Pop & Rock News

Sechs Jahre nach der Erstveröffentlichung seines sechsten Studioalbums "The Demon Diaries", ist die LP nun als limitierte 180gr-Edition auf rot gefärbtem Vinyl erhältlich. Im Laufe der Jahre hat Parov Stelar akribisch einige der einflussreichsten Sounds vergangener Zeiten gesampelt, neu abgemischt und referenziert. Sounds vergangener Epochen gesampelt, ihnen neues Leben eingehaucht und sie in die heutige Zeit gebracht. Es ist die Definition für einen bestimmten Stil, einen bestimmten Sound, DEN Parov Stelar-Sound. Die musikalischen Dämonen sind nicht immer so düster und böse, wie sie auf den ersten Blick erscheinen mögen. Die Rastlosigkeit des Künstlers ist die treibende Kraft in "The Demon Diaries". Während sie oft als ein Leiden angesehen wird, wirkt sie hier als Katalysator für Kreativität, den Wunsch, die Dinge weiter voranzutreiben, schneller zu gehen und höher zu fliegen als je zuvor. Wo wären wir ohne unsere inneren Dämonen? Ohne den Wunsch, unsere Grenzen auszutesten, einen Schritt weiter zu gehen als irgendjemand zuvor? Doch wo Licht ist, da ist auch Dunkelheit, das weiß Parov Stelar nur zu gut.

We are excited to welcome Orestes Gomez to the Olindo ranks with his sublime remix for Raúl Monsalve y los Forajidos "Bocón",

featuring the distinctive vocals of Luzmira Zerpa, fusing neo soul, jazz and Venezuelan drums.

22aTP02 is part of a new testpress series on 22a records. The "TP" series is a very limited vinyl only hand-stamped release. The two tracks from this record are taken from a Tenderlonious live show recorded in 2019 with a full band (flute, trumpet, piano, bass & drums). Side A is a live version of the Headhunters jazz/funk classic 'Butterfly,' which the band handle with finesse - a fitting homage to its creators. Side B is an original composition by Tenderlonious. 'Prayer for Yusef' is a tribute to the late Yusef Lateef, who's many recordings have inspired Tenderlonious over the years. This release is available on limited hand-stamped 10" vinyl.

Strut return to the rich archives of Black Fire Records for the Drum Message album by Ghanaian master percussionist Okyerema Asante from1977. After playing a short spell early in his career with Ebo Taylor's Blue Monksband at Tip Toe's in Accra, Asante joined the fledgling Hedzoleh Soundz during the early '70s at their Napoleon Club residency in the city. After playing Fela's Shrine, Fela recommended them to Hugh Masekela as an ideal backing band and Hedzoleh joined Masekela on a US tour in December 1973. Sharing the same management company, Charisma, Asante first met Plunky and Oneness Of Juju during an East coast tou rwith Masekela, starting a relationship with the band that has endured until today. Recorded at Arrest Studios in Washington D.C. in October 1977 and featuring musicians from Oneness alongside Gil Scott Heron cohort Brian Jackson on piano, Drum Message represents an important milestone fo rAsante: "This album really came from my heart. I wanted to project the African spirit in the music and come out with some unique African jazz. To be able to record it on Black Fire was extra special." The album also involved some serious physical graft: "The studio was up on the 14th Floor and the elevator was often broken down. I showed up with a van full of African drums and Jimmy Gray from Black Fire and myself had to carry them all the way up there, each day!" The resultant album was well worth the sweat. 'Adowa' adds jazz arrangements to a traditional Asante rhythm and Oneness classic 'FollowMe' is skilfully re-worked ("I used the bass drum in place of the bass guitar so it was all based on rhythms."). New versions of Asante dancefloor favourite 'Sabi' sit alongside the mellow groove of 'Asante Sana' ("I wantedsomething cool like reggae or highlife on that track, a similar vibe. So, Iwent inbetween.").

"Circuit" is a recorded document of improvised music and the inaugural release on Pattern Dissection — an independent record label, radio show and concert organiser from Berlin. Dag Magnus’s down-tuned drum set builds the ground for relentless legwork and hectic wrestling, shaking the floor when confronted with Farida’s high string slaps on the bass guitar, which they occasionally swap for droning vibrations and scorching fingerpicking, neither shying away from a heavy riff nor stripped back momentum. Liz’s synth is an idiosyncratic creature of its own, birthing sounds rarely graspable but utterly fascinating, swift in taking turns and always one step ahead of any expectation.

Recorded on July 28th 2020 in Berlin at their second meeting as a band, that was initiated by a live gig six months earlier. All music was improvised and performed in a room with six microphones.

Mixed by Christoph Berg & mastered by Stephan Mathieu. Lacquer cut by Mike Grinser. Pressed at Pallas on 140g vinyl, wrapped in a 350g reverse-printed cardboard sleeve with A6 photo-card inside, including a download code. Artwork by Talita Santos & design by Espacioblanco. Photography by Stefan Lingg.

Brooklyn based drummer/producer Jason Nazary (of Anteloper) makes his We Jazz Records debut with "Spring Collection", released on 25 June. The album sees Nazary crafting some deliciously sparkly solo cuts plus working long disctance with choice collaborators Jaimie Branch, David Leon, Ramon Landolt, Matt Mitchell, Grey McMurray and Michael Coleman. This is essentially a collection of home recordings and the whole operation has an infectious feeling of immediacy to it. The result is improv adjacent electronic music, with modern production aesthetics transposed over spontaneous compositions.

Jason writes:

"With Spring Collection, my aim was to capture the spirit of spontaneity & collaboration lost in the absence of live music. Like most everyone else last spring, I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands and with all my work cancelled, and with an indefinite lockdown in effect, it became immediately apparent that most of my time – save a walk or two a day around the neighborhood – would be spent in the tiny one bedroom apartment I share with my wife and two cats.

What kind of music does one make during lockdown? I would begin my days with a cup of coffee and all the cables of my modest little modular set up in my lap, slowly discovering new sound worlds as I connected one cable after another – these became the beginnings for the pieces in Spring Collection. With these unformed sketches, I would record an improvisation, an exploration of sonics: a small kit of bells, shakers, pans, pots; their resonance captured in fine detail with ultra sensitive microphones. These became, in effect, a conversation first with myself, but later one I knew I had to open up, make social. In the desire not to diminish my collaborative impulses, I felt compelled to involve some of my favorite musicians in the process alongside me."

"Spring Collection" is released by We Jazz Records on 25 June on vinyl (neon orange & black vinyl editions), tape and digital formats. The vinyl edition comes with a booklet including original artwork and poetry by Todd Colby.

Multi award-winning composer Shepherd’s seventh album and first on vinyl, with sleeve notes from Percy Mabandu.

Compositions explored on this long-awaited release include new articulations of well-liked familiar melodies like ‘For Keith’, ‘Desert Monk’, ‘Sweet Zim Suite’ and ‘Cry of the Lonely’, along with improvised pieces ‘Zikr’, and ‘Desert Monk’.

Mastered and cut for vinyl by Frank Merritt at The Carvery with heavyweight 180g vinyl pressed at Pallas in Germany.

Shepherd embodies much of South Africa’s piano tradition with visionary clarity. More than his own ingenuity, he holds up an appreciation of the richness of a shared musical inheritance. This must be underscored by an understanding that all pianists, in fact all artists of real commitment, have a wish to be distinctive, along with a real rootedness. The selection of tunes treated here, shores this up about Shepherd. It also points to a deeper, loftier revelation: jazz, and creativity as the ultimate articulations of human hope.
Percy Mabandu, from sleeve notes

Funkiwala Records presents the third in the series of "Lokkhi Terra meets"albums, with the London fusionistas creating another unique sound-clash, this time with ex-Fela Kuti keyboardist and legendary UK Afro-beat ambassador Dele Sosimi, and members of his critically acclaimed Afro-beat Orchestra.

This particular collaboration has been bubbling away for a few years now, teasing audience expectations with a handful of sold out shows each year in between both bands busy schedules.
Featuring the two pianos of Kishon Khan and Dele Sosimi – Cuban percussionists/vocalists Geraldo De Armas (Yoruba Andabo), Oreste Noda (Ariwo), Javier Camilo (Ibrahim Ferrer) - a horn section led by Justin Thurgur (Bellowhead) featuring Yelfris Valdes (Sierra Maestra) and Graeme Flowers (Kyle Eastwood) to name a few – this is an All-star cast.

Kishon Khan's Lokkhi Terra have over a number of years now been quietly establishing themselves as one of London's more unusual heavyweight outfits, described as "Stunning Headliners… A majestic multi-cultural blend of sounds… effortlessly builds bridges between rolling Indian raga rhythms, Afro-Cuban grooves, Acid Jazz/funk and free flowing improvisation" (Timeout London). Included amongst the band members are London's top Cuban musicians, adding their infectious rich musical history to the city's melting pot.
When the band wanted to explore Cuban links with another of their favourite traditions, Afrobeat, who better to bring in then one of the Afrobeat originators – maestro Dele Sosimi – "Sosimi creates some of the most bewitching grooves in modern African music" E Jazz News.
Bringing together two Yoruba speaking musics - with different accents, from different sides of the Atlantic - Havana meets Lagos in London – A Cuban-Afrobeat-Experience. CUBAFROBEAT.

absent origin’ reassembles and reimagines recordings and musical
scores composed by Mira Calix, globally, over the past decade. It’s a
collage album about edges and borders, cutting and tearing, and
composing new combinations that point to an audio visual manifesto for the 21st Century.

“Like Duchamp, I had started out wanting to make an album, or box, of approximately all the things I produced. In the end, I realised - as much as a collage is the coupling of two or more realities, it also offers the means to examine the materials and culture of an era, questioning and expanding its borders.” - Mira Calix

Every song on the album was created by applying a different collage
process relating to a different visual artist, spanning the history of collage to contemporaries of the practice. The sonic materials are subjected to a myriad of processes; layered, synthesised, constructed and assembled into electronic melodies, textures and complex, frisky dance rhythms that are constantly shifting in surprising ways. absent origin employs collage to make sense of the current moment of displaced voices, disjunction and political unrest.

Calix’s recording sessions from all over the world are the many
fragments we hear across the album; from India to Tasmania, Jordan to Belgium, China to Uganda, her former home of South Africa, to her
current home in Britain. Slicing into these are further recordings of
vocalists, percussionists, choirs, orchestras, quartets and soloists, never appearing in the form in which they were originally intended. The record is a polyphony of predominantly diverse female voices held together by pulsating baselines, haunting electronic sounds and orchestrated melodies and with them, we travel.

The album fizzes with a political energy and the interconnectedness of
everything. At this moment in time, there is an impossibility of separating one thing from another; the effect is strange and not exactly reassuring.

Collage suggests infinite possibilities and each track here is a singularly unique compositional combine, a dizzying hall of mirrors with its own unlikely harmony, its own distinctive rhythm. On ‘absent origin’, collage becomes the tool to make sense of a present that is often anything but.

2LP in printed inner sleeves with 5mm spine outer, printed insert and
digital download code.

A jazz tribute to Pink Floyd containing covers of some of their most famous songs.

• A defining musical statement in South Africa’s jazz canon – pinpointing the moment of social and musical ferment in which the country’s terms of engagement with jazz were irreversibly changed.

• Forged when township kids were facing down bullets this is an electric mulberry funk – slick, intense and complex.

• Heavyweight 180g vinyl with remastered audio, inner sleeve with new photographs and additional liner notes by Francis Gooding.

At a distance of more than forty years, the radicalism and significance of African Spaces can be seen more clearly. Ambitious, uncompromising, and resolutely progressive, it represents a unique high-water mark in South Africa’s long musical engagement with the newest developments in American jazz – a response to the cosmic call of Return To Forever, and an answer to Miles’ On the Corner.

Spirits Rejoice drew together some of South Africa’s most abundantly talented and forward-thinking jazz players and created a complex and challenging jazz fusion that shifted the terms of South Africa’s engagement with jazz towards new music being made by pioneers such as Chick Corea, Weather Report, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny and others.

African Spaces, their debut recording, is one of the key documents in the South African jazz canon. Emerging in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto uprising, and taking its place alongside the crucial mid-1970s music of Malombo, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Batsumi, it is a defining but unsung musical statement of its era.

Far Out Recordings proudly presents Argentinian guitarist Agustín Pereyra Lucena’s 1980 album La Rana. Recorded in Oslo, La Rana features Agustín’s stunning takes on compositions by Ivan Lins, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Agustín’s friend and musical hero Baden Powell. In addition to these, and a number of Agustín’s own compositions including the fifteen-minute masterpiece “Encuentro De Sombras”, the album’s title track is an idiosyncratic version of Joao Donato’s “A Rã” (Eng: The Frog/ Esp: La Rana) from his 1973 album Quem É Quem.

Forming the rest of the quartet are two fellow Argentinians who were also Agustin’s bandmates from the group Candeias: bassist and multi-instrumentalist Guillermo Reuter and flautist Ruben Izarrualde; with Norweigan drummer Finn Sletten on drums and percussion.

Throughout La Rana we hear not only Agustín’s fabled guitar playing, which ascended him to share stages with the likes of Vinicius de Moraes, Dorival Cayymi, Toquinho, Maria Bethania, Chico Buarque and Quarteto Em Cy, but also his talent as a vocalist. He also provided the heartening illustration for the cover art, which perfectly fits the cordial, inviting tone of the music. Inspired in equal measure by South American rhythms and Norweigan glaciers, mountains and waterfalls, La Rana is filled with the warmth, humility and sincerity of a man seizing a joyful moment in life through music.

A collective of forward-thinking "jazz" musicians from Australia. We owe our thanks and gratitude to the founding mothers and fathers of the music people call jazz. We respect and continuously study their legacy whilst embracing our current surroundings in making music that honestly reflects our time and space.

Known for his soothing trumpet work in German jazz group Fazer, Matthias Lindermayr is back on Squama with an all-new trio and his third album 'Triptych'.
With Philipp Schiepek on acoustic guitar and Simon Popp on percussion, the Munich-based musician created a forward-thinking record between jazz and contemporary classical, conceptually bold and utterly beautiful.
'Triptych' is a thrillingly quiet record. While the album's predecessor 'Newborn' (2018) featured a quintet, the rather unusual trio line-up on 'Triptych' gave Matthias more room to share the nuances of his playing.
His compositions, most written especially for this group, are of a noble simplicity allowing the musicians to focus more on interaction and sound.

* Winter Wonderland 26 Classic Christmas Songs across 4 Sides of Vinyl.

* Presented in Gatefold Sleeve with Original Artwork & Pressed on 2x 180g Heavyweight Black Vinyl

* Festive Favourites including: White Christmas (Bing Crosby) Winter Wonderland (Connie Francis) Rockin'
Around The Christmas Tree (Brenda Lee) Jingle Bell Rock (Bobby Helms) Jingle Bells (Frank Sinatra)

* Winter Wonderland is available Exclusively On Vinyl.

One more step into the eclectic world of Krzystof Komeda. This is the second Naked Lunch release dedicated to the music of the great late Polish pianist and film music composer. An outstanding compilation based on Komeda's early production featuring a variety of live and radio recordings between 1957 and 1962. Four different line ups including the Komeda trio, quartet and sextet, plus another quartet shared with tenor sax player Bernt Rosengren. A bunch of true pioneers for Jazz in Eastern Europe searching for the perfectsynthesis between the American stylistic influence and a distinctive Slaviclyricism.

Gondwana Records are delighted to announce '7" Series', our first ever 7" vinyl collection series. Featuring bespoke artwork from Gondwana Records designer Daniel Halsall, cut at Calyx in Berlin, and manufactured at Optimal, each 7" is limited to strictly 300 copies and housed in a reverse board printed sleeve with classic 'dinked' centre holes.

To launch this collectable series, we are excited to share new and previously unreleased music from Mammal Hands and two catalogue favourites from Matthew Halsall. Over the next coming months, we will share series part 3 and 4 and beyond.

Mammal Hands — Chaser/Prism 7" (GOND07001)

Captivating, ethereal and majestic, Mammal Hands are driven by their unique line-up of drums, piano and saxophone. Their hypnotic music draws on a rich well of influences from Sufi trance and West African music to folk music, contemporary classical, spiritual jazz and electronica to produce something uniquely their own. Their 7" features two brand new, previously unreleased tunes.

Side A Chaser is a punchy, hypnotic tune with an enchanted melody that'll take you on a magical journey. All in less than 4 minutes

Side B Prism is a mysterious ear-worm, ethereal but catchy, it sounds like nothing else the band have ever recorded.

The amazing, unpredictable, one and only Sly Stone has never made a secret of his beginnings as a teenaged hopeful in Vallejo, California in the early 1960s.

A trio of singles with his interracial high school vocal group The Viscaynes, followed by two more releases as a solo, recorded in Los Angeles with producer George Motola, comprise the fascinating apprenticeship Sly needed to undergo on the road to fame. For decades, Sly’s earliest works have been spread around on a parade of unauthorized collections, most with low-fidelity sound, artificially extended versions, and tracks by unrelated artists. Yellow Moon: The Complete Recordings 1961-1962 corrects this injustice by offering up Sly and the Viscaynes entire output from the correct master sources. This special 2 LP set complements the recent Ace Records CD of the same title and adds a brace of additional, exceedingly rare Sly-related material. Along with the original singles by The Viscaynes, and Sly’s first solo releases as Danny (Sly) Stewart and Sylvester Stewart, there are also several unissued demo tracks produced by teen idol and Viscaynes mentor Gary Stites, plus the sought-after Jasper Woods 45, featuring an incognito Richard Berry with the Viscaynes on vocal support. Exclusive to this vinyl edition are a rare High School recording by an early incarnation of the Viscaynes, both sides of the 1961 Royal Aces single on which Sly plays guitar, and as a special bonus, the Stewart Four gospel release from 1956, featuring a teenaged Sly on lead vocals – his very first appearance on disc.

The deluxe package comes with an authoritative and heavily illustrated booklet with much heretofore unpublished information and fresh interview material from the group and associates, as well as commentary from Sly himself. Yellow Moon: The Complete Recordings 1961-1962 is the last word on Sly Stone’s very first phase, and this vinyl edition is a must for any fan of his work.

‘Rejoice’ is the classic collaboration between Tony Allen, the legendary drummer and co-founder of Afrobeat, and Hugh Masekela, the master trumpet player of South African jazz. The record, released to great acclaim in March 2020, became the first posthumous release from Masekela, and the last release from Allen, who sadly passed away a month later.

For this Special Edition, World Circuit have gone back to the original 2010 mixes and added previously unheard parts from the 2019 sessions to create 8 reimagined bonus mixes. The CD and LP releases also feature a booklet with sleeve notes and photos.

Having first met in the 70s thanks to their respective close associations with Fela Kuti, the two world-renowned musicians talked for decades about making an album together. When, in 2010, their touring schedules coincided in the UK, the moment presented itself and producer Nick Gold took the opportunity to record their encounter. The unfinished sessions, consisting of all original compositions by the pair, lay in archive until after Masekela passed away in 2018. With renewed resolution, Tony Allen and Nick Gold, with the blessing and participation of Hugh Masekela’s estate, unearthed the original tapes and finished recording the album in summer 2019 at the same London studio where the original sessions had taken place.

‘Rejoice’ can be seen as the long overdue confluence of two mighty African musical rivers – a union of two free-flowing souls for whom borders, whether physical or stylistic, are things to pass through or ignore completely. According to Allen, the album deals in “a kind of South African-Nigerian swing-jazz stew”, with its roots firmly in Afrobeat. Allen and Masekela are accompanied on the record by a new generation of well-respected jazz musicians including Tom Herbert (Acoustic Ladyland / The Invisible), Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective), Mutale Chashi (Kokoroko) and Steve Williamson.

Back in the 80s I became a big funk, jazz, and soul vinyl collector; which opened the incredible world of the late, great Mr. Weldon Johnathan Irvine. Back in the 90s I was lucky enough to meet him; Mr. Irvine was such a calm and gentle person; he just oozed music. This laidback, kind quality resonates in his music. On this 45, we trip through the jazzy journey of Weldon’s innovative keyboard work through to the double bass, and horns on the A. On the B we’re in a smoky bar, with yer homies,, chillin n grooving, as the melodica and guitar head-nod us along. Sublime.

It is a great honour to be able to release some of his music from his Nodlow music label on to 7” for the first time.

This has to be the holy grail of Weldon’s work, with his unique interstellar musical language. Back in the early 70s, Weldon Irvine was well ahead of his time both with his relatively radical, ‘modern’ jazz scores, and his overtly humanist lyrics. The almost Alice in Wonderland world of the late great Mr Weldon Johnathan Irvine, is one to get totally submerged in. Mr Irvine was such a calm and gentle person who just oozed music, baring his soul onto vinyl. It is such a great honour to be able to release some of my absolute must-haves, from his Nodlow music label on to 7” for the first time.

First recorded in 1973 and released on Nodlow records, we have taken 3 wonderful tracks from the epic “Time Capsule” LP – “Déjà vu” this quirky, yet catchy, song has been edited down, from 9 minutes to 3mins 43secs and this is the first time on 7’ for this 45 release. Weldon on Keys and vocals; back up with Emerson Cain; Lenny White on Drums; Tony Wiles, percussion; and Alex Blake on bass. Speaking to the family, I found out that Weldon had wanted to release a 7” of this back in the day, but it never happened, so this is for you, Weldon.
On the flip is “I am”, A spiritual interlude of words, and a feel that bring Weldon into the room, poetic masterpiece of earthly ideas and musical chords.
“Bananas” is a 90s Jazz Club dancer, this again shows Weldon doing his thang. Super funky drums and bass; plus it has that signature Weldon turn around rift

Mercury Prize nominee Warren Hampshire (The Bees) and Prolific British Jazzer Greg Foat return with their 5th Album

An instrumental Suite based on a day in their home town of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. Featuring local musicians and field recordings of bird song and pubs, this album captures the essence of life in this seaside town.

60 million streams after their 2nd opus Running To The Moon, the duo's 3rd album, War Is Over, is a dive into 70's funk and soul with the same will to get the essential: the beauty of the melodies and the implacable groove. The Hip-Hop instrumentals on which singers and MCs seem to have more fun than ever, serve as a link to the whole.

Recorded mainly in Bordeaux, this new opus marks a turning point in the group's production method. The brass section present on the Running To The Moon tour was involved in the composition and thus brings a more organic touch to the sound of the album.

As usual, the duo has surrounded themselves with a horde of cult singers and MCs: R.A The Rugged Man, Pav4n & Illaman, Yoshi Di Original, Blake Worrell, MysDiggi or the young hopeful Yudimah (Fair 2020 winner) and the Englishman C.W Jones.

War is Over sounds like a declaration of love to black American music, from Early Jazz to Hip Hop, via Soul and Funk.

Life is Worth Living, officially a second LP from El Niño Andrés, comes 9 years after its debut LP "Más Dinero Más Problemas", but sound wise it's still walking on the borderline between house, jazz and soul. El Niño's usual combination of Rhodes and Moog improvisations on top of house and jazz-funk drum-lines is present on all album tracks, with live sax additions on "Come Closer" and "Mercy Mercy". Album is an uptempo affair, but as usual with Jackie Brown releases, not your straightforward 4x4 routine - poly-rhythms and percussion drive "Wasting Your Life" and "Soul", while "The Approach of Midnight" sounds like it could have been placed straight into a Tenet soundtrack LP.

‘The Soul Jazz label once again proves how smart they are with excellent Studio One Groups, an almost overwhelming set of killer cuts from bands and singing groups affiliated with Clement Coxsone Dodd’s ‘University of Reggae.’ There’s an amazing, deep history to be explored and even when you focus on just the groups, one disc isn’t enough to tell the whole story, but this collection functions as both a killer mixtape and exciting introduction for novices.’ ALL MUSIC

Soul Jazz Records’ classic ‘Studio One Groups’ collection is now available in three new one-off limited-edition coloured pressing anniversary format editions! A heavyweight gatefold special edition red 2xLP vinyl + download. Secondly, there is also a new special one-off edition red-pressed CD enclosed in jewel case and slipcase. And thirdly there is a very limited unique new one-time-only high-quality studio style tape (the same quality used for reel-to-reel studio tapes) cassette format release manufactured on red caseing cassette!
15 years on from its original release Studio One Groups remains one of the toughest of all Soul Jazz/Studio One releases and features some of the biggest groups in the history of Reggae music including Bob Marley and The Wailers, Toots and the Maytals and The Heptones who all began their careers at 13 Brentford Road, under the guidance of the great producer and label owner Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd.
Featuring many, many classic and killer tunes from The Wailing Souls, Carlton and His Shoes, The Gladiators, The Ethiopians, The Mad Lads and more. Studio One Groups brings together numerous classic artists alongside a number of rarities and delves into Studio One’s musical output in its prime in the 1960s and 70s featuring Ska, Roots, Rocksteady, Dub and more. Clement Dodd’s role in launching and nurturing Reggae groups and singers is unsurpassed and Studio One’s success was due to Dodd’s ability to see talent, surround himself with it and nurture artists.
Launching Bob Marley and The Wailers career at Studio One also meant housing Marley in a flat in the studio compound, as well as employing Marley in an A&R role, checking out the latest American soul and jazz 45s that came out for Studio One artists to cover. In similar fashion Leroy Sibbles, lead vocalist with the Heptones, became the key in-house bass player after being taught from scratch by Jackie Mittoo.
Studio One Groups were at the heart of the label’s success. The sweet three-part harmonies, so close to the heart of Jamaican music, can be heard throughout every stylistic change of Reggae music – Ska, Rocksteady, Roots and beyond - all of which are featured here in all their vocalised glory.
The album comes with excellent informative sleevenotes by the author and Studio One discographer Rob Chapman, and exclusive photography including the stunning colour picture of Bob Marley and the Wailers on the front of the release.




‘Featuring Bob Marley and the Wailers, Toots and the Maytals, the Heptones - just three of reggae’s greatest groups who all started at Clement Dodd’s Studio One records’
ROUGH TRADE

Singer-songwriter-keyboardist Jarrod Lawson emerged seemingly out of nowhere, at the age of 37, with a self-produced debut album that took the world of soul and jazz by storm.

Within a whirlwind couple of years the former stonemason and piano tuner from Portland, Oregon played sold-out shows at London’s Ronnie Scott’s Club and Jazz Cafe, headlined the London Shepherds Bush Empire, performed at the London Jazz Festival, Love Supreme and North Sea Jazz festivals and powered his way into the Dutch Top 40 album chart. He has since performed at Billboard Live in Tokyo, in
Melbourne, at Indonesia’s Java Jazz festival and at leading jazz venues across the United States,

Describing him as the “blue eyed soul boy of jazz”, the London Evening Standard wrote: “It’s not just
Lawson’s wide ranging tenor and ability to swing, scat and groove that has made him the biggest soul-jazz sensation in years. It’s the way he’s bringing spirituality back to a genre that had lost its depth”.

Lawson is now back, with his long-awaited second album “Be The Change” – on 2LP vinyl in a gatefold package with full lyrics - accompanied by a talented band that benefits from the rhythmic presence of Grammy-nominated percussionist Sammy Figueroa, whose playing in a lengthy career has graced dozens of albums from artists as diverse as Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Quincy Jones to Hall & Oates, Chic and Carole King.

Lawson’s trademark layered harmonies and vocal phrasing, his jazz fusion arrangements and his stunning keyboard skills are in evidence throughout the album, notably on title track “Be The Change”, “Universal Chord” and “How Long”. On the beautiful, intimate “I’ll Be Your Radio” he is joined by Moonchild’s Amber Navran on vocals and flute and her fellow members of the Los Angeles alternative R&B trio who contribute clarinet and flugelhorn, and on the smouldering torch song “Love Isn’t Always Enough” Max Ribner’s
trumpet and flugel provide the perfect mood-setting accompaniment.


Lawson grew up surrounded by music. His father ran a recording studio in the family’s Redwood City,
California home. After moving to Portland he studied music and was a member of his college chamber choir and jazz ensemble. His near obsession with the piano blossomed when he was only 13 as he
studied the masters from Chopin to Oscar Peterson, Ravel to Errol Garner, as well as Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell and, of course, the artists who have influenced him the most - Donny Hathaway and Stevie
Wonder. Whether he sings and plays jazz, funk or rock ultimately “everything he touches turns to soul”, as one critic wrote.

Following the release of his debut album he received an Artist of the Year award from the UK’s Jazz FM and was runner up for Album of the Year at tastemaker DJ Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards

Private Press Spiritual Jazz from D.C's Jeff Majors. Featuring harp, drum machines and synths. Jeff was one of Alice Coltrane's students at the ashram. He also played in Brother Ah's band. Each song on this album is an inspired vision of the personal and the devotional via the harps universal gilstening range and Linn drums. Comes with info booklet. TIP!

Classic Miles Davis LP pressed on 180 gram vinyl, with a bonus CD digipack included containing the complete album ‘Birth Of The Cool’ album plus 11 bonus tracks and updated liner notes.
“The virtuosity led to relaxing, stylish mood music as the end result - the very thing that came to define West Coast or ‘cool’ jazz - but this music is so inventive, it remains alluring even after its influence has been thoroughly absorbed into the mainstream.” - **** AllMusic (Stephen Thomas Erlewine)

Classic Miles Davis LP pressed on 180 gram vinyl, with a bonus CD digipack included containing the complete album ‘Birth Of The Cool’ album plus 11 bonus tracks and updated liner notes.
“The virtuosity led to relaxing, stylish mood music as the end result - the very thing that came to define West Coast or ‘cool’ jazz - but this music is so inventive, it remains alluring even after its influence has been thoroughly absorbed into the mainstream.” - **** AllMusic (Stephen Thomas Erlewine)

Classic Miles Davis LP pressed on 180 gram vinyl, with a bonus CD digipack included containing the complete album ‘Birth Of The Cool’ album plus 11 bonus tracks and updated liner notes.
“The virtuosity led to relaxing, stylish mood music as the end result - the very thing that came to define West Coast or ‘cool’ jazz - but this music is so inventive, it remains alluring even after its influence has been thoroughly absorbed into the mainstream.” - **** AllMusic (Stephen Thomas Erlewine)

1981 South African Soul-Funk-Jazz from the master tape vault of the As-Shams/The Sun label by the creator of the Black Disco albums. As underground jazz fermented in the social and political powder keg of early-80s South Africa, composer and bandleader Pops Mohamed retired the Black Disco moniker in favour of Movement in the City. Their second offering yielded one of the most treasured releases in the As-Shams catalogue by way of Black Teardrops (SRK 786150), a singular blend of down-tempo and atmospheric South African rare groove featuring Dollar Brand saxophonist Basil "Manenberg" Coetzee and bass wizard Sipho Gumede on stand-out cuts like "Lament" and "Camel Walk." This carefully restored Sharp-Flat reissue in an edition of 500 puts the album back in print for the first time in 40 years.

‘The Afro Modern Seventies Sounds of Soweto’s First Nightclub

• Over ten years in the making, this is the first compilation from South African vinyl re-issue specialists Matsuli Music

• Ten track double gatefold album journey through jazz, funk, fusion and disco, detailing the incredible story and sounds behind the Soweto nightclub during the height of apartheid

• Uniquely South African take on the trans-Atlantic sounds of Philadelphia, Detroit and New York City

• Cover artwork by Zulu Bidi (of Batsumi fame) with unseen photographs, and liner notes by Kwanele Sosibo featuring interviews with key musicians, players and a former president of South Africa

• Audio mastered and cut for vinyl by Frank Merritt at The Carvery with heavyweight 180g vinyl pressed at Pallas in Germany

A night-time haunt in the backstreets of Soweto run by a well-known bootlegger should have been a prime zone for nefarious underworld activities. Instead, it nurtured an underground of a different kind. Soon after its opening in 1973, Club Pelican became a spot where musicians steeped in the tradition of South African jazz began to cook up experimental sounds inspired by communion, competition and the movements in funk and soul blowing in from the West. Located in an industrial park on the western edge of Orlando East, Soweto, Club Pelican was off the beaten track, among a matrix of railway and industrial infrastructure. In a different time and place, this would have been a prototypical nightclub location, except there was no local precedent to follow. This was Soweto’s first night club.
In the intervening years, this location has served to heighten the now-defunct spot’s legendary status as a singular venue, one that ruled the night in the Seventies. Initially called Lucky’s and established in 1973, the Pelican’s impact on the Soweto cultural landscape was immediate. Lorded over by a charismatic figure known as Lucky Michaels, the club became the jewel in a nondescript collection of family businesses. It boasted a diverse pool of talent in its succession of house bands and an A-list of ghetto-fabulous singers as

its cabaret stars. Its VIP section was a veritable who’s who of Soweto society and its stage, hosting a mix of the day’s pop culture infused with the creativity and individual histories of the musicians, the Pelican filled a live music vacuum.
One Night in Pelican captures the halcyon seventies period with a single nightclub embodying an indomitable spirit of its troubadour players. While schooled and rooted in “standards” and local forms, the music could take any direction, at a moment’s notice. This compilation features all the key groups and players of the time: Abacothozi, Almon Memela’s Soweto, The Black Pages, Dick Khoza and the Afro Pedlars, The Drive, Ensemble of Rhythm and Art , The Headquarters, Makhona Zonke Band, the Shyannes and Spirits Rejoice.’

LP on blue marbled vinyl in printed innersleeve.This talented jazz trio stands out, not only for excellence in musicianship but also for its unique blend of effected vibraphone leading the beast from jazz funk to hiphop punk.

RKDIA are releasing their debut album: ‘Into RKDIA’. The album was written in Zanzibar, where the duo escaped the Nordic winter for some warm inspiration.

The duo consisting of Danish Morten Schantz (synth + vocals) and Swedish-Norwegian Anton Eger (drums) are well-known names on the jazz and fusion scenes of Europe. For a while now, both have been pushing the envelope, applying jazz logic in all sorts of unconventional shapes and places, seeking out the new and unheard.