Jazz /
African Rhythms 1970-1982
**Feature a 12” sized 4pp booklet featuring rare photos and a comprehensive interview with Plunky Branch within liner notes by Chris Menist** Strut present a comprehensive 3LP compilation of the seminal Oneness Of Juju, led by Plunky J. Branch. Tracing their career from the band’s earliest work in 1970 with South African exiled jazzman Ndikho Xaba in San Francisco, the compilation covers the band’s journey to New York’s loft jazz scene, forming Juju and releasing two landmark albums of hard-hitt…
Sun Piano
Spiritual keyboard improvisations performed by Laraaji and recorded in a Brooklyn Church by Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, The War On Drugs, Mary Lattimore). Sun Piano finds Laraaji fulfilling a lifelong ambition to return to his first instrument, learnt whilst growing up in 1950s New Jersey. A departure from his FX-soaked cosmic zither jams, these elegant miniatures nevertheless reveal enough personality and inner light to be clearly identifiable as ‘Laraaji Music’.
This release is the latest step in…
Why Don't You Listen? - Live at LACMA, 1998
CD Version. This previously unreleased concert recording by the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra of pianist-composer-bandleader Horace Tapscott and a chorus under the direction of vocalist Dwight Trible is a wonderful example of how Tapscott channeled the political and cultural aspirations of a community into music of deep beauty and lasting value.
The album opens with a big band version of “aiee! The Phantom,” a Tapscott original propelled by a vamp that spurs Michael Sessions into a melodic tenor…
The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note
Cam Jazz reissue the complete Black Saint and Soul Note works of Cecil Taylor in hisexemplary series of boxed sets dedicated to the catalogues of the legendary Italian labels. This set contains four albums in slipcases with original album artwork, housed in a sturdy box.
The window afforded into the artistry of pianist Cecil Taylor by this new CAMJazz collection, like all of that label’s Black Saint/Soul Note reissue sets, is not that of a curated collection, greatest hits package or introductor…
Fifty Years After... (Live at Lila Eule Bremen 26.05.2018)
For the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the legendary Machine Gun recordings at the Lila Eule in Bremen, Peter Brötzmann put together a trio with the Berlin pianist, composer Alexander von Schlippenbach and the percussionist Han Bennink, who already sat on the drums 50 years ago. They were so pleased with the music that they decided to release it and continue to play gigs as the trio. Machine Gun was originally recorded in May 1968 by an octet consisting of influential musicians of new ja…
Transition East
"Transition East" features two new pieces of music created by Angel Bat Dawid in response to Emma Warren's 2019 book "Make Some Space" – i.e. the book that chronicles the history of London DIY music institution Total Refreshment Centre. Angel Bat Dawid, who first met Emma Warren at Total Refreshment Centre in 2017, composed & recorded "Transition East" alone in her space on the Southside of Chicago, originally to be accompaniment for the audiobook version of "Make Some Space." Angel conceptualiz…
The Weather Up There
Chicago drummer and composer Jeremy Cunningham wrote The Weather Up There in response to the loss of his brother Andrew, who died in a home invasion robbery in 2008. Co-produced by Jeff Parker and Paul Bryan, and engineered by Paul Bryan and John McEntire, this new work confronts the tragedy of violence and examines the acute ripple effect on several people's lives through the lens of memory, response, and collage. Further deepening the textural and emotive impact, Cunningham formed a “drum choi…
Nigeria's Afrobeat - IV
Involving the combination of elements of West African musical styles with American funk and jazz influences, with a focus on chanted vocals, complex intersecting rhythms and percussion, Afrobeat was popularized by multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti who is responsible for pioneering the style both within and outside Nigeria.Soundohm is glad to bring you 'Nigeria's Afrobeat', a series of bundles offering a perspective on the musical tapestry that composed the Nigerian Afrobeat scene be…
Nigeria's Afrobeat - III
Involving the combination of elements of West African musical styles with American funk and jazz influences, with a focus on chanted vocals, complex intersecting rhythms and percussion, Afrobeat was popularized by multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti who is responsible for pioneering the style both within and outside Nigeria.Soundohm is glad to bring you 'Nigeria's Afrobeat', a series of bundles offering a perspective on the musical tapestry that composed the Nigerian Afrobeat scene be…
Nigeria's Afrobeat - II
Involving the combination of elements of West African musical styles with American funk and jazz influences, with a focus on chanted vocals, complex intersecting rhythms and percussion, Afrobeat was popularized by multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti who is responsible for pioneering the style both within and outside Nigeria.Soundohm is glad to bring you 'Nigeria's Afrobeat', a series of bundles offering a perspective on the musical tapestry that composed the Nigerian Afrobeat scene be…
Nigeria's Afrobeat - I
Involving the combination of elements of West African musical styles with American funk and jazz influences, with a focus on chanted vocals, complex intersecting rhythms and percussion, Afrobeat was popularized by multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti who is responsible for pioneering the style both within and outside Nigeria.Soundohm is glad to bring you 'Nigeria's Afrobeat', a series of bundles offering a perspective on the musical tapestry that composed the Nigerian Afrobeat scene be…
Jazz Rock
They say you can't judge a book by its cover, and going by 'Jazz Rock’, nor a record by its title. Though entering into jazz territory and featuring some distorted guitar, 'Jazz Rock' is more a beautiful marriage of funky breakbeat drumming and spiritual jazz instrumentation, combined with traditional Min'yō music performed on the koto and shakuhachi.
Originally released in 1973, the record sounds simultaneously vintage and contemporary. It is akin to something Madlib might dream up whilst lost …
Sound American no. 24 - The Sun Ra Issue
Our first issue of 2020 celebrates interstellar icon and generative force of nature: Sun Ra. Contributors on the topic include Taylor Ho Bynum, John Corbett, Naima Lowe, Luke Stewart, Thomas Stanley, and Ken Vandermark. The issue also features supplemental writing from Jessie Cox on Marshall Allen, Reg Bloor on Glenn Branca, Chris Pitsiokos on On The Corner, Peter Margasak on Derek Bailey's On The Edge series, and a conversation between Audra Wolowiec and Freya Powell. The issue closes with the …
Jazz Piano
Roman pianist and film composer Armando Trovajoli scored over 300 feature films during his remarkable career. Starting out in the 1930s as a player in Orchestra Rocco Grasso and Sesto Carlini’s beloved jazz orchestra, in 1949 he represented Italy at the Festival du Jazz de Paris and he began composing films three years later. Jazz Piano, released by RCA in 1959, saw Trovajoli fronting a quartet with three of his regular orchestra members, namely drummer Sergio Conti, bassist/arranger Berto Pisan…
Marching Songs Vol. 2
It's hardly surprising that Mike Westbrook reigned supreme in the latter quarter of the 1960s and early 70s. His big band was voted top of that category in the late-lamented Melody Maker British jazz polls for 1970 (and the two years either side of that). In the same year, his third album, Marching Song, recorded a year earlier came third in the category "LP Of The Year" (the number one album that year was John McLaughlin's seminal Extrapolation so there was exceptionally strong competition). Th…
Marching Songs Vol. 1
It's hardly surprising that Mike Westbrook reigned supreme in the latter quarter of the 1960s and early 70s. His big band was voted top of that category in the late-lamented Melody Maker British jazz polls for 1970 (and the two years either side of that). In the same year, his third album, Marching Song, recorded a year earlier came third in the category "LP Of The Year" (the number one album that year was John McLaughlin's seminal Extrapolation so there was exceptionally strong competition). Th…
Trio
Mike Taylor died, probably by his own hand, at age 31 in 1969, having realised a fraction of his potential as a composer and player, and written for the New Jazz Orchestra, singer Norma Winstone and the rock band Cream. Cream's singer and bassist Jack Bruce and Ron Rubin (occasionally) are on acoustic bass here, with Jon Hiseman on drums, a line-up that highlights the close links between 1960s Britain's creative rock and R&B scenes and the jazz of the time.
Taylor is a highly rhythmic pianist wh…
An Elizabethan Songbook
In compiling a modern album of Elizabethan music, London Jazz Four were faced with both technical and interpretive problems. Musically they had to decide how far we could alter the original notation in order to allow ourselves a more modern basis for improvisation, and at the same time preserve the original character of the music. To achieve this, they concentrated on melodies that were strong enough to withstand at times rather violent re-harmonisation, without losing their Elizabethan flavour.…
A Love Supreme
One of the most important records ever made, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme was his pinnacle studio outing, that at once compiled all of the innovations from his past, spoke to the current of deep spirituality that liberated him from addictions to drugs and alcohol, and glimpsed at the future innovations of his final two and a half years. Recorded over two days in December 1964, Trane's classic quartet-- Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison -- stepped into the studio and created one of t…
Banko Woman
For over forty years, the Apostles of Aba have stood as the jewel in the crown of the music scene in Eastern Nigeria. Since their formation in 1973, the band has turned out memorable performances in a variety of styles including rock, soul, funk, pop and reggae. Even today, the Apostles continue to thrill audiences in their hometown of Aba with dazzling shows. Cultures of Soul is proud to present one of the Apostles’ more obscure—yet relentlessly funky recordings: Banko Woman, originally release…