Electronic producer and jazz musician Crackazat, originally from Bristol and now based in Sweden, just released his latest album “SUN” on Freerange Records. It is the follow-up to his acclaimed LP “Evergreen” from 2021. It is a pretty diverse and varied affair with hints to house, jazz, soul, hip-hop and funk. The album opens with…
It’s finally here: the new album by Jarrod Lawson who delivered our record of the year with “Be The Change” back in 2020 and who we’ve featured here regularly on these pages since 2015. It’s his third album since his brilliant debut in 2014. We’ve been treated to a few singles which were leading the…
So here they are again: Dawn Joseph and Jon Kincaid, also known as MF Robots, are back with the follow-up to the praised LP “Break The Wall” from 2021, which we also reviewed on these pages. The former Brand New Heavies partners return with an 8-track LP on their own imprint Good People Records. The…
Master guitarist and composer Fabiano Do Nascimento is back again with a new album called “Vila”. It’s a collaborative work with Brazilian trombonist and arranger Vittor Santos and inspired by a courtyard surrounded by neo-colonial houses where Fabiano spent much of his childhood. And I think it is his most refined album to date, not…
“This record is an atmosphere, a state of mind”, says Eric Hilton, one of the founders of Thievery Corporation, about his latest album “A Sky So Close”, to be released this Friday on Montserrat House, the Washington, DC based label which is curated by him. The album will come out eight months after his compelling…
Australian soul singer Kylie Auldist will release her sixth album “Hybrid” this Friday. It’s her first release since the 2020 LP “This Is What Happiness Looks Like” and it finds her, once again, in funky, soulful boogie mode with lots of 80s-sounding synths, like on the lengthy opener “One Time Offer” which also has some…
Chilean jazz saxophonist and songwriter Melissa Aldana releases her third album for Blue Note Records this Friday. After “12 Stars” (2022), which featured Lage Lund on guitar, Sulllivan Fortner on piano and keys, Pablo Menares on bass, and Kush Abadey on drums, and “Echoes Of The Inner Prophet” (2024) with Lage Lund, Fabian Almazan on…
German jazz pianist Julia Hülsmann just released her 10th album for the prestigious ECM label. Called “While I Was Away”, she more or less returns to earlier works on ACT Music where she recorded several albums with vocalists. On her most recent effort, there are three very distinct vocalists, each representing a certain mood and…
Guitarist Julian Lage releases his fifth album for Blue Note Records, “Scenes From Above”, on January 23rd. After “Squint” (2021) with Jorge Roeder and Dave King, “Room With A View” (2022) with additional guitar from Bill Frisell, his solo album “The Layers” (2023), and “Speak To Me” (2024) with an extended band that featured Kris…
Flashback to 1982. When producers, writers, arrangers, and multi-instrumentalists Robson Jorge and Lincoln Olivetti started their solid partnership, writing songs for dozens of MPB artists during that era, they also received pretty critical reviews accusing them of turning the classic MPB sounds into lame and boring pop. Fast forward over 40 years, and all of…