The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble
The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble

Mind-blowing session of Spiritual Jazz recorded in NYC in 1984 led by Haitian genius Alix Pascal blending traditional Ra Ra elements with modal/spiritual melodies.The result was like nothing else coming out of Haiti or the Haitian exile community in the US at the time. Dark, mystical, lyrical and abstract, with its otherworldly shifting rhythms, Dilijans came off like a Haitian version of Bitches Brew. The album sounds less like a stylish mini-jazz performing in a hotel dancehall than like a cry of ancestors emanating from the spirit world to lament over the complications of modern Haitian society.Ayizan: In the cosmology of Haitian Vodou, the goddess of the Earth, relocated to the Caribbean from her original home among the West African Fon people. She represents one of the four primal elements of nature, along with Loco (Wind), Legba (Sun), and Agwe (Water).Ayizan: In the world of music, an ambitious music project marrying the haunting resonances of Vodou with the harmonic sophistication of modern jazz and progressive rock. The brainchild of Haiti-born multi-instrumentalist and arranger Alix “Tit” Pascal, the fundamental goal was to re-conceptualize the articulation of rhythm in Haitian popular music.To say that rhythm is the heart of Haitian music is understate things: Rhythm is the heart, the lungs, the skeleton, the musculature, the pores, the brain and the soul. Indeed, Haiti’s perennially popular social music, kompa, takes its name from the Spanish compás—“beat”—for the steady, throbbing pulse of the tanbou barrel drum that has remained its central animating force for more than six decades.That basic beat, that compas direct has remained consistent, but there have been various attempts to complicate it, to problematize it, such as the efforts by the genre’s sainted originator Nemours Jean-Baptiste to inject the traditional rara festival music into the kompa mix.

As-Shams Archive Vol. 1 introduces the core catalogue of As-Shams/The Sun, the independent record label that documented some of the most exciting developments in jazz, funk and soul from South Africa in the 1970s. With 10 tracks from 10 iconic albums featuring 10 different artists and 10 original compositions, this 2LP compilation delivers 85 minutes of South African music history. Including essential tracks by the likes of Dick Khoza, Black Disco and Harari, remastered from the original analog tapes and housed in a gatefold art sleeve, As-Shams Archive Vol. 1 is an unbeatable introduction to South African rare groove for new listeners as well as a long-awaited first anthology for the label’s many devoted followers.

Le groupe de musiciens MADMADMAD est né d’une rencontre en studio à Tottenham (Nord de Londres). Au cours de leurs nombreuses sessions d’enregistrements, ils ont trouvé rapidement leur signature musicale : des sonorités à la fois étranges et rythmées. Ces musiciens ont séduit dès leur premier EP nommé « Pax », en septembre 2017. En 2019, le groupe signe avec l’éditeur J.I.M/Ninja Tune avec qui ils publient leur premier album. Leur album englobe un large éventail de genres musicaux, passant de la disco aux sons du début des années 2000, et aussi du Krautrock au New York Noise, un véritable laboratoire musical. MADMADMAD vous promet un live unique, traduisant leur volonté de permettre à leur public de s’évader le temps d’une écoute. Après leur passage aux Transmusicales et à Eurosonic 2020, ils sillonnent dorénavant les routes pour vous offrir une expérience sensorielle. « MADMADMAD is the expression of our individual alienations and our mental disorder as a society. Which one feeds into the other is a mystery ». Extrait du Manifeste du groupe. Membres du groupe - Kevin Toublant - Benji Bouton - Matt Kelly - Leon de Bretagne

Untouchable deep, spiritual jazz once more on Black Jazz from Doug Carn, with the soaring vocals of his then wife Jean Carn. Untouchable stuff!Of all the artists who recorded for the Black Jazz label, keyboardist and composer Doug Carn was the most prolific, releasing four albums for the label. 1972's 'Spirit of the New Land' was his second Black Jazz release, but the first one (of two) to co-feature his wife, vocalist Jean Carn. Features trumpeter Charles Tolliver, co-founder of the Strata-East label; saxophonist George Harper, who played with Herbie Hancock and Jimmy Smith among others; trombonist Garnett Brown and drummer Alphonse Mouzon (founding member of Weather Report). This is beautiful, uplifting, spiritual jazz classic!

For the first in a new series of albums covering the Sudanese soul and jazz scenes, Habibi Funk serves up an album of previously unreleased material by veteran performer Kamal Keila. The music contained on the album comes from two reel-to-reel tapes of session recordings made by Keila and his band for Sudanese radio in 1992, though many of the songs and arrangements date back to the 1970s. During his '70s peak, Keila was often described locally as "Sudan's answer to James Brown or Fela Kuti". Although the influence of both is present on both tracks, you'll also hear Sudanese blues, fifties-style R&B, hazy funk influenced by the Ethiopian music scene and sweet, horn-heavy, breakbeat-powered sing-alongs. Superb stuff, all told.