Sean Khan has a sterling reputation working with jazz legends like Hermeto Pascoal, but the fact that he is pairing with Pentangle chanteuse Jacqui McShee makes this single from Acid Jazz Records crucial listening. From the release’s Bandcamp site: “Earlier this year we announced The Modern Folk & Jazz Ensemble, Continue Reading
Jazz
Perry Robinson / Wacław Zimpel / Michael Zerang / Raphael Rogiński – Yemen – Music Of The Yemenite Jews
Thanks to a translation of the Polish on the release’s Bandcamp site, this project was originally prepared as a special project of the 5th Tzadik Poznań Festival. It was also performed there for the first time. In the beautiful walls of the Renaissance Górka Palace, where one of the five Continue Reading
Yussef Dayes – Black Classical Music
Over the past 10 years or so, something incredible has been happening in London. Jazz has come back into fashion, and has taken in influences from all over, be it hip hop or world music. Yussef Dayes is, arguably, the leading light in this Nu Jazz movement. This is his Continue Reading
Gianni Marchetti – Milano: Il Clan Dei Calabresi
Thanks to killer reissue labels like Four Flies Records out of Italy, we can experience the easy/cheesy listening sounds of 1970s Italian movie soundtracks. From the label’s Bandcamp site: “Four Flies’ 45s series continues to pay tribute to the golden age of Italian film music, this time with the first Continue Reading
Jorge López Ruiz – Un Hombre de Buenos Aires
I have to say that, until a few days ago, I knew nothing about Jorge López Ruiz, but after reading this writeup and listening to the funky exotic jazz on this album, I’ve become a fan. From the Bandcamp website: “Jazz, funk, and bossa vibes kiss each other, all wrapped Continue Reading
Szilárd Mezei Trio – Inkább (Rather)
Serbian-Hungarian multi-instrumentalist and composer Szilárd Mezei is perhaps the most adventurous musician coming out of Hungary these days, and that’s saying a lot, considering the great quality of improvisers who have come from that country (think of the legendary A.E. Bizottság, for example). This is a trio album from 2008 Continue Reading
Samo Salamon, Emanuele Parrini & Vasco Trilla – Eating Poetry
Another dear friend of the blog, Samo Salamon from Slovenia, brings along a few friends for a well-done, gorgeously recorded improvisational album. Joining Salamon on this disc are Emanuele Parrini on violin and Vasco Trilla on drums and percussion. From Samo’s Bandcamp site: “A great improvising trio session of three Continue Reading
Lucy Khanyan Quartet – Komitas Through the Eyes of Lucy Khanyan Quartet
Soghomon Soghomonian, the priest, ethnomusicologist and arranger who would be later known to millions of Armenian music aficionados as Komitas (Vardapet), is a figure who looms large in the history of the country’s music scene. Avant-garde pianist Lucy Khanyan does great justice to some of the works of Komitas, interpreting Continue Reading
Various Artists – Hip Holland Hip : Modern Jazz In The Netherlands 1950 – 1970
The Netherlands is a country so incredibly rich with music, yet they do an awful jon promoting it. Welcome, then, to the wild world of Dutch jazz, courtesy of Belgian label Sdban Records. From the release’s Bandcamp site: “Delve into the Dutch jazz scene of the 1950s and 1960s with Continue Reading
Michał Urbaniak – Decadence – (Soundtrack Album)
Though this disc was released in 2014, this long-forgotten soundtrack has the sound of something from the 1980s. Michał Urbaniak is, of course, in fine form here, and it’s good to see he’s releasing a lot of material, both new and archival, on Bandcamp.