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Lonnie Liston Smith: Jazz Is Dead 17
by Richard J Salvucci
If someone has not released a recording in twenty five years, it must be a special occasion. Lonnie Liston Smith went out west, met a Fender Rhodes piano and, voila, conjured up the '70s again. So, technology and memory presumably explain the appearance of this recording, part of the ironically named Jazz is Dead label's series, founded in 2017 by music producers Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest), concert producer Andrew Lojero and industry veteran Adam Block. ...
read moreTony Allen: Jazz Is Dead 18
by Chris May
Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad's Jazz Is Dead continues its mission “to exalt the legacies of iconic musicians who have shaped the fabric of jazz across generations, genres and continents." The label's summer 2023 album features the late great Tony Allen. Jazz Is Dead 18 presents the Nigerian jazz and Afrobeat drum legend, who passed in 2020, alongside multi-instrumentalist Younge and an eight-piece horn section. It is gritty, elemental stuff and should ring the bell of most, if not ...
read moreLonnie Liston Smith: Jazz Is Dead 17
by Chris May
Having kicked off 2023 with one of the strongest albums in its catalogue--Phil Ranelin and Wendell Harrison's Jazz Is Dead 16--Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge's label continues on a roll. Jazz Is Dead 17 finds the two producers in their funked-up comfort zone and relishing it. Strange but true, Jazz Is Dead 17 is Lonnie Liston Smith's first newly recorded album release since 1998. And while it does not rise to the heights of classics such ...
read morePhil Ranelin & Wendell Harrison: Jazz Is Dead 16
by Chris May
There is much to love about Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad's Jazz Is Dead label and an equal amount to hate. The production duo's declared mission is “to foreground legends from the past" and “to highlight their contributions" to popular music in general and jazz in particular. Admirable. Spread the love. Trouble is, the results are inconsequential as often as they are substantial. When it works, as on bassist Henry Franklin's Jazz Is Dead 14 (2022), the music will ...
read moreHenry Franklin: Jazz Is Dead 14
by Chris May
Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad's Jazz Is Dead label is a moveable feast when it comes to consistency. In its fourteen albums date, there have been some great ones, some not so great ones and a couple of duds. With bassist Henry Franklin, however, the label has come up with a blinder, its most satisfying disc to date. Los Angeles-based Franklin is not well known beyond musician circles, but his track record is distinguished. He has released ...
read moreKatalyst: Jazz Is Dead 13
by Chris May
Drab graphic design aside, the semiology of the Jazz Is Dead label promises good things. The name itself suggests music that is the opposite of dead--something vibrant, inventive, of its time--while the label's co-founders, producers Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge, are active in the struggle for universal social justice. On top of that, Muhammad was a founder member of A Tribe Called Quest, for many people the most incisive rap group of the 1990s, and one with a reputation ...
read moreBrian Jackson: Jazz Is Dead 8: Brian Jackson
by Karl Ackermann
The Jazz is Dead series of recordings is neither trying to bury or resurrect the genre. It largely exists on the periphery where “jazz" is either a prefix or suffix. The project, launched by musician-producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad in 2020, is prolific and elastic in its choice of artists and styles. Younge and Muhammad's connections to jazz are purely inspirational. Muhammad's renowned hip hop group, A Tribe Called Quest, was known to sample from jazz. Younge holds ...
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