EABS Tenderlonious
Kraksa / Svantetic

Superbe copie pour un superbe live.

Conversations marks a relatively rare studio appearance and a first-time collaboration with the Ritual Trio by tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp, a fabled instigator of the ’60s avant-garde.Prior to this album, Shepp has made only three recordings this decade, and just one under his own name. This album celebrates the vitality and accomplishments of bassist Fred Hopklns who died in January of 1999 and left an important legacy. Perhaps it is that overriding concern with a fallen warrior that accounts for the saxist’s piquant invocation of hidden spirits and faded aurae.A recording of unusual depth and spiritual power by Shepp and The Ritual TrioPERSONNEL:Archie Shepp - tenor saxAri Brown - pianoMalachi Favors - bassKahil El'Zabar - drumsArchie Shepp Meets Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio – Conversations

One of Gil Scott-Heron's most renowned live performances gets a reissue here via BGP. Performing his then best-known musical poetry hits at the time - at an obscure venue on East 125th Street & Lenox Avenue in Harlem, New York - Small Talk At 125th And Lenox was officially Scott-Heron's first album. It was received by a small audience, and contained such greats as 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised', 'Brother', 'Evolution' and 'Paint It Black'. Backed by hand drums and jazz piano, our favourite from this classic has to be 'Who'll Pay Reparations On My Soul?', a musical-philosophical masterpiece that nails the unquantifiability of psychic grief.

Helen Umebuani Nee Nkume was born in 1943 at Nbiabike Amekpu Ohafia. Though her father was a prominent member of the community, her family moved to the bigger city of Umuahia, capital city of Abia State, while she was still young. She received her education there and while in secondary school she met her future husband, Umebuani Onwuzulike. Their marriage was blessed with three wonderful children.Helen started her musical career in the early 70s, forming a group known as the Young Timers. They recorded their first couple of Highlife albums for Tabansi, both of which became hits in the east side of the country. By the late 70s she self-produced and released her two best albums: "Young Timers Band" and "Vol.IV", which were pressed in very limited editions and distributed mainly in the area where the group was active, Umuahia and its surroundings.The music on those albums have a certain progression to them. The "Young Timers Band" LP is mostly still steeped in the highlife mood that distinguishes her earlier work but one track, "Umo Imo Special", stands out from the rest. It's a fusion between highlife, jazz and afrobeat and totally dance-floor friendly - what we would call “Countryside Afrobeat”."Vol.IV" has a more defined Afro Funk sound but the tracks "Music" and "Onye Ije" are clearly among the most loved of that Countryside Afrobeat genere. (We'd like to note here that on this last track we decided to maintain its original sound as much as possible. In fact, the production is somehow quite lo-fi, with the music relatively low and in back compared to the up front vocals, a style that we believe was intended by the group.)By the early 90's Helen had become born again and started performing on gospel Albums, eventually becoming one of the most successful Nigerian gospel musicians of the 90's.Helen Nkume albums are some of the most elusive produced in Nigeria during the 70s and finding her family has been as complicated as finding clean copies of her albums!We remember the first time we found her orange album. We didn't know what it contained but something about the cover shouted “pick me up”! We were in a village near Umahia, had no light nor way to listen to it on our turntable but when a cover speaks to you that way - you have to trust it. Once we got back to our room we played it and were happily surprised. Our minds started mulling over the idea of making something special and we started to talk with all our friends, musicians and artists in the area in order to find some info about her. For 2 years though – nothing, apart from discovering that she had passed away in early 2000. Luckily our good friend Austin from The Combats was able to locate her daughter and son in Umuhaia and we were finally able to license the music from them. Sadly, not much material was left, only one very, very damaged picture.

A solo piano performance is an act of faith, a pregnant musical proposition with potential to orient the alert listener towards higher human ideals. It’s a faith in pianism as a process — so that by daring to physically shape sound into form, into coherent interplay of sonority, rhythm, inflection and phrasing, the pianist as sonic pilgrim may point us to discover a path towards more. This path we discover as listeners by being alert. It’s a promise rooted in the axiom that there is revelation in improvisation. Kyle Shepherd is a devoted improviser.After The Night, The Day Will Surely Come, recorded as the world wrestles with death, disease and losses occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic, marks Shepherd out as a pianist and musician committed to hope in positive human possibility. In this way, he offers this bouquet of 10 songs as an elixir against darkness and despair.Shepherd’s compositions explored in this album include new articulations of well-liked familiar melodies like Sweet Zim Suite, Cry of The Lonely, along with improvised marvels in Zikr, and Desert Monk. Shepherd displays a rare ability to push towards adventurous tonal harmonies while preserving the pulse and keeping the music listenable; emerging here as more than just a pair of feet and two hands on pedals and keys. It’s in how he embodies the well-travelled compositions with renewed brilliant order and athleticism, retaining the supple filigree of their cherished earlier versions.By being attentive listeners, we may discover the pianist as a mind at work: intelligence and taste allied with formidable technical command; pursuing known sonic routes, but eschewing easy and predictable note choices on that journey — alert, alive pianism. Shepherd crafts a base of superbly controlled chordal underpinnings to every bit of sweet lilting lyricism in laments and levities, or a faintly echoed call of the adhan; the staccato of the incantatory Xhosa, or the faded IXam- ka tongues and modern Cape Malay street scamto.Shepherd embodies much of South Africa’s piano tradition with visionary clarity. More than his own ingenuity, he holds up an appreciation of the richness of a shared musical inheritance. This must be underscored by an understanding that all pianists, in fact all artists of real commitment, have a wish to be distinctive, along with a real rootedness. The selection of tunes treated here, shores this up about Shepherd. It also points to a deeper, loftier revelation: jazz, and creativity as the ultimate articulations of human hope.— PERCY MABANDU

First release from Ten Lovers Music in 2023 is from Stefano De Santis with a superb 7″ featuring two tracks Barra Nova and Partido#2, Barra Nova is an up-tempo Brazilian Broken Beat Fusion piece carrying on from where his last tack on Ten Lovers Music “Song For George D.” TLM030 left off. The AA side drops a few gears for some slow Broken Beat action with the track Partido#2 but still retaining his unmistakable sound, keeping it jazzy. Stefano is a multi instrumentalist, playing the Rhodes Piano, Moog, Prophet 5, Solina Strings Ensemble, Juno 6, Upright Piano and Percussion on both tracks. This 7″ is release 40 number on Ten Lovers Music, so this a very proud time for us to be able to put out such amazing music. [info sheet from distr.]