Cal Tjader
Latin For Lovers

Full stereo and remastered version of this classic Sun Ra album originally from 1969 - fantastic edition!

Since the release of his last full-length Happysad in summer 2018, Kiefer released the mini-album Bridges, toured the USA and Europe, and produced three beats for Anderson .Paak’s albums Ventura and Oxnard.Kiefer considers Bridges and Superbloom to be a single cohesive project, with his new songs building upon Bridges’ sound. Bridges saw him expand his musical palette beyond the piano, working with a number of analogue synths. On Superbloom he takes that a step further, with songs that he describes as “brighter, more imaginative, and vibrant” — much like the natural phenomenon that gives the record its name. He describes Superbloom as a “very active” work: “The first five tracks are invigorating, while the final two tracks act as a grand exhale following all that energy.”Kiefer, who studied jazz at UCLA under musician Kenny Burrell — the programme counts Kamasi Washington among its alumni — is now a mentor to musicians at every stage in their careers. As both teacher and student, Kiefer has adopted the motto “be encouraged and encourage others” and his music reflects that duality, virtuosic yet filled with straightforward beauty. Kiefer strives to portray the intensity of his interactions with the world in music, via the bravura performance on ‘Good Looking’ and the beautiful extended piano solo on ‘Be Encouraged...’ and ‘And Encourage Others’ (originally one song that was split over two tracks), while ‘10,000 Days’ and ‘20 May’ home in on simpler pleasures found in the everyday.As Kiefer puts it, "This music is naturally me. It sounds like me. As with everything that I release, I am showing you what I love about music. Making rhythm, harmony, melody, and sounds that move me. I spend everyday talking to students and mentors and listening to music and finding things that I think are beautiful, and then translating them through my unique musicality. I'm doing it in a way that only I can, and regardless of how good or bad it may be, I'm trying my best."

Birthed from informal sessions in South London around 2013; the Ferg Ireland Trio combines three of the UK’s most exciting musicians. The trio is a vehicle for Ireland to consolidate his influences and explore the Sax/Bass/Drums format with an alchemical blend of intense spiritual jazz, broken beat flavours, angular swing and playful conversations.This, their debut recording, was captured over the course of a summer’s day in 2017 and the result, stripped of artifice and any studio trickery, represents the pure expression of three great instrumentalists, as well as three great friends. Ireland (Kansas Smittys, Soweto Kinch, Ashley Henry, 22a), Nathaniel Facey (Empirical) and James Maddren (Kit Downes, Jacob Collier, Gwilym Simcock) have been playing together for over a decade, and this is reflected in the telepathy of their musical conversation. The twists and turns of their dialogue delve deep into the dark heart of modern jazz.

Formidable travail réalisé par le globe-trotter Miles Cleret alias Mr Soundway Records. Un territoire atypique, encore peu “exploité musicalement” par ce type de label, une compilation de morceaux très rares, des recherches ethnographiques développées dans un livret de 8 pages, un vinyle 7 pouces en bonus, un très bel artwork… Tous les critères d’une excellente compilation semblent être réunis sur ce nouveau projet de Soundway. Padang Moonrise est l'histoire de la musique indonésienne moderne qui a émergé sous les volcans de Java, l'île la plus peuplée de l’archipel. Plus de 17 000 îles et 1 300 groupes ethniques distincts, sa capitale, Jakarta, était le centre de la plupart de l'identité nationale postcoloniale, de la politique, de l'administration et de la production musicale. Les chansons traditionnelles de Java, Sumatra, Bali et au-delà ont été réinventées par un petit groupe de musiciens parrainés par l'État qui ont également composé et arrangé de nouvelles musiques. Ces chansons visaient à consolider un pays géographiquement disparate avec une nouvelle langue et de nouvelles idées du caractère national. Cette compilation rassemble une poignée de ces enregistrements qui combinent des éléments de musique populaire régionale, Gambus islamique, Gamelan et Kroncong javanais et balinais, avec du jazz, de la musique et de l'instrumentation afro-latine, et des harmonies vocales influencées par le doo-wop américain interdit et le rock & roll. Les résultats sont un mélange unique de styles qui sont restés pour la plupart isolés du monde extérieur à l'Indonésie jusqu'à ce qu'une récente résurgence mondiale de l'intérêt pour la musique enregistrée de toutes formes ait jeté un nouvel éclairage sur ces enregistrements presque oubliés.

­The mysterious afro-­soul of The Shaolin Afronauts first echoed across the dance floors of Australia in early 2008, captivating audiences with a highly evolved and unique approach to avant-garde soul music matched with an improvisational pedigree that immediately set them apart from their peers. In the almost fifteen years since the ensemble's debut they have released three albums on Freestyle Records and toured across Australia and around the world.After an extended hiatus punctuated by rare live performances, The Shaolin Afronauts return with The Fundamental Nature of Being, an epic five album release that expands the sonic vision of the ensemble to towering new heights of burning afro-funk alongside esoteric and ethereal new sonic excursions. This expanded musical journey further explores the wide spectrum of the band's musical identity – with each of the five parts designed as both standalone records, while also offering a singular listening journey across the band's expansive musical world. This, the second part in the collection, draws on the band's rich influence of Ethiopian and sub-saharan soul and funk, alongside spiritual jazz, rock, and 1970s film soundtracks.

Led by producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Mark de Clive Lowe, Tokyo’s Ronin Arkestra brings together some of the most supreme and innovative players in Japan’s Jazz and electronic scene, featuring members of Kyoto Jazz Sextet, WONK, Cro-Magnon, Root Soul, Sleepwalker, Sauce81 and Kyoto Jazz Massive.Formed in 2017, the collective’s debut album ‘Sonkei’, released via Albert’s Favourites, fuses ’60s deep and spiritual jazz with experimental electronica and is mixed by label co-founder Scrimshire. Compositions such as ‘Lullabies of the Lost’ are a deep meditation that transports us simultaneously back hundreds of years into the right here and now, while the horn-heavy, fusion-driven ‘Art of Altercation’, confronts the skill of conflict and confrontation.Elsewhere, the impulsive and free-flowing ‘Cosmic Collisions’ merges raw grooves and electronics – an interstellar configuration of stars, light years from each other, while ‘Circle of Transmigration’ challenges the never ending circle of life, fusing soaring horns and piano-driven melodies.It’s a fascinating evolution that has a parallel to each member in the Ronin Arkestra collective - master musicians from different bands and clans coming together to create a vagabond band of like-minded musicians - weaving the stories of their lives into a collective sound. “The members of Ronin Arkestra are some of my favorite musicians anywhere and the way we all come together in battle formation with so much heart and soul is making magic,” says de Clive Lowe.