henry franklin joins ali shaheed muhammad and adrian younge on the 14th issue of jazz is dead. classic black vinyl edition.

henry franklin joins ali shaheed muhammad and adrian younge on the 14th issue of jazz is dead. limited blue vinyl edition.

ali shaheed muhammad & adrian younge keep on paying tribute to past legends and new school torchbearers alike with their jazz is dead series. limited pressing on black double vinyl.

this record is dedicated in memory of rita, philpotts, pete woosh, adam xtc and harry mccormick.

the 1976 album from flautist lloyd mcneill back via soul jazz records. the limited vinyl release includes a download code.

the 2nd album from j-live, originally released in 2002, back on blue double vinyl.

super deep african / new age / minimalistic / ambient crossover from cabo verde - not the typical record, a beautiful listening experience check! originally conceived as a book of 6 poems that developed into a record released independently in 1986, universo da ilha sits at the cross-section of many different genres. connecting contemporary new age and ambient minimalist movements with traditional west african and cape verdean elements from the past (griot voices, djembe rhythms, melancholic morna), vasco constructed his own universe where, in spite of the isolation of the island at the time, he transcended barriers and created a global record that was ahead of its time vasco used his own synths and drum machines, and with the help of a small group of friends (tey gonçalves on percussion, neney’s amazing griot voice, luis morais on sax and flute), he recorded this not-balearic-but-atlantic ambient odyssey on a 16-channel peavey mixer directly to an akai tape recorder without overdubs.

last years on the corner underground smash release, the 12inch ep santuris embaire umeme, introduced uganda’s mugwisa international xylophone group (m.i.x.g) to the world. the recordings center on the embaire, a giant xylophone native to ugandan folk music, which is dug into a pit for a natural, earthy bass resonance as gargantuous as the instrument itself. the instrument performs a key role in village life, with ceremonial playing sessions lasting for hours on end. these recordings may be esoteric in nature but they add important context to the santuri’s embaire umeme 12inch and are a vital documentation of the iganga village’s culture, as well as that of uganda. jones has artfully chopped the epic session into a series of short evocative chapters to create a pioneering masterpiece. remix duties are led by griot house innovators, the diabolcal liberties, who have raved-up some sun ra frequencies for the cosmic junglist crew. last but never least, victoria topping has created beautiful artwork using the session photography taken by jones during the recordings

last year’s on the corner underground smash release, the 12” ep santuri’s embaire umeme, introduced uganda’s mugwisa international xylophone group (m.i.x.g) to the world. the recordings center on the embaire, a giant xylophone native to ugandan folk music, which is dug into a pit for a natural, earthy bass resonance as gargantuous as the instrument itself. the instrument performs a key role in village life, with ceremonial playing sessions lasting for hours on end. these recordings may be esoteric in nature but they add important context to the santuri’s embaire umeme 12” and are a vital documentation of the iganga village’s culture, as well as that of uganda. jones has artfully chopped the epic session into a series of short evocative chapters to create a pioneering masterpiece. remix duties are led by griot house innovators, the diabolcal liberties, who have raved-up some sun ra frequencies for the cosmic junglist crew. last but never least, victoria topping has created beautiful artwork using the session photography taken by jones during the recordings

you take a trio of the finest traditional griot musicians from mali and put them in the studio with a revolutionary western string quartet - and the outcome is one of the most unusual and rewarding musical collaborations you are ever likely to encounter.

repress - without dl code - susso, aka bassist / producer huw bennett, creates music inspired by, and directly sampling, the magnificent sounds of the mandinka people, recorded during a recent trip to gambia. initially travelling with the aim of gaining perspective as a musician and to discover a new world of music first hand, huw found himself humbled by such a welcoming community of artists, mostly belonging to the celebrated susso and kuyateh griot families.
the tracks are composed entirely from original source material, field recordings and huw’s talents as a multi-instrumentalist, performing tuned percussion from the region including the mandinka balafon, kutiringding drum, aswell drawing on his skill as a professional upright / electric bassist. the music produced has a contemporary electronic sound, whilst still paying homage to a traditional gambian aesthetic. keira (meaning peace) guides the listener through huw’s journey up the river gambia, being welcomed into remote dusty villages, where your people are the most important thing in life

double gatefold vinyl album edition comes with full colour inners + bonus download code and includes full sleeve-notes/photography.

you should already know who porter ray is (but you probably don’t.) the machines that seek to control your perception don’t want you to. he is too much of an anomaly. porter skews the modern experiment that is contemporary rap music wildly. he is in a word: authentic. porter ray is a natural… he sounds like east seattle feels.
from the same wet blocks that spawned quincy, jimi and ishmael, comes porter ray. having previously penned six projects showcasing dexterous wordplay, unflinching honesty and vulnerability, tempered with equal degrees of braggadocio and charm, porter is an old soul, a story teller par excellence, a griot possessing insight beyond his years.
double vinyl release with download code included.

basmala is the debut album by the american world music and ambient soul production basmala, released in 2016 on preservation electronic recordings. the album maintains a hip-hop base and ambient or minimal atmospheric sound, which is the unique signature of basmala.

most fans of the blues believe it was born in the mississippi delta shortly before 1900. they are definitively wrong. the blues had its roots in other forms of older black music that are traced to the music of west africa. in that sense, mali music constitutes the dna of the blues and the griots can be identified as the direct ancestors of the rural bluesmen. baba sissoko is from mali and he is the last undisputed griot alive.

gawlo is a rolling, resplendent tribute to griot life ù gawlo is fula for griot ù spear-headed by none other than baaba maal. superbly expressive interjections by a trio of talking drums are especially lucid on the instrumental version. on the flip, lignou mome is an exhilarating straight-no-chaser of galloping drums, bad-minded bass and layered guitar, before ndeye gueye wraps up proceedings with a third instrumental, propelled by terse, hypnotic figures on guitar and marimba synth. with the drum-kit unattended, octogenarian legend doudou ndiaye rose features on lead sabar.

disco mali! sofrito present a unique slice of afro-disco from the celebrated griot, niama makalou, recorded in the late 70s.
descended from a family of griots (traditional malian praise singers), niama makalou moved to france in the mid 70s where she cut this, her one and only vinyl release. at the time paris (like much the rest of the world) was swept up in disco fever, so along with a group of malian musicians the date was set to cut a piece of disco, griot style. the resulting mixture of off kilter hand claps, raw string arrangements, balafon flourishes and bambara vocals combine with a heavy disco groove to produce a one-off piece of cross-cultural dancefloor mayhem.
on the flip daphni (aka caribou) crafts an extended version that distills it into a stripped down and dubbed out groove.

ali shaheed muhammad & adrian younge keep on paying tribute to past legends and new school torchbearers alike with their jazz is dead series.

diese zusammenstellung ist gewisserma?en der soundtrack zur ausstellung -soul of a nation: art in the the age of black power-, die 2017 sowohl in der londoner tate gallery als auch im new yorker brooklyn museum gezeigt wird. dabei geht die kompilation den einfl?ssen nach, welche die b?rgerrechtsbewegung und der schwarze nationalismus im gefolge von martin luther king, malcolm x und der black panther party gegen ende der sechzigerjahre auf radikale afroamerikanische musikentw?rfe in den usa hatten. zu den von soul jazz pr¤sentierten k?nstlern gehüren ikonen wie gil scott-heron, roy ayers, don cherry, oneness of juju, sarah webster fabio, horace tapscott und phil ranelin. deren werke illustrieren, wie politische themen zur entwicklung einer -conscious black music- f?hrte, in der verschiedene popul¤re afrozentrische stile dieser umbruchszeit kulminierten - die radikale spiritualit¤t john coltranes, der radikale avantgardismus eines sun ra, james-brown-funk, der soul aretha franklins und urbane proto-rap-poesie der metropolen. wie f?r soul jazz typisch kommt das ganze opulent ausgestattet mit umfassenden begleittexten und exklusiven fotografien.