Home » Jazz News
Music Industry News
Timely announcements covering new album releases, tours, concert series, special events, job postings, crowdfunding campaigns and more. You can find more news by searching our website, viewing our news stream, seeing what's trending or reading our blog posts. Subscribe to our news RSS feed and/or embed AAJ news content on your website or blog. Learn about our news service here. Submit news here.
'Boom Bu-Cha' Launches The Groovalottos Into The World Of Afrobeats
Source:
Mwalim DaPhunkee Professor
The GroovaLottos boldly thump into the global, Afrobeats arena with their new single, “Boom Bu-Cha” and forthcoming album (Polyphonic Studios Records). True to Groovalotto form, “Boom Bu-Cha” is a fun and funky adventure in romance, delving beyond the physical into the dreams, plans and goals of a potential lover. Known primarily as a retro soul-funk band, Afrobeats has been a part of The GroovaLottos live set since the beginning, with the influences of Fela Kuti and Hugh Masakala sneaking through. ...
Continue Reading
Deep Dive: Somewhere in the Night
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
The theme song most people know best for Naked City, a popular TV police-drama series that aired from 1958 to 1963, was called Somewhere in the Night. But it was referred to most often as the Naked City Theme, largely because there already was an older and completely different pop song called Somewhere in the Night that Frank Sinatra and others had recorded. That wasn't the only bit of confusion. The original song for the series from 1958-'59 was This ...
Continue Reading
Early Salsa: The Story of Ghetto Records
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
If you plan on discussing the origins of salsa, you'd better make a large pot of Café Rico coffee. You're going to be arguing late into the night. There are multiple definitions of the music as well as a raging debate over its roots, starting point and how it evolved. To me, as a former resident of Washington Heights, the definition is rather simple: salsa began at the dawn of the 1970s and followed the boogaloo as a popular style ...
Continue Reading
The Six: Complete Recordings, 1954-;56
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Not many jazz fans are familiar with the Six, a progressive jazz sextet in the mid-1950s with roots in Dixieland of the late 1940s. The migration from one style to another was an interesting one, with personnel changes and a shift in feel. What's especially enlightening is the line that runs from Dixieland to bop. Both share frantic, hot instrumentals coming and going as well as a passion for high energy and harmony. Now we can hear all of the ...
Continue Reading
Cult Funk Group Brooklyn Funk Essentials New Single ‘Scream!’ Out Now
Source:
Press Junkie PR
The cult funk ensemble Brooklyn Funk Essentials have released their exciting new single “Scream!" today (13th July 2022). “Scream!" is taken from the group’s hotly anticipated seventh studio album Intuition, which will come out in November 2022 on Dorado Records, the original label who first signed the band in 1994. “Scream!" is an infectious and uplifting funk and afrobeat jam, a syncopated groove wrapped by powerful Tower Of Power style horns and percussion, with lyrics that make a shout for ...
Continue Reading
Jhelisa New Single ‘Oxygen’ Out Now On Dorado Records
Source:
Press Junkie PR
She’s back. Released today on Dorado Records, musical maverick Jhelisa returns with a triumphant masterpiece, “Oxygen,' a breath-taking, expansive, unapologetic 11-minute opus. Underpinned by her glorious, deeply seductive voice, remarkable in its power and spiritual force, the richly nuanced track journeys through sections of hypnotic rhythms, infectious hooks, probing jazz lines, African chanting, blues-drenched harmonica, pacey percussion and slower slices of sweet soul jazz. The sound is an exciting sonic assault featuring a masterful band that includes legendary bassist Oteil ...
Continue Reading
Virgil Gonsalves: Sextet and Big Band
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
We tend to think of West Coast jazz as a style centered exclusively in Los Angeles. While much of the relaxed, contrapuntal sound did evolve in the suburbs of the city in the 1950s, San Francisco also had a West Coast sound that was slightly more intensive. Artists who emerged from the San Francisco jazz experience in the late 1940s and '50s included Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Cal Tjader, Dick Collins, David Van Kriedt, Bill Smith, Vince Guaraldi, Eddie Duran ...
Continue Reading
Backgrounder: 'Bossa'
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Continuing with my Backgrounder series, today I decided to share with you the 1966 Brazilian album entitled Bossa, by the Conjunto Copacabana Bossa, or the Copacabana Bossa Set. Produced and arranged by gutiarist Paulo Tito (above), the group included members of the Banzo Trio—Nelson Racy (p), Ditinho (b) and Howard França (d) as well as an unknown guitarist (Tito?), tenor saxophonist, flutist, trumpeter and vocalist. What I love about this album is its hotel feel. One senses that if we ...
Continue Reading
