Hania Rani
GHOSTS (Limited Edition)

What's Real?JK GroupA collective of forward-thinking "jazz" musicians from Australia. We owe our thanks and gratitude to the founding mothers and fathers of the music people call jazz. We respect and continuously study their legacy whilst embracing our current surroundings in making music that honestly reflects our time and space.

First Word Records is incredibly proud to welcome Nathaniel Cross to the label, here with his debut solo EP 'The Description Is Not The Described'.Once dubbed "the Quincy Jones of Catford" by Rolling Stone magazine, the South Londoner has been a prominent force behind the scenes for several years now as an arranger and trombone player. His skillset has seen him perform and record with a wide range of luminaries including Solange, Emile Sandé, Stormzy, Zara McFarlane, Kano, David Murray, LCSM, Swindle and Macy Gray to cite a few, additionally to working on both of Moses Boyd's albums, including the Mercury Prize nominated 'Dark Matter'. Growing up in a musically-focused family, Nathaniel has been playing the trombone since the age of 10 and studied at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Two decades since first picking up the trombone, it's now finally time for Nathaniel to release his own compositions into the world.So to the EP - a four-track instrumental opus that falls within the cracks of contemporary jazz, whilst encompassing a wide-range of black music sub-genres that he heard growing up in a British-Caribbean household. "The overview for this EP at the core of each track is jazz arranging, but disguised under a range of styles of music from the black diaspora" says Nathaniel. Sonically, the full-set threads in strains of bruk, calypso, dancehall, neo-soul, hip hop, gospel, afro-cuban and West African music.The title itself 'The Description Is Not The Described' comes from a quote by Jiddu Krishnamurti. In Nathaniel's words "the title is a reflection of where we are in the world today. So many of us are caught up in labels and descriptions that we end up looking at people for WHAT they are, rather than embrace them for WHO they are. No matter how detailed the description is, it will never capture the essence".The EP's track subjects encompass a range of topics, from grief and loss ('Goodbye For Now', dedicated to Nathaniel's late father), to overcoming the trials and tribulations of life ('Charge It To The Game'), to remaining positive in challenging times ('Light In The Darkness'), to looking for validation internally instead of externally ('Who Looks Inside, Awakes', named after a Carl Jung quote).

A mysterious sound aurora on the magical paths of the infinite universe of percussion, originally released in 1985 and then almost completley lost. The well-educated drummer Tiziano Tononi, together with David Searcy and Jonathan Scully, while working at the temple of classical music, Il Teatro alla Scala of Milano decides to realize a personal compendium of sounds using only purcussion instruments. The recording offers to us an amazing concert of sounds with acoustic purity, in perfect balance between wild rhythm and deep relaxation. Ecstatic elements of Japan ambient minimalism dialogue with contemporary musical solutions (Varese, Ligeti), in the stream of a harmonious fusion of ancient and modern. It’s a propitiatory ceremony of supernatural happenings that open portals of blissfulness, tribal and shamanic darkness, and,timeless jungles. Between amazon fires and African safaris, we float in the Asian rivers of meditation, lost in water games, echoes of caves and rocks in the night, synergies of frogs, birds, snakes, marimbas, chimes, gongs, and wooden drums.crédits

Dakota STATONLate Late ShowSupperclub Belgium

Swiss artist Lukas Traxel releases his powerful debut album One-Eyed Daruma on We Jazz Records, March 10. The trio features Traxel on double bass, Otis Sandsjö on sax and Moritz Baumgärtner on drums. Compact, deep, and organic to the bone, Traxel & co's sound echoes the innovations of rhythmically driven avantgarde jazz while keeping things moving at all times. There's both drive and freedom to this sound.ONe-Eyed Daruma features eight new compositions by Traxel, who crafted the outline for the album while dealing with the loss of his father. The group came together after an open invitation from the Zurich jazz club Moods to present a new group. The trio of Traxel, Sandsjö and Baumgärtner creates a full, symphonic, and powerful body of sound despite the instrumentation without a harmony instrument. The trio functions as a collective where the boundaries between composition, melody, and accompaniment are in flux, while keeping the common goal of creating new music together in sight at all times. Traxel reports that after playing bass in various groups with guitar and/or piano, he wanted to create a counterpoint of sorts with his new group and specifically go about it with a more sparse setup. As One-Eyed Drama proves, the idea behind the trio dynamic is a strong one and the unit makes use of their extra space in creating evocative, moody, swinging creative jazz with a distinguishable fingerprint of its own.Lukas Traxel says:"The process of composing this music while dealing with the loss of a loved one resulted in a writer's block at first. The notes would just not flow out of my pen until I noticed a mysterious-looking figure in the right upper corner of my piano. It was a daruma, an eyeless figure that in the Japanese tradition brings luck and prosperity. According to the myth, the first eye must be drawn onto the figure while expressing a wish. The second eye can be added only if the wish comes true. My daruma is meant to stay one-eyed as my wish, strongly connected and intertwined with my now gone father, is not meant to be fulfilled. The feeling of unfulfillment and imperfection of life serves as a common thread throughout this album, right down to its title. In a similar fashion, a composition remains incomplete until it is interpreted by musicians, and given form as music. That being said, for me playing together with this trio symbolises the upside: the sense of fulfillment in music and life.Our musical influences include the American composer and singer Caroline Shaw, Swiss pianist Colin Vallon's trio, and composer/singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane. In addition, I have listened a lot to the trio albums of Jimmy Guiffre and Sonny Rollins. Besides that, my musical heroes like Charlie Haden, John Coltrane, and Keith Jarrett always flow into the music. Another very important influence in the music is the work of American visual artist Agnes Martin, in whose works the imperfection of a multiplicity of repetitions results in a lively big whole in the end. (See "Wild Flower")Live, the trio takes a lot of freedom in interpreting this music, yet we have a deeper, almost pop-like attitude towards the live performance as an experience. For me it's always important to build a strong narrative with the band while on stage."