jazz
See: Krautjazz quintet Fazer offer an ode to a weird year ending in the whimsical but classy ‘Dezember’
WITH the recent album by Spiritczualic Enhancement Center (which, not to blow our own trumpet, we reviewed here) and others, it very much looks like one of the current leftfield trends to be ear to the ground for as 2021 melts inexorably into 2022 is krautjazz; that scene fermenting in city basements and performance spaces …
News: Blue Lab Beats will release their debut album for Blue Note in February: hear the sunbright Afro grooves of ‘Motherland Journey’ feat. Fela Kuti and KillBeatz
IT’S A meeting of musical values as well being a perfect colour match: the none-more-esteemed Blue Note Records, 82 years in the game, has announced that the latest addition to its proud roster, the bright Afrojazz textures of London’s Blue Lab Beats, will release their first album for the label, Motherland Journey, on February 25th. …
Track: Ilhan Ersahin, Dave Harrington and Kenny Wollesen drop the late-night alt.jazz elegance of ‘And It Happens Every Day’
CLUB OWNER, down in New York’s famous East Village, at which he’s the architect of deeply grooving late-night jam sessions and of which the New York Times notes as a space “where everything goes”; and a saxophonist by instrumental trade, either wholly or partly responsible for at least 30 full-length recordings, it’s hard to argue …
Premiere: London based Jazz / Neo-Soul artist Leo Pesci talks us through his new EP Community; hear it here, first
Naples born, but London based singer-songwriter Leo Pesci returns with a new EP, Community, blacked by London Jazz heavyweights Johnny Woodham (Alfa Mist) and Dani Diodato (Pyjæn, Arlo Parks). With echoes of the like of D’Angelo, Jordan Rakei and the RH Factor, we’re delighted to be able to premiere the EP right here on Backseat Mafia this morning. …
News: Fusion supergroup Asteroid Ekosystem, with Ed Kuepper, Lloyd Swanton, Alister Spence and Toby Hall, announce their debut gigs in the new year.
The material composition of the Asteroid Ekosystem alone is stunning: Alister Spence is the leader of avant-improv group the Alister Spence Trio and touring keyboardist with Sunnyboys, The Aints! and Laughing Clowns, bassist Lloyd Swanton plays with jazz giants The Necks and the catholics, world class percussionist Toby Hall on drums and the legendary and …
Premiere: Sunday Driver release new visuals for the cool jazz/psych pop fusion of ‘Somewhere Nice’
Taken from their upcoming album Somewhere Nice, out in June, UK fusion band Sunday Driver have announced a new single, Somewhere Nice, and we’re delighted to be able to premiere it right here on Backseat Mafia today. It’s the bands first new music since last years Time Machine single, and the album is the follow …
Track: Swoon for the Mediterranean cafe romance of Violetta Zironi & Ed Prosek’s ‘Come What May’
VIOLETTA ZIRONI is a delicate and lovely cantate from Correggio, in northern Italy’s Po Valley; she’s been releasing digital singles and EPs for nine years or so. More recently she’s been working with guitarist Ed Prosek to produce airy and sunshine-filled lovers’ cafe jazz; music to fall head over heels to on the Adriatic coast. …
Track: Belgium’s North African jazz explorers Black Flower drop the perfumed title track of January’s ‘Magma’ for your delectation
THE WORLD of Belgian Eastern jazz outfit Black Flower is a well-woven and beautiful one; the quintet, shortly to unveil their sixth full-length album for Ghent’s rather groove-obsessed Sdban Ultra imprint, with whom they’ve released two of their past three albums this past five years, has today dropped the organ-led souk beauty of “Magma”, the …
Live review: Ishmael Ensemble, The Cornish Bank, Falmouth, November 24th, 2021: soaring and warming on a chill evening by the water
IF YOU’RE talking of about any kind of chronology of British Black musics down the decades, then it’s arguable really that there’s a triangle of cities which inform and inspire and spur each other on; those cities being London, Birmingham and Bristol. And what a fine tradition that Avon city has in this regard: the …
Live Review: Nathan Somevi Trio – The Blue Lounge, Aberdeen
The Blue Lounge is one of the biggest jazz venues in Scotland and has a dedicated jazz night every Thursday. Tonight we they had the Ghana/scottish guitarist and composer Nathan Somevi and his trio featuring Rachel Duns on saxophone and Alex Palmer on drums. A quaint old fashioned venue the place has a wonderful vibe …