, an eleven minute Hammond led workout remind me in parts of the late Charles Earland during the 70s. and in a similar up-tempo rhythm are ‘Dervish Whirl’, ‘Moon Juice’ and ‘Echos Of Your Past’ There is also a wonderful jazz-funk version of ‘Pure Imagination’. All the compositions here have both interesting and intricate arrangements encompassing Deep jazz, Funk and Samba Fusion of the sixties and early seventies, It’s nice to know and hear that this style of music is still being made by those who fully understand it and give it the care and attention it deserves.
Welcome to the third planet……
It’s always nice to hear about the launch of a new music festivals, it is especially nice when it’s Jazz… well Mostly Jazz, which is the official title of this festival, taking place for the first time in the village of Mosley, 2 miles from the centre of Birmingham. In the natural surroundings of a 113 year old park complete with a beautiful lake was the setting for two days of quality performances, and to top it off, it was dry, warm and sunny !
There were 3 stages; the main stage, a smaller one next to it, so while one act was playing the other could be set up. Across the field was the Swing Meadow Stage, which was a large marquee hosting Q&A sessions with various artists, solo performances, films and a chance to keep up to speed with the World Cup and Wimbledon. The stages names; Yardbird, Birmingham Jazz and Swing Meadow were run in conjunction and brought together areas of the Birmingham Music scene.
I arrived Saturday evening just in time to witness what was to turn out to be one of three high-lights for me, Quantic & His Combo Barbaro, by the end of the first song everybody was up and dancing, the Columbian music was infectious as was the atmosphere, The Combo, a project of Will Holland (Quantic), from the UK but now residing Cali, Columbia as are other band members who are native to the area. The music is authentic but twists and turns along the way to keep it contemporary, Helped by Quantic, switching between Guitar and Accordion and thus changing the overall sound very subtly but very effectively. Towards the end they were joined on stage by vocalist Nidia Gongora who took it to another level and certainly left us all wanting more.
After a short but refreshing DJ set from Leftfoot it was time for Saturdays headline act to take the stage. Now I have seen Sun Ra Arkestra both with and without Sun Ra himself and so I new what to expect but I wasn’t sure if everyone else did and was keen to see their reaction. You can’t ignore the visual impact of these musicians, entering the stage in bright metallic capes with an assortment of head pieces with the announcement “Welcome to the third planet” They then let rip some tough improvised avant guard Jazz for a good 10mins. I was expecting the non Jazzers to walk but I think fascination had gotten the better of them and by the third number they were hooked as the Arkestra initial musical tension gave way to Swing, Blues, Raps and chants, it was too irresistible not to be shaking at least one part of you body !
I started my Sunday lunchtime at the Birmingham Jazz stage to see the Birmingham Jazz Youth Group, It’s heart warming to see and hear young students embracing Jazz. Their sound was mature beyond their years and covered compositions from Duke Ellington. Wayne Shorter and Horace Silver. Another high-light; The Bright Size Gypsies Starting their set as a Trio and ending up as a mini orchestra, led by Simon Harris. The music is a combination of Gypsy Jazz, Django Reinhardt style and a more contemporary electro-swing, with three of it members breaking into dance. This was a very lively set and had the audience up and dancing at 3 in the afternoon. The rest of the afternoon kept up the Django theme with TG Collective Trio and the Gary Potter Trio as a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Reinhardt’s birth.
The festival as you would expect provided a decent range of food and drink stalls. There was also merchandising including Cds. Vinyl and T-Shirts. Another attraction was a 4 sided 12ft high block draped in canvases, here you could watch the progress of graffiti artists as they created some wonderful artwork.
As the evening approached it was time to put the notepad and camera down and crash out to the haunting sounds of Moon Unit, who were new to me but a very welcome discovery. Feeling recharged I was ready for Cymande II, I don’t think there can be too many readers of Soulm8 who aren’t familiar with the original Cymande, with just 3 core members from the original line up, it was made clear that this was a celebration of the music of the original band. ripping through all the biggies including ‘The Message’, ‘Brothers On The Slide’, ‘Bra‘ the audience was clearly as enthusiastic as the band and whipping up the excitement was front man Jimmy Lindsay.
Now onto my third and final high-light; Portico Quartet a four piece band producing a worldly fusion of electronic and acoustic sounds, At it’s heart the delicate sound of the Hang Drum, It’s a difficult music to explain, It was well suited to an open air environment, and after the good time dance music of Cymande it was nice contrast, the audience now rested back on the grass were silent and attentive, and the quartet received a standing ovation. The finale was left to Courtney Pine who is never short of a gimmick or two to encourage audience participation, and this was no exception, it’s been a while since I last saw courtney in action and it was nice to see the addition of Zoe Rahman on Piano and Omar Puente on electric Fiddle, it was a crowed pleasing set and a perfect end to a great festival.
The event was extremely well organised and hats off to all those involved, the variation of music was spot on as was the programing. There was a lot more acts on than I have mentioned here but hopefully it will have given you a taster and maybe I’l see there next year !
Gallery
Music for Jazz Dancers – Freestyle Records
There’s never any shortage of jazz compilations and in the sub genre of ‘smooth’ there in abundance, but there only a handful aimed squarely at dancers who prefer high octane Jazz. So hat’s of to Freestyle Records head A&R man Adrian Gibson for putting together a ‘real-deal’ batch for this purpose.
The UK jazz-dance scene is alive and kicking, although just a shadow of how it was back in the eighties when it was at it’s peak, there is nonetheless a small number of dedicated and enthusiastic dancers frequenting the remaining specialist sessions.
This compilation is not just for those who can pull off a knee drop or two, It’s a collection of tunes that have energy and fire. Music that excites rather than dulls the senses, a perfect antidote to all those ‘play-it-safe’ jazz comps. Kicking of with an absolute killer, a version of the jazz standard ‘Cherokee‘ performed by Peter Herbolzheimer’s Rhythm Combination & Brass featuring the vocals of Dianne Reeves, and a note vinyl lovers, a limited edition 12” has been released with this track backed with another tasteful nugget in the way of Mario Canonge’s blistering latin-cuban stomper; ‘Kon Djab Djigidi’ Elsewhere there’s a splattering of be-bop, nu-jazz, big band and samba/jazz fusion sounds. ‘Alevacolariea’ a much sort after monster of a Samba-fusion track by ‘Fernando Gelbard’ from his 1974 album ‘Didi and good to see ‘La Fayette‘ making a appearance, from UK jazzers ‘Semuta’ A regular favourite of the dancers whenever I use to drop this into the mix, with it’s perfectly placed cowbell ! From more recent years check ‘Sem Amor’ a big band bang from ‘Colman Brothers’.
A wonderful bossa version from 2009 of vocal track ‘A Child Runs Free’ from Japan’s ‘Primo & The Groupe’ From Germany we have ‘The Hi-Fly Orchestra’ and a sizzling romp with ‘Hi-Fly Stomp’ Theres’s plenty more, but I’ll let you discover theses delights yourself !
http://www.freestylerecords.co.uk/
Mop Mop – Ritual Of The Savage Infracom
This is the 3 album from ‘Mop Mop’ a project put together by Andrea Benini, drummer, vocalist who also arranged and produced the twelve track on ‘Ritual Of The Savage’ This is a superb, intelligent set of compositions. It’s all here; hypnotic Jazz, spiritual flavours, exotic Soul-funk rhythms, with a dash of Latin and African sounds to further spice things up. There are some great vocalists to be heard; Miss Baby Sol, Alan Farrington, Jackson Sloan and Robina Veda. Every track is quality, there’s no fillers.It has a full and rich sound, due to the many musicians contributing. I was going to list my favourites, but then realised I would be listing them all !
http://www.infracom.de/artists/artists/mop-mop/
Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno - Dog With A Rope Tru Thoughts
Will Holland, better know to the masses as ‘Quantic’ is a name that can be trusted. The man who gave us the ‘The Quantic Soul Orchestra’ and the amazing ‘Quantic and his Combo Bárbaro’ The album ‘Tradition In Transition’ has firmly planted itself in the must- have category. Well the good news is his back with another of his projects, ‘Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno’. The follow up album to the 2008 ‘Death To A Revolution’
is ‘Dog With A Rope’ I’ve not heard the entire set, but if the new singles is anything to go by this is also going to be another must-have. ‘Dog With A Rope’ is a delightful fusion of jazzy Columbian horns and ska / reggae rhythm with a township feeling, the dub version is just that, as in Reggae dub with that classic dub instrumentation. ‘Dub Y Guaguanco’ pure Columbian bliss with vocals from Colombian singers Orlando and Virgilio Hurtado. If we don’t get some decent sunshine soon at least we will have this to take us to the tropics !
http://www.tru-thoughts.co.uk/artists/quantic-presenta-flowering-inferno
Ray Harris & The Fusion Experience – Record Kicks
Ray Harris is a talented keyboardist from Glasgow who along with his ‘Fusion Experience’ band has released a solid collection of tunes aimed squarely at the dance floor infusing latin funk and soul with some tasty vocals in all the right places. Echoing the vibe of the 60s and 70s but sounding fresh and modern.
‘Scaramunga’ is a wonderful slice of afro-disco-jazz dance, with a scorching hammond solo that’ll set any dance floor alight. We also get an excellent Lack Of Afro disco re-working complete with back-in-the-day percussion break. There’s also a Jazz-Dance edit. ‘In Your Eyes’ features some loverly haunting vocals off set by an a powerful bass line courtesy of Chris McGarvey along with the up tempo rhythms while the percussion intensifies.
‘Freedom’ is another vocal trip and a catchy one at that with a fine guitar solo from Ian Thomson. and again we get the LAO treatment for an alternative outing. ‘One Of Kind’ has a filmic feeling, imagine if you will a smoked filled club in London’s Soho in the 60s, a keyboard player occupies the stage, with rasping vocals. Get the picture. ‘Tokyo Blue’ has a simple but effective piano intro that soon give’s way to the ever present bossa beat while the piano maintains the repeating pattern. This composition feels a little deeper and slightly darker and makes a for a good contrast with out distracting from the overall vibe. If you like music that keeps you bouncing around the dance floor, then look no further.
http://www.recordkicks.com/releases/Ray-Harris-The-Fusion-Experience
Summer Soulstice 4 returns on Saturday 19th June 2010 (2pm til Late)
Once again, it’s in the splendid surrounds of Old Elizabethans Playing Fields in sunny Barnet,
and this year we’re very proud to announce our headline acts are two Brit Funk legendarys!
Atmosfear & Savanna
Plus Jazz Room with DJs
Bob Jones
Mark Webster
Phil Levene
Ed Stokes
Ruth Fisher
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With just 3 weeks to go, the Soulstice 4 tickets are flying out faster than Maradona on a Red Bull!!
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS!
Adults are £10 in advance* (£15 on the day)
Under 18′s are £5 – U5′s FREE
(*all online ticket orders must be made by 12 noon, Monday June 14th)
Place your donation for your tickets and email us with your name, address, ticket details
and quote the JG reference number given. Your tickets will mailed asap!
In these financially tight times we’ve aimed to keep admission prices to a minimum
with all advance tickets remaining the same as previous years and with U18′s now a Fiver!
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The Mostly Jazz Festival will be bringing two days of well, mostly jazz music to the beautiful surroundings of Moseley Park, Birmingham on the 3rd and 4th July 2010.
The Mostly Jazz Festival is the UK’s newest jazz festival and the only, open air, one-site festival, exclusively dedicated to contemporary jazz, funk and soul.
The inaugural year will be headlined by the Sun Ra Arkestra and Courtney Pine. Other confirmed artists include Quantic and his Combo Bárbaro, Cymande II, James Taylor Quartet, Mercury Prize nominees Polar Bear, Portico Quartet and Led Bib, and Birmingham jazz legend Andy Hamilton & The Blue Notes.
The festival will have two stages side by side, the second of which will feature up and coming talent. On the Saturday The Yardbird, Birmingham’s jazz and funk parlour, has selected The Fantastics!, Lizzy Parks, Nick Pride & The Pimptones, The Getup and Groove Cartel. Birmingham Jazz will take over with some of their favourite acts on the Sunday, including Sara Colman, Moon Unit, Chris Bowden Trio, MC3 and Beebe.
There will also be films, artist talks, music workshops, jazz dance performances, live comedy and spoken word. On the Saturday there will be a big screen for the football fans who want to watch the World Cup between acts.
Tickets are now on sale. Adult day tickets cost £28.50+bf and weekend tickets cost £48.50+bf.
For more information about The Mostly Jazz Festival and the full line-up please visit www.mostlyjazz.co.uk.
Date for diary; Saturday 27th March upstairs @ the Garage. Loose Joints with DJs Jimbo, DJ Zulu and yours truly. Email me for £5 guest list. thegarage.co.uk 20-22 Highbury Corner, London, N5 1RD 020 7619 6720
Great Mark De Clive-lowe produced 4 track 12″due out soon on the vinyl friendly label Especial.
Rob van de Wouw ‘Common Ground’ (MdCL Remix) see previous post below to ead about the CD this was taken from.
Two heavy weight slices dance-floor groove from The Politik ‘Dreams’ featuring Bembe Segue and Sandra St Victor ‘Cosmos’ well worth your attention.
On Bagpak records Kahuun – ‘Drunken Sailor’ EP, deep eletco-steps and jazzy breaks and some nice sultry vocals from Sofia Rubina and a crystal clear production.
Coming out as a limted edition 7″on Mukatsuku Records is the wonderful Japanese outfit Sunaga T Experience with ‘A Kite’ featuring Jukka Eskola & Timo Lassy and the Horace Silver tune ‘The St Vitus Dance’ featuring Sofia Finnila on the flip. Both track taken from their Japan only CD of last year ‘Jazz Et Jazz’ Pure jazzness !
In my last post I mentioned the Jazz Chronicles remixes on Futuristica Recording, I now have a further 3 tracks from this project, ‘Back To Bologna’
an unreleased track, slightly modal/eastern with a haunting trumpet solo and the Rise Spiritual edit of the same tune goes a little deeper with lovely keyboard work. ‘One For Joe’ get a make over from ‘As Valet’ creating a kind of city-scape soundtrack, conjuring up a feeling of driving through an over populated chaotic streets on a balmy night… well it does for me anyway.
And sticking with Futuristica Recording Emanative have a great new collection coming out on the CD ‘Time’ there’s not a duff track here, but of the real nuggets for me is the Kay Suzuki Conscious mix of ‘Illusion’ deep dance flavour for the expressive movers amongst you.
Tru Thoughts continues it’s ‘Shapes’ series with a double LP/CD of 24 track, One half being for home listening and the other half for clubbing.
‘Shapes 10:01’ features material from acts including Quantic and his Combo Bárbaro, The Bamboos, Kylie Auldist, Hint, Azaxx, Belleruche, and Stonephace plus the delightful bright sound of Lizzy Parks “All That” (Natural Self Remix) which was out for a short time on 12″ this yime last year. There’s upfront exclusives and reworks from Ashley Beedle and Flux and Others.
Out Early April
And now a little entertainment…….
Entry 15th Feb 2010
[re: jazz] ‘Electrified’ Infracom Records Release Date : 05 March 2010
To celebrate there 100th Release back in 2002 German label Infracom put out a collection of tunes under the title of [re: jazz]. Real musicians playing acoustic instruments had taken a number of the labels electronic tunes and turned them into Jazz standards, the outcome was refreshing and at the times needed, It was a reminder to many how good acoustic jazz can sound in a contemporary setting. It was interesting then that the follow up release would then take these tunes and put back the electro-music making devises by getting a host of top remixes on the job.
Skip forward to 2010 and a second collection of electronic edits from the likes of Sur-I-Kan, Dusty, 4Hero, Mop Mop, Kiko Navarro, Atjazz and new original title (Star Chasers) are about to be upon us, ‘Electrified’ is a collection of previously unreleased tracks relating to originals from the 2008 studio album ‘Nipponized’ There are also some edits of older titles from earlier albums on this CD, previously only available on vinyl or digital.
There’s a complete range of styles here, from Soulful-house to Reggae with a splattering Funk, Downtempo-dub-step, Jazz and stuff that doesn’t quite fit in to any known genre. Choice cuts for me are ‘Gabrielle’ ft. Alice Russell (Kiko Navarro Main Mix) ‘MG4BB’ (Shur-I-Kan Remix) turning the latin original on it’s head and the up-tempo ‘Rita’ (Dusty Remix) with a great vibe and sax solos and quirky rhythm. [re: jazz] Infracom Records
Healer Selecta ‘Lets Get It Started’ Freestyle Records Release Date : 08 March 2010
Out on Freestyle Records ‘Healer Selecta’ (aka Yvan Serrano-Fontova) A talented DJ, musician, promoter. and band leader. ‘Lets Get It Started’ contains 10 bustling numbers blending an assortment of Funk-Samba-Latin-Jazz-Reggae with a gutsy Rhythm & Blues and rootsy attitude. His early musical mind stimulated by the likes of Link Wray, Magic Sam, Gene Vincent and Bo Diddley and this can easily be heard and serves to give this collection of tunes historic integrity. The real gem for me is the great Jazz-funk fusion track ‘Sweet Lil’ Thang Of Mine’ The Album is extremely uplifting, The more I’m hearing the more I’m liking it. If you are in need of a boost this is definitely your dose of musical caffeine ! Freestyle Records Healer Selecta
Jazz Chronicles, a project headed by Futuristica Music’s Simon S. Influenced by his love of classic Hip-Hop and Spiritual Jazz, not an obvious combination to cultivate a sound, but to all credit, Simon has created a interesting and meaningful sound, not just for the Jazz Chronicles but the Label as a whole. There’s a distinct style that permeates.
Coming out in April is a remix EP from the tracks I’ve heard so far this promises to be very interesting, remixes from Emanative, K15 and an unreleased track ‘‘See Sides’ Fuller review when I have heard rest – stay tuned ! Jazz Chronicles Futuristica Music
Watch out for the latest in series ‘One Offs, Remixes and B sides featuring ’ featuring Zero db and various names he recorded under. Including one of favourite versions; ‘Franke De JoJo‘ ‘Turn Off The Lights‘ originally by Larry Young. A double CD with 23 cuts, including remixes by Moonstarr, Aaron Jerome, Seiji and Hextatic’s Distorted Minds (Zero dB mix), the Dave Da Gato Mix of “Seven By Seven” by Inverse Cinematics and the Zero dB classic, ‘The Snare’ out Feb 22nd Tru Thoughts
Wah Wah 45 are have released a cracking little double A side 7” by Gizelle Smith & The Mighty Mocambos ‘The Time Is Right For Love’ (Swing-O-Aka 45 remix) and the Boca 45 edit of ‘Hold fast’ Very Funky, Veri soulful and very good ! – Released February 22nd Gizelle Smith & The Mighty Mocambos Wah Wah 45
Milano Jazz dance Combo have their second single just released from the great album of last year. ’Changes’ is out as a 7″ featuring Colonel Red with a radio edit and a funky remix by MJDC themselves. Top tune !
Purchase direct from Record Kicks
Entry; January 31st 2010
Jump Start Music
Check out DJ Ginger Tony’s new compilation ‘Jump Start Music’ out now on Soul Unsigned jam packed funky fresh and jazzy soulful grooves from the likes of Stephanie McKay, The Jivers, The Jazzinvaders, Kraak & Smaak, Shuya Okino, Monday Michiru and many many more.
Barrio Jazz Gang
It’s been over seven years since we have heard anything the Barrio Jazz Gang but the wait is over, out now on Funky Juice Records is there second CD simply entitled ’2′ A club friendly selection of Jazzy rhythms, bossa beats and soulful licks with some great instrumentation, add lengendary trumpet player Eddie Henderson into the mix and things really start to fly !
Scrimshire has a great new seven out on Wah Wah 45 This tallented music maker is never one to disapoint, and ‘The Low Road’ featuring the vocals of Rob Hynd and remixed by Marc rapson is no exception, Melodic, soulful with a touch of meloncholy make for a quality cut. On the flip is the bright and breezy latin flavoured ‘I Was Love’ featuring the vocals of Claire Laurent, Classy stuff on both sides.
Out on March 1st on Tru Thoughts is the new EP from Belleruche entittled ‘Liberty’ 3 excellent cuts; ’56% Proof’, ‘You’re Listening To The Worlds (Asthmatic Astronaut Remix)’ and ‘Anything You Want (Not That) (Hint Remix)’ A collection of catchy electro beats sulty vocals. rap snipets and cool bass lines. My favourite cut being Hint’s remix of ‘Anything You Want’ dark and twisted and very engaging. can’t wait to hear the full project.
The Underbelly have a great funk 45 coming out in March on the constantly good Record Kicks label. ‘Cold Toast’ More like a tasty slice of hot toast ! fast and furious jazzed up funk – 70′s styleee, nice. ‘I keep Holding On’ Roxie Ray delivers another fine vocal for this funky work out. Think Ray Munnings ‘Jump In The Water’ and you’re nearly there. A great 45 for the collection !
Tom Middleton presents The Chiswick Reach All Stars. A one sided 7″ out on Mukatsuku Records ‘Nutsin’ (Guynamukat Dirty Blaxploitation funk edit) Heavy car chase funk, tough and raucous but all too short, so work it in the mix !
Bullion ‘Say Goodbye To What’ A strange and quirky 7″ out on One Hundred Music The flip is the one for me ‘ Crazy Over You’ It’s suprising how this manages to sound haunting and soulful at the same time ! Check it out here
New Gil Scott-Heron