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Dwight Trible: Mothership
by Chris May
The Beatles' Revolver (Parlophone, 1966), recorded while the band were out of their skulls on high-voltage lysergic acid diethylamide, was the first masterpiece of British psychedelic rock. One of the album's highlights, the sitar-drenched closing track, Tomorrow Never Knows," still sounds potent enough to trigger a flashback. Remarkably, Dwight Trible's version of Tomorrow Never ...
Louis Hayes / Junior Cook Quintet: At Onkel Po's Carnegie Hall: Hamburg 1976
by Chris May
In 1976, when At Onkel Po's Carnegie Hall was recorded, hard bop was viewed as nostalgia-based heritage music by the young lions of American jazz. But for drummer Louis Hayes, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, trumpeter Woody Shaw, pianist Ronnie Matthews, and bassist Stafford James--whose paths had crossed and recrossed in bands led by Horace Silver, Art ...
Timeless All Stars: At Onkel Po's Carnegie Hall: Hamburg 1982
by Chris May
They were timeless and they were all stars. Bobby Hutcherson, Harold Land, Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton, Buster Williams and Billy Higgins got together in the early 1980s to play post-hard-bop jazz in the studio and on the US and European performance circuits. The band recorded three fine albums between 1982 and 1986. At Onkel Po's Carnegie ...
The Comet Is Coming: Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery
by Chris May
In 2018, saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings' Sons Of Kemet became the first British band to be signed to the canonical US label Impulse. That partnership has now been augmented with the futuristic trio The Comet Is Coming, in which Hutchings goes under the alias King Shabaka. Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery is ...
Kokoroko: Kokoroko
by Chris May
If you ask an Afrobeat fan to name their favourite bands--excluding lineups led by Fela Kuti during his lifetime--the probability is that their top five choices will include Seun Kuti's Egypt 80 and Femi Kuti's Positive Force, both based in Lagos, along with Dele Sosimi's Afrobeat Orchestra, based in London. Other credible outfits have emerged, but ...
Zara McFarlane: East Of The River Nile
by Chris May
As a teaser for her upcoming album, the divine Zara McFarlane has released a 4-track EP revisiting Jamaican dub and rockers wizard Augustus Pablo's canonical 1977 single East Of The River Nile." McFarlane's disc, on which her wordless vocals stay close to Pablo's original melodica topline, showcases her signature blend of jazz and Caribbean music to ...
Sarah Tandy: Infection In The Sentence
by Chris May
Sarah Tandy made a mark on the alternative London jazz scene three years ago as the pianist on alto saxophonist Camilla George's luminous debut, Isang (Ubuntu). More recently, she has played piano and keyboards on two other headline albums: George's The People Could Fly (Ubuntu, 2018), and alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi's SEED Ensemble's debut, Driftglass (Jazz ...
Ustad Saami: God Is Not A Terrorist
by Chris May
God Is Not A Terrorist is by no stretch of the imagination a jazz album, but it contains deep and authentic music and will appeal to some AAJers. Ustad Saami is a master of the Pakistani vocal style known as surti, which is characterized by its use of microtones. Microtones are widely used in music throughout ...
Various Artists: Spiritual Jazz 9: Blue Notes Parts 1 & 2
by Chris May
The ninth volume in Jazzman's Spiritual Jazz series is a 2 x CD (and 2 x double LP) compilation from the Blue Note catalogue. Just over half the material was recorded between 1964 and 1966, the final years during which the label was steered by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff and when the go-to engineer was ...
Theon Cross: Fyah
by Chris May
Over the last two years years the disruptive slice of the London jazz scene has produced an abundance of four-going-on-five-star albums, but even among such company Fyah stands out. Performed by a tuba, tenor saxophone and drums trio, augmented on two tracks, it is a work of majestic proportions, the embodiment of the neoteric London sound. ...


