Jazz de Ville

Tony Allen dies at 79

Pioneering Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, a co-founder of the afrobeat musical genre, died in Paris on Thursday aged 79, his manager says.

"We don't know the exact cause of death," Eric Trosset told AFP, adding it was not linked to the coronavirus.

Allen was the drummer and musical director of musician Fela Kuti's famous band Africa '70 in the 1960-70s.

Kuti, who died in 1997, once said that "without Tony Allen, there would be no afrobeat".

Kahil El'Zabar ft. David Murray - In My House (Single)

The legendary multi-percussionist, composer and leader, Kahil El’Zabar, releases ‘In My House’ taken from his upcoming album ‘Kahil El’Zabar’s Spirit Groove ft. David Murray’, a true message of hope in these challenging times. 

In this unique collaboration with the tenor sax colossus David Murray, they explore the varied realms of jazz & groove, with ’Spirit Groove’ being the defining moment upon their incredible journey to meaningful, spiritual art. They’re joined by two extraordinary talents, Emma Dayhuff on acoustic bass and Justin Dillard on synth, organ & piano. 

Taken from a phenomenal album that brings a new, elevated dimension to the Spirit of Groove, ‘In My House’ is of-this-moment relevant, fun and uplifting - an ode to the beauty and resilience of the human spirit. In Kahil El’Zabar’s house you can pray, reach to the soul, sing and dance… day or night! And everyone’s invited!

Daniel Haaksman - Black Atlantica Edits

In 2004, Haaksman put Brazilian baile funk on the map with his seminal “Rio Baile Funk Favela Booty Beats” compilation. Today he runs Man Recordings, Europe’s leading tropical bass label, which has put out more than one hundred releases cultivating trans-continental music and sound dialogues between Europe, South America and Africa.

For “Black Atlantica Edits”, Daniel presents ten dancefloor-friendly reworks, made both from vintage and current tracks, from all across the Americas and Africa. Featuring a diverse cast of international artists including Francis Bebey, CK Mann, Soul Brothers, Bonde Do Rôlé and Kaba Blon, this album explores the Afro-Latin diaspora, with edits that consistently grace the record crates of Gilles Peterson and Mr Scruff among others.

The album’s title refers to the Paul Gilroy’s 1993 book “The Black Atlantic : Modernity and Double Consciousness”. In it Gilroy examines how the Black diasporic history of the Atlantic challenges art and knowledge to find new forms – with music being particularly important. Daniel Haaksman picked up on Gilroy ́s idea of the Black Atlantic as a transnational cultural realm when putting together his musical deconstructions and reworks for his “Black Atlantica Edits”.

Daniel intentionally added an “a” to the “Atlantic” to point out to the non- English, Portuguese, Spanish or French speaking cultures that are part of the wider Black Atlantic space, e.g. Brazil and Angola, and to a further extent also countries like Peru, Cameroon or Mali, which all have been touched by the trans-continental dialogues and its hybrid culture. 

Tom Misch/Yussef Dayes - What Kinda Music

Here's something to set the pulse racing: an impossible-to-pigeonhole full-length collaboration between South London beat-maker/singer/songwriter Tom Misch and prolific jazz drummer Yussef Dayes (best known for his now long-running collaboration with Kamaal Williams). Both musicians exceed themselves throughout, with tipsy electronics, sweeping strings, warm jazz-funk bass, effects-laden guitars, woozy synth lines and Misch's heartfelt, soul-flecked vocals offering a perfect foil for Dayes' loose-limbed, headline-grabbing jazz drumming. This "deluxe edition" not only comes with a trio of extra tracks, but also a booklet containing sheet music and a plectrum/guitar pick made from recycled plastic.

Laila Biali - Out Of Dust

For nearly every major triumph-a highly acclaimed return to jazz, winning the JUNO Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, touring the world-the singer-songwriter has faced private debilitating crises. In just a few short years, Biali lost a close friend to cancer, mourned a family member's suicide, and was diagnosed with two auto-immune disorders that threatened to upend her career. It was a period of change and heartache-but it was also a season of great inspiration and hope. The result is Biali's deeply personal new album, Out of Dust.

V/A - Early Works: Funk, Soul & Afro Rarities from the Archives

ATA Records is pleased to announce the release of Early Works: Funk, Soul & Afro Rarities From The Archive, a compilation of tracks that were recorded at the very outset of the label and haven't been available since the initial limited run (Released as Funk, Soul & Afro Rarities: An Introduction To ATA Records on Here and Now Recordings) sold out 5 years ago.

Since 2013 label founders and musicians Neil Innes & Pete Williams have been tirelessly fulfilling their shared dream of making the records they weren't hearing. Having spent years working in various bands both players felt the desire to break free of the constraints of working within another band and started on the slow path to creative autonomy by starting to work on the 12 tracks presented on this compilation.While deliberating their next steps they were approached by Here & Now records who licensed the 12 tracks and released them under the titleFunk, Soul & Afro Rarities: An Introduction To ATA Recordsin 2014 as a limited run of 300 copies that sold out within weeks of release.

Now in 2020, celebrating their 5th year of running successfully as a label in their own right, ATA are re-releasing these 12 tracks on a new vinyl pressing under the titleEarly Works: Funk, Soul & Afro Rarities From The Archivewith new artwork and liner notes that detail the labels birth.

The compilation features 12 tracks that include the very first 3 tracks from The Sorcerers that led to their self-titled debut LP & the first proper release on ATA, as well as the first recordings by The Mandatory Eight and The Yorkshire Film and Television Orchestra.

Roy Ayers JID002

In February 2018, Roy Ayers performed four sold out shows in Los Angeles as part of the Jazz Is Dead Black History Month series.  It wasn’t until 2020 that fans of Ayers discovered that in addition to those shows, the legendary vibraphone player had also recorded an entire album of new material with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.  
Over the course of its eight original compositions, written collaboratively by Younge, Shaheed Muhammad & Ayers and recorded at Younge’s Linear Labs in Los Angeles, the resulting album sounds both like an unearthed an unreleased album from Ayers’ classic period in the 1970s (which produced the oft-sampled “Red, Black & Green,” “We Live In Brooklyn, Baby,” “Everybody Loves The Sunshine,” and “Running Away), as well as something startling, new and unexpected.  
Joining Ayers, Younge & Shaheed Muhammad on this musical journey are drummer Greg Paul, vocalists Loren Oden, Joy Gilliam, Saudia Yasmein, Elgin Clark & Anitra Castleberry, as well as Phil Ranelin & Wendell Harrison of the legendary Spiritual Jazz label Tribe Records.
The 8 tracks on this album testify to the love not only of a legendary musician’s legacy, but to the vitality & necessity of this music and these sounds in the present era, a thread that will likely run throughout all of the upcoming releases from Jazz Is Dead Records.

Releases June 19, 2020

Martin Buscaglia - Basta de Musica

Uruguayan singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Martín Buscaglia returns with the new album Basta de Música (enough with the music), a dazzling and often surprising record of folk, electronica with a traditional Uruguayan shake.

A key figure in the Southern Cone contemporary music scene for some years now, his chameleon like approach to music, matching a range of different Latin American genres with psychedelic grooves, has repeatedly earned him the moniker of ‘Montevideo's Beck’. 

His variable approach to music is perhaps best demonstrated in the singles that have preceded this album. The bouncy, uptempo Me Enamoré is followed by the sweet, lo-fi folk of Para Vencer. The third and final single, the bass heavy and glitchy Chuza, is yet another change in pace. 

Kathy Kosins/Huber Laws - Fancy Free

The Kosins /Laws duet celebrates the 50th anniversary of the song.

Produced by Paul Randolph & Kamau Kenyatta

New Lyrics composed by Paul Randolph 

Original concept by Kamau Kenyatta .

In 1970 Composer Donald Byrd described the concept behind his song "Fancy Free" as :

“I’m me and a lot of different things interest me at different times...I’m not pressing to be something other than myself..."

Blye/Swallow/Sheppard - Life Goes On

The third volume of a sequence of albums begun with Trios in 2013 and continued with Andando El Tiempo (2016), Life Goes On – once more recorded in Lugano and produced by Manfred Eicher - features striking new music from American pianist/composer Carla Bley, whose trio with saxophonist Andy Sheppard and bassist Swallow has a long history. (Their first recording in trio format was Songs with Legs, recorded for the ECM-distributed WATT label in 1994.) Bley has composed for ensembles of every size but, over time, the trio has established itself as an ideal unit for expressing the essence of her work. Throughout Life Goes On, Carla's terse, distinctive piano, shaping phrases irreducible as Monk or Satie, is beautifully framed by Swallow's eloquent, elegant bass guitar and Sheppard's yearning saxes. This trio has a unique collective sound, reflecting – as The Telegraph recently noted – "musical mastery of a rare order". 

"We've learned to breathe together when we play," Carla told the Charleston City Paper recently. "I hear our voices in my mind's ear as I compose for us. I especially relish the conversational flow the trio format allows. We're essentially a chamber music ensemble, and this allows me to write music for us free of bombast and exaggeration. Music stripped down to its basic elements. This format also demands that, as players, we improvise in the character of each particular song, which is both a challenge and, on a good night, a great satisfaction. "

The new compositions featured here, all penned by Bley, take the form of three suites, each of which was widely previewed and fine-tuned by the group at concert and festival appearances in the US and Europe prior to the May 2019 recording session at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in Lugano. "This is music we've been preparing for the last three years," Carla Bley told DownBeat, when the trio played the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, as part of ECM's 50th anniversary celebrations. "The reason we're touring is to be able to practice it every night and get it right, because it's finally going to get put down. It'll always be the same once it's recorded." If this seems unlikely, given the improvisational capacity of the participants, the recording does have a definitive air about it. 

Montreux Jazz

No text needed ;-)

North Sea Jazz festival 2020

The annual biggest jazz festival in Holland. Do we need to say more?