Underground Canopy Paloma Paloma
Même Heure Même Endroit

Another big record from International Anthem. In 2017 at London's Total Refreshment Centre, Chicago's Makaya McCraven teamed up a host of UK jazz talent; Nubya Garcia / Soweto Kinch / Joe Armon-Jones / Kamaal Williams and Theon Cross for what has now become a legendary London jazz session. The next day these tracks where reinterpreted by producers LeFtO / Don Leisure & Earl Jeffers / Ben LaMar Gay / Emma-Jean Thackray / Quiet Dawn and Lexus Blondin. On returning to Chicago, Makaya compiled these works into the 'Where We Come From (Chicago X London Mixtape)'. Makaya McCRAVENWhere We Come From: Chicago x London MixtapeInternational Anthem US

The Brkn Record is a new project led and produced by Jake Ferguson, the co-founder and bass player for the UK’s foundational deep jazz outfit the Heliocentrics. With fellow Heliocentrics co-founder and legendary drummer Malcolm Catto, Ferguson has been a regular collaborator with globally recognised artists including Archie Shepp, Mulatu Astatke, Melvin Van Peebles, Orlando Julius and many others. The Architecture of Oppression Part 1 represents Ferguson’s debut as a bandleader and orchestrator, and manifests as a committed and soulful response to ongoing and systemic anti-black racism, social oppression and state violence both at home in London and across the globe. Combining poetry, testimony and song with rich and cinematic backdrops, Ferguson has produced a sui generis sound that conjures flavours of Arthur Verocai, Ennio Morricone, classic library productions, Madlib-style deep-jazz beat science, and psychedelic soul. With bandmate Malcolm Catto on drums, Ferguson draws on their long years of collaborative experience in the Heliocentrics to build an album of striking texture and depth. But the album does not only reflect Ferguson’s full-spectrum musical prowess, experience and vision. It is equally a manifestation of his longstanding and high-profile work as a frontline activist for racial justice and social equity in London and beyond.

Back To Black is an album by Amy Winehouse, released in 2021. Back To Black includes a.o. the following tracks: “Rehab”, “Me & Mr Jones”, “Some Unholy War”, “He Can Only Hold Her” and more. The album is a Picture Disc, Limited Edition pop LP.

Finnish bassist Antti Lötjönen returns in February 2023 with his second Quintet East album on We Jazz Records. With Verneri Pohjola on trumpet, Mikko Innanen and Jussi Kannaste on saxes, and Joonas Riippa on drums, Quintet East is a hard-hitting ensemble of Helsinki scene A-listers. The new release sees the quintet work with Lötjönen's inspired new music with remarkable spirit, spreading out on a quest for new sounds and ideas, and returning to base with a fresh batch of acoustic creative music, wild to the bone even when sounding completely in control.Circus/Citadel is essentially a coherent album, rather than a series of loosely connected compositions. There's plenty of diversity within Lötjönen's compositions and the band's dynamics, yet it all flows into one effortlessly, creating a suite of sorts, even outside of the title composition which consists of three parts. During the course of the album, the quintet often gets together in smaller formations: in trios and duos of different combinations of the players. The music breathes and maintains its energy at all times, leaving plenty of headroom for the all-out quintet "attacks" when needed. It all comes together in a shape that feels unified and cyclical, leaving the listener hungry for repeated listens in order to get deeper into the many layers found within.Antti Lötjönen says:"These compositions vary in terms of form and density, with each player having enough room to re-invent and expand on the music within the pieces. I wrote this music over a relatively brief time span. This, I think, is something you can also hear on the album, as the temporal closeness of the ideas brings with it a certain kind of unity. The world we live in sometimes feels like and absurd circus, from which you need to get away from to get new ideas and energy. Everyone needs their citadel, whatever it may be. This pairing of the two words Circus/Citadel is inspired by a poem by the Romanian-born German-language poet Paul Celan (1920–1970)."Circus/Citadel is released by We Jazz Records on 24 February, 2023, as white and black vinyl editions, on CD and digitally. The artwork displays a freeform graphic score of the music by We Jazz artistic director and designer Matti Nives. The vinyl versions are housed in heavy duty tip-on sleeve with silver-embossed lettering, and the CD comes in a matte digisleeve with silver-embossed lettering. Antti Lötjönen Quintet East performs live in Finland in January and February.

Home Decor is the sixth full-length album from LA-based downtempo maestro Danny Scott Lane. In its title, concept and artwork, it's clearly pointed towards those classic lounge albums of the 60s, consciously crafted to give the listener a sense of sophistication while also helping them to chill the hell out, preferably with a fine whisky and a cigar. The music is no pastiche though, and there's a constantly unfolding tapestry of cosy, subtly tweaked sounds which shape out this album, with elevated musicality and detailed production balanced without ever disrupting the smooth mood.

This session was recorded at Studio Pathé-Magellan in Paris, between Tuesday October, 25th, 1955 and February, 10th, 1956. This record is the third and last record for the Barclay label.In answer to an offer from Nicole Barclay, Chet Baker arrived in Paris early in September 1955. On the 22nd – or maybe the 23rd – he signed a contract to make seven records… (The figure was later erased and replaced by «three», which turned out to be correct). Released after the trumpeter’s return to the USA, this last volume was construed as rather a poor relation opposite the others in the trilogy, all the more so because, hurriedly drafted, the sleeve-notes did little to render unto Caesar the things which were Caesar’s. Unlike the earlier opuses, this one was in no way a concept-album: it contented itself with a simple overview of Chet’s Parisian associations, depending on where his fancies took him in the course of his stay. When Chet entered the Studio Pathé-Magellan on October 25th, only one member of his original accompanying trio was still present: pianist Dick Twardzik had died of an overdose, and drummer Peter Littman had returned home after selling his kit for whatever it would fetch. Jimmy Bond and his contrabass, however, were both still there, and in the ensuing octet session Chet’s melodic gifts were magnified by (remarkable) scores penned by Pierre Michelot – ‘Chet’, ‘Dinah’ – and Christian Chevalier ‘Vline’. The three pièces were mini-concertos, and the trumpeter loved them so much that he decided to do them again back in America… but not so successfully. On November 28th Chet went back into the same studio, this time with Raymond Fol on piano, Benoît Quersin on bass and Jean-Louis Viale on drums. They recorded two improvisations: the first was based on a 1932 standard from Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz, ‘Alone Together’, while the second began with ‘Exitu’s, a composition written by one of Baker’s friends, Phil Urso. The performances are among the most beautiful that Chet produced during this period, along with ‘Chekeetah’ – or ‘Chik-Etah’ – and ‘How about You?’ which put the seal on a partnership that had first come to light at the Club Saint-Germain, temporarily rechristened for the occasion: «Every Saturday and Sunday afternoon from 16h30 to 19h30 at the Barclay’s Club – 13 rue Saint-Benoît, Paris – Bobby Jaspar Quintet with American trumpeter Chet Baker,» read the sign. The format was stylistically ideal, leading Chet to abandon the quartet format he’d preferred up until then. To respect his next bookings, Chet had to get a stable band together, and as his pianist he chose Raph Schecroun – later known as Errol Parker – who was himself replaced by Francy Boland. Alongside him were bassist Eddie de Haas, who’d previously been with Martial Solal and Henri Renaud (the latter, in the adventure, also lost his regular drummer, Charles Saudrais, who was just seventeen. According to Jean-Louis Chautemps, “When Bobby Jaspar couldn’t do it or just wanted too much, they looked for someone cheaper; and that was me. There wasn’t really an audition: we were in the Tabou, I played with Chet, he said OK and, two days later, we found ourselves in Reykjavik, Iceland.” The tune ‘Tasty Puddin’g written by Al Cohn and ‘Anticipated Blues’, one of the rare pieces Chet claimed to have written, were in the repertoire played by this last Baker-led formation on the Old Continent.Both pieces, once again, moved Pierre Michelot to pass judgement: «With ordinary means, Chet managed to play phrases of extraordinary beauty with simplicity and clarity ».Text – Alain Tercinet