Archive for February 2017
Somi – “Petite Afrique” – Available March 31
Pulsing with Harlem’s rhythms and sonic ambiance, Somi’s Petite Afrique is an homage to her New York City upper Manhattan neighborhood, and one of the Meccas of the African diaspora. In the village of Harlem, along west 116th Street from Malcolm X Boulevard to Frederick Douglass Boulevard, African immigrants build American lives. Populated predominantly by a Francophone, West African…
Read MoreAvailable Now: Cameron Graves – “Planetary Prince” – Mack Avenue Records
The release of Kamasi Washington’s The Epic last year marked a seismic shift in the jazz landscape and the game-changing arrival of the genre-blurring Los Angeles collective West Coast Get Down. That evolution continues with the release of Planetary Prince, the debut album by visionary pianist, keyboardist, composer and WCGD founding member Cameron Graves. Upon…
Read MoreBobby Watson – “Made In America” – Available April 21
While Black History Month provides an annual reminder of the momentous contributions that African-Americans have made to the nation’s history, 28 days out of 365 aren’t nearly enough to compensate for the neglect those “hidden figures” (to borrow the title of a recent hit film) have suffered in classrooms and history books. On his latest…
Read MoreIvo Perelman – “The Art Of Perelman-Shipp” – Available March 3
The passionately ingenious Brazilian tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman enjoys a unique partnership with the brilliantly eclectic pianist Matthew Shipp that stretches back more than two decades and encompasses more than 30 recordings. These document the ever-expanding extent of their seemingly mystical connection. Now, in their most ambitious project to date, Perelman and Shipp present The…
Read MoreChristian Sands – “Reach” – Available April 21
With his debut Mack Avenue Records recording, REACH, singularly talented pianist and five-time Grammy® Award nominee Christian Sands is stretching into exciting progressive territory as he breaks new ground traversing from the straight-ahead zone into fresh-sounding music influenced by a range of styles, from Afro-Cuban rhythms to hip-hop beats to dirty blues with an edge.…
Read More