Sonny Rollins
The Cutting Edge

Fin novembre 2018, les collaborateurs de longue date Carlos Niño et Miguel Atwood-Ferguson se sont envolés pour Chicago afin de participer à la performance de lancement de l'album Universal Beings de Makaya McCraven. Onze mois plus tôt, Carlos et Miguel avaient participé à l'enregistrement du "Los Angeles Side" des Universal Beings chez Jeff Parker à Altadena, en Californie, et cette représentation à Chicago était la première occasion pour que que tous ces musiciens se retrouvent enfin pour réinterpretent la musique qu'ils avaient collectivement composé au cours de ces sessions.La représentation des Universal Beings et les jours de répétition précédents ont eu lieu à l'emblématique South Shore Cultural Center - un club urbain historique de l'époque dorée, devenu un établissement public - à Chicago. La nuit suivant la représentation au South Shore Cultural Center, Jeremy Cunningham (proche du label International Anthem) devait présenter un nouveau live. Carlos & Miguel était encore à Chicago, le label les a donc invités à faire à jouer en première partie de Cunningham. A l'issue de leur set improvisé de 44 minutes ce soir-là, Carlos a spontanément surnommé la pièce "Chicago Waves". Sa proclamation a donné au label la nette impression que les jours précédents passé sur la rive sud de Chicago (et les nombreux trajets aller-retour, le long de Lake Shore Drive) ont largement inspirés les artistes dans leur improvisations puisant dans l'immensité bleue du lac Michigan au début de l'hiver.Carlos NINO / MIGUEL ATWOOD FERGUSONChicago WavesInternational Anthem US

The first compilation from South African vinyl re-issue specialists Matsuli Music – a journey through jazz, funk, fusion and disco, detailing the incredible story and sounds behind the Soweto nightclub during the height of apartheidA night-time haunt in the backstreets of Soweto run by a well-known bootlegger should have been a prime zone for nefarious underworld activities. Instead, it nurtured an underground of a different kind. Soon after its opening in 1973, Club Pelican became a spot where musicians steeped in the tradition of South African jazz began to cook up experimental sounds inspired by communion, competition and the movements in funk and soul blowing in from the West. Located in an industrial park on the western edge of Orlando East, Soweto, Club Pelican was off the beaten track, among a matrix of railway and industrial infrastructure. In a different time and place, this would have been a prototypical nightclub location, except there was no local precedent to follow. This was Soweto’s first night club.In the intervening years, this location has served to heighten the now-defunct spot’s legendary status as a singular venue, one that ruled the night in the Seventies. Initially called Lucky’s and established in 1973, the Pelican’s impact on the Soweto cultural landscape was immediate. Lorded over by a charismatic figure known as Lucky Michaels, the club became the jewel in a nondescript collection of family businesses. It boasted a diverse pool of talent in its succession of house bands and an A-list of ghetto-fabulous singers asits cabaret stars. Its VIP section was a veritable who’s who of Soweto society and its stage, hosting a mix of the day’s pop culture infused with the creativity and individual histories of the musicians, the Pelican filled a live music vacuum.One Night in Pelican captures the halcyon seventies period with a single nightclub embodying an indomitable spirit of its troubadour players. While schooled and rooted in “standards” and local forms, the music could take any direction, at a moment’s notice. This compilation features all the key groups and players of the time: Abacothozi, Almon Memela’s Soweto, The Black Pages, Dick Khoza and the Afro Pedlars, The Drive, Ensemble of Rhythm and Art , The Headquarters, Makhona Zonke Band, the Shyannes and Spirits Rejoice.’

Marek Pędziwiatr has been part of the scene for over a decade now. He has gained recognition thanks to projects such as EABS and Błoto & Jaubi. Still, he has never emphasized his name through the prism of these bands, betting instead on collective work. The time has come now for Marek to present his debut album entitled Marianna, featuring him alone as Latarnik performing in a piano solo formula.Being sought after for years as a producer for other artists and as a composer and keyboardist for his own bands, he put his solo work on hold. In between all these activities, "Latarnik" was emerging slowly in Marek's head. Under his new alias, along with the Pakistani band Jaubi, he recorded one of the most important albums of 2021, Nafs at Peace, recognised by Pitchfork, The Guardian, DownBeat and Bandcamp.Latarnik, repeatedly awarded in Jazz Forum magazine's polls as Poland's greatest synth virtuoso, decided to reveal himself to listeners from a completely different angle. Influenced by the sound of solo recordings by Thelonious Monk, Ahmad Jamal, McCoy Tyner and Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, he gave up electronics in order to record (in an intimate way) a debut album commemorating his great-grandmother, using a hundred-year-old Steinway & Sons grand piano and analogue tape.The encounter with the main character begins in Maradtken (now Maradki), a place hard to find on the map, yet offering a very interesting story of remembrance and passing. In the early Iron Age a fortified settlement built by the people of the West Baltic Barrow culture was located there and it was bustling with life for many more centuries. The village was partially destroyed in the 18th century after a cholera cemetery had been established there. Around 1800, on a small hill a remarkable mill was built that remained a focal point of residents' life up until the outbreak of the Second World War.Marianna was Masurian. She was born in 1898, under Prussian rule, into a Polish- and German-speaking family. She spent her youth among Evangelicals being a devout Catholic herself, at the same time practicing traditional folk rites. She could cure people, she collected herbs, prepared potions and cast spells against illnesses. She had her own philosophy of life based on folk wisdom, which constituted a decalogue of her own, but she also relied on the extraordinary protection of the "Most Holy Mother of God". Marianna passed away at the age of 88, shortly before Marek was born. He only knew her from family stories which he then encapsulated in the emotional piano compositions on the album. Marianna is no longer with us, nor is the wooden mill in Maradki. In spite of this, the remembrance and peculiar recipes for life live on in the family, just as the afterimages of history in the old photographs from Maradtken have survived. Her story is universal: one of identity and wandering, of terror, the trauma of war, and perpetual scarcity. It is the story of an entire generation to which Marianna belonged passed on to us by our grandparents.

Off the back of their incredible debut Time Lapse EP in 2021 and keyboardist Mali-I's phenomenal debut LP 'In Session', Monzanto Sound return with new vocalist Mimi Koku to deliver exceptional new 4 track EP 'Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow'.Early support for the EP has come from Jamz Supernova on 1Extra, Music Is My Sanctuary, Worldwide FM and Spotify's Fresh Finds Jazz playlist.Expect psychedelic neo-soul grooves, deep dub jams and krautrock-inspired experimentalism

Legendary jazz label Blue Note has tapped up the super hot nine-piece Afro-jazz outfit Nubiyan Twist for their own new version of Donald Byrd's song 'Through The Noise.' It features on the 16-track Blue Note Re:imagined II collection that is due soon, but first also gets its own pressing here. Heavy swing, garage and 2-step all colour their version with broken-beat, afrobeat and bebop also colouring the fresh sounding grooves. The lyrics build the reimagined concept and make for a stunning new piece. On the flip is another gem in the form of Swindle's 'Miss Kane.'Nubiyan Twist / Swindle (2) – Through The Noise (Chant No.2) / Miss Kane