Jazz de Ville

Horatio Luna - Yes Doctor

‘Yes Doctor’ is the debut LP from Henry Hicks AKA Horatio Luna. The eclectic Melbourne shape-shifter solidifies his place within ‘house music’ on Yes Doctor as Dub, Jazz & Bruk bleed into one another - stretching further the thread that binds one to the other whilst mapping and exploring the space between. 

From Horatio: 
"I have always played music that is a fusion of styles and as ‘Horatio Luna’. I always want there to be a connection to House music. I was exploring the parallels between every style I could think of and mixing it with house. I was pushing aesthetic boundaries, things I felt I hadn’t heard before, searching for new music, 'Not box-able music'. Yes Doctor is a coming of age record. I was pushing myself to the limit musically and challenging myself in every aspect of life".

The Preacher Men - Live at the Bimhuis

Three men, three instruments.
Saxophone, organ & drums.
Air vibrating, creating jangle, rumble & pulse.

These sounds blend
and become music
in the ear of the listener.
The synergy between musicians
and audience
brings music to life.

Live music played at one of
The finest music venues in the world;
the BIMHUIS.
A home to jazz music for more than 45 years.

‘LIVE AT BIMHUIS’

(Efraim Trujillo)

Nightmares on Wax - Smokers Delight (25th anniversary edition)

In our anything-goes age, it is worth remembering that the music Nightmares On Wax made in the 90s was radical for the way that it spliced together sonic styles with aptitude. Smokers Delight, Nightmare On Wax’s 1995 sophomore LP, is one of the finest examples of the project’s boundary-pushing sound. This record was well ahead of its time for the way that it mixed trip-hop, hip-hop breaks, Latin percussion and downtempo electronics. As well as being highly innovative the record is also effortlessly cool, its low-end theory on cruise control throughout its 72-minute runtime. Along with the likes of Coldcut, DJ Food, Massive Attack and Beck, Nightmares On Wax created a bold vision for the post-genre future here, one that still exerts great influence over many contemporary artists.

When a classic album like Smokers Delight is primed for reissue, it is common to find rare cuts from around the time of the original release included as bonus beats. However, this new edition of Smokers Delight sees Nightmares On Wax doing something a little different. Two of the four additional tracks here, ‘Let’s Ascend’ and ‘Aquaself’, are in fact completely new numbers which have been created with the same instruments, studio equipment, processes and techniques that were used when Nightmares On Wax came up with Smokers Delight all those years ago. As such, these cuts form a delightful bridge between the old and new Nightmares on Wax aesthetics, combining the languid breaks of old with that textural richness which has characterized more recent LPs like Shape The Future. We are also graced with a new funk mix of ‘Dreddoverboard’ and a luxurious, sprawling live take of ‘Nights Introlude’ taped in Chicago in 2014.

Warp and Nightmares On Wax celebrate the twenty-fifth birthday of the project’s seminal, inventive trip-hop joint Smokers Delight LP with a reissue that comes bolstered by new beats, a live take and an alternate mix.

Oveous - Hyper Soul: Fire

Poet, singer, producer and DJ OVEOUS joins forces with BBE Music for the first of a series of three interconnected EPs on the label, titled FIRE, HEART and MEDICINE.

Crafting his ‘Hyper Soul’ sound since 2007, OVEOUS first made waves with a guest appearance on Osunlade’s “Mirror Dance”, followed by his own production “I Apologize”, which was released on Yoruba Records with remixes from Ezel and Atjazz. OVEOUS has since gone on to work with Roy Ayers, Louie Vega and Boddhi Satva, earning himself well- deserved recognition from the global community as a truly original new voice in House and electronic music.

Three new original EPs on BBE; ‘FIRE’, ‘HEART’ and ‘MEDICINE’, together will complete a musical story that traces the artist’s personal growth, relationships and his “journey through the wonderful, curious maze that is love over the last decade”. As OVEOUS puts it, the project “showcases how I’ve matured in relationships and how I’ve learned to navigate my ego and my heart when times have been dark.”

So we begin with first EP ‘FIRE’, which represents the beginning, the flame that sparks a relationship. Opening track ‘Unfrozen’ was written in 2010, at a time when OVEOUS was recovering from a deep depression. Energetic and intense, the song represents rebirth, recovery: becoming unfrozen.

‘Yoga Flame’ is a dance-floor heater and one of the most popular tracks in OVEOUS’ live sets over the last year or so. Inspired by the feeling of meeting that special someone who’s “able to captivate my heart and open me up to the possibilities of love again”, the warmth and jubilation contained here are highly contagious.

Featuring Australian multi-instrumentalist Julian Steel, ‘Rotten APPLZ’ closes out the first EP in glitchy, soulful style, creating an irresistible groove with lyrics exploring that universal, joyful moment in a new love affair, when other suitors are still trying their luck, but deep down you know you’re the chosen one.

Nina Simone - Fodder on my Wings

A lesser-known but important part of Nina Simone's musical history, Fodder on my Wings contains deeply personal songs, including the aforementioned "I Sing Just To Kno That I'm Alive" and "I Was Just A Stupid Dog To Them", as well a searing lyrical improvisation about the death of her father on "Alone Again (Naturally)". At the time she recorded the album, Simone was living in France and extremely lonely: her mental illness was worsening and her family life was fractured. It;s out of this despair that one of the many album standouts, the near title track was birthed. As Pitchfork wrote in their list of 33 of Simone's most iconic songs, the composition "captured with startling intimacy the pain of this period, and she returned to it frequently through the next decade, cutting another studio version three years later (the synth-heavy take on Nina's Back!) and including it on several live albums, including an awe-inspiring performance on 1987's Let It Be Me, continuing, Simone's vocal makes a song of weariness and defeat carry an air of defiance, a wise word from someone who survived to tell the tale".

Shabaka & the Ancestors - We Are Sent Here by History

The Project was formed in early 2017, leading to their debut album later that year "Wisdom of Elders", a document of sessions combining Hutchings with a group of South African jazz musicians he'd long admired. His connection to the group was Mandla Mlangeni (bandleader of the Amandla Freedom Ensemble), whom he'd flown there to play with over the past few years.

"We Are Sent Here by History" is a meditation on the fact of our coming extinction as a species. It is a reflection from the ruins, from the burning. A questioning of the steps to be taken in preparation for our transition individually and societally if the end is to be seen as anything but a tragic defeat. For those lives lost and cultares dismantled by centuries of western expansionism, capitalist thought and white supremist structural hegemony the end days have long been heralded as present with this  world experienced as an embodiment of living purgatory.

Laila Biali - Out of Dust

For nearly every major triumph, a highly 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 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.

Renee Neufville - Something to Believe

"Something to Believe (For Roy)", honors Roy Hargrove, the late virtusose trumpeter the New York Times called "one of the most respected musicians of his generation". Adding sentimental luster to the ballad, "Something to Believe (For Roy" features vocalist Renee Neufville (RH Factor's original touring vocalist/musician for 15 years) with strings arranged by Brian Hargrove, Roy's younger brother.

Collucutor - Constinuation

Collocutor shares new single 'Lost & Found' taken from their upcoming third LP 'Continuation'

‘Continuation’ is a remarkable work in which the interplay of emotional experience and life motion experienced by band leader Tamar Osborn (also known as Tamar Collocutor) is channelled and explored by Collocutor.

The band’s third LP assuredly strides forward following the critical acclaim awarded to ‘The Search’ from 2016 (a work that gained the enthusiastic praise of Mulatu Astake and Gilles Peterson among others).

Whereas ‘The Search’ invoked a journey ending in hope and new beginnings, ‘Continuation’ looks at the aftermath of the unexpected. This is an album about coping with grief, loss and bereavement: The music charts the many (and sometimes surprising) emotional states encountered, moving from acknowledgement, trying to keep ‘normal’ life going, the need to sometimes put a pause button on and let the waves of feelings crash and roll, sudden anger and confusion, finally to moving (perhaps with uncertainty) forward.

Seven Wonders

From their place at the bottom of the world, outside of the traditional jazz and soul centres, Australia’s groove-led musicians have struggled for recognition on the world stage. But all of that is changing as increasingly the country’s vital community of close-knit, broadly adventurous players command the attention of international audiences.
 
Bouncing off the selections of independent radio DJs and esoteric record store collections, these musicians jump across African diaspora music traditions – from funk to house music, hip-hop to Ethio-jazz – before pollinating those rhythms with a uniquely Australian flavour.
 
This magpie-like curiosity forges new sounds and forms – all of which can be found on Seven Wonder's, a new compilation by Plug Seven Records and Wondercore Island.

Capetown International Jazz Festival

Cape Town International Jazz festival celebrates it's 20th! edition on March 29 and 30

Jazzahead Bremen

Leopolis Jazz Fest

Montreux Jazz

No text needed ;-)

North Sea Jazz festival 2020

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