Philippe Lejeune Trio
Blues In A Bouquet

Nat Birchall follows up on his killer reggae roots album "Sounds Almighty" and returns with a couple of sides of blissful cosmic & spiritual jazz. Recommended!!!!

The trio hail from Modena, the Northern Italian motor city. As with the Ferrari and Maserati cars that are designed and manufactured in Modena, Strata-Gemma produce a music of beautiful symmetry.Strata-Gemma create jazz for the head, the heart and the body. Their sound is shaped by the ambient adventures Miles Davis and Ron Carter engaged in alongside the electronic pulse Mo' Wax and Ninja Tune carved out of clubland. Add to this a touch of Nino Rota's Fellini film scores, employ a pinch of Balkan and klezmer brass arrangements, and you have an instrumental trio who create music so fresh it stimulates the senses.Strata-Gemma are a collaboration between Billy Bogus, Luca Cacciatore and Andrea Moretti. The trio first took shape as a club jam between DJs and musicians. Their ability to create atmospheric music, pulsing with rhythm but never solely reliant on beats, music that breaks free and explores sonic possibilities, quickly won notice and lead to the trio playing their freeform music in clubs, music venues and festivals across Italy.

Banda Black Rio’s ‘Maria Fumaca’ is one of the strongest Brazilian samba-disco-funk-soul-fusion albums of all time. As regularly played by Theo Parrish, Gilles Peterson and co.‘Maria Fumaca’ is the groups first album, originally released by Atlantic in 1977; a record that bought the group worldwide fame. This album features in a list of the 100 greatest Brazilian albums of all time published by Rolling Stone Brazil, coming in at number 38.Official Mr Bongo reissue.

Black Jazz continues to have its best moments reissued and few come more highly regarded than this one. Keyboardist Gene Russell was at the artistic helm of Black Jazz and this album is one of the most bootlegged of them all. It features modal and soul jazz flourishes, with fine guests like double bassist Henry 'The Skipper' Franklin and drummer Steve Clover. New liner notes by Pat Thomas are included in this reissue with remastering by Mike Milchner at Sonic Vision making sure this stone cold classic never sounded better.

Musician, composer, bandleader and musical rubik’s cube, Laurent Bardainne is a saxophonist who trained at The Paris Conservatory.He’s collaborated with Pharrell Williams, Cassius and Philippe Katerine to name just a few and presents here his latest project, ‘Tigre d’eau Douce’ Also co-founder of electro rock band Poni Hoax (Tigersushi Records), Limousine, a duet with Camelia Jordana and more recently Sabrina & Samantha for Ed Banger. This album, sees a return to his first love of jazz, The Tigre d’eau Douce, represents a species doomed to disappear. So using melodies, chants and solos as an escape guide, his tenor saxophone takes us to a higher place,one where John Coltrane and the great figures of jazz reside. These LP tracks bounce between the grooves and soul of the 1970’s, wherepercussion and saxophone pave the way. ‘Marvin’ allows the fluffy keys of the Hammond organ to open out into a pensive melody that feels familiar. Carrying on the journey, the tough asphalt of hip hop is visited on tracks like ‘Bachibouzouk’ and ‘Felin M chant’, whereas more tropical themes are explored on tracks like ‘Kinshasa’.