Creole poetry, rootical mysticism and heavy-grooving synths illuminate this survey of the Martiniquan’s first four albums, recorded in France in the late seventies and early nineties, but inspired by the ‘smells and colours… subliminal noises… fruity notes, the memories of funeral wakes, the bombastic organ of the cathedral and the gasps of the drums’ of home.
‘Midonet’s musical world is cosmic, mystical and he has created his own idiosyncratic style around it: not plain folk, not bélé, chouval bwa, beguine or gwoka, but rather a transcendental fusion of all these and a true reflection of his personality.’

‘The piano was at the centre of Feldman’s musical world. Even when he was writing for other instruments he would work at the piano because ‘it slows me down and you can hear the time element much more, the acoustical reality.’ Perhaps more than any of his other piano music Triadic Memories is about that reality, the acoustic space created by the piano’s strings and soundboard, and in Judith Wegmann’s recording that space is within a magnificent Bösendorfer 280VC piano.
‘The score specifies that the piano’s sustaining pedal should be held halfway down throughout the piece, as if the resonance of the instrument is intended to become a means of remembering the music. Feldman was thinking of the way that Cy Twombly would scratch graffiti-like markings into a gesso ‘where the tint changed ever so slightly.’ Feldman wanted a tonal ground and took the idea of ‘a little gesso’ from Twombly, making music that, as he put it, is ’on this very precarious gesso smudge.’  Gesso, smudge, memory.’

The core trio joined by Joe McPhee, playing saxophone and pocket trumpet, in readings of compositions by Don Cherry, PJ Harvey, Ornette Coleman, McPhee himself, James Blood Ulmer and Frank Lowe.

Cosmic jazz excursions on saxophone, flute, electric keys, synths and drums.
Supple, deep and spacious; sparklingly dubwise; intensely percussive.

Precious, early solo work by the veteran sound explorer, instrument builder and improv grandmaster. Intricate and graceful manipulations of the echoes generated by a home-made regiment of glass tubes called Analapos, these recordings tunnel divergently like subterranean streams, while the Koolmees pair take wing with aerial fragility, like a newly formed birdsong.

With guests Kit Downes on hammond organ, and cellist Lucy Railton.
Jazz album of the month, in The Guardian: ‘an unusual path, combining spellbinding singing with wayward improv… Speak Low II foregrounds Cadotsch’s crystal-clear lyricism more than its predecessor without ever cramping the freedoms of her classy improvising partners. She brings a graceful accessibility to a personal and ingeniously offbeat setup.’

Adding songs from Salad Days, Is The War Over, the Final Day single and their Testcard EP; plus a DVD of their final US show, at Hurrah in New York in 1980.

Sowetan soul jazz — ‘marabi jjive’ — originally out in 1972, by the greatest of all mbaqanga outfits, and the house band of Gallo Africa’s Mavuthela Music subsidiary from its launch in 1964 right through to 1977. Featuring Teaspoon Ndelu, West Nkosi and Michael Xaba on saxophones, and Marks Mankwane on lead guitar.
Appetisingly this is the first of seven limited-edition singles drawn by Umsakazo from the golden age of South African township jive. Restored from the original master in Gallo’s Johannesburg tape vault; spiffily sleeved and labelled with the original artwork, with notes and recording details printed on the back.

Lovely new soul from Demae (aka Bubblerap, from hip hop crew Hawk House), with contributions from Fatima, Joe Armon-Jones, Ego Ella May and Nala Sinephro.
Fresh, personable and honest in the great tradition of London street soul, suffused with Dilla, Flying Lotus and the new UK jazz scene, this is warmly recommended. Check it out.

A zinging selection of posters by the duo behind O$VMV$M, for Bristol club nights run by the Young Echo collective. Buzzing, punky, detailed takes on Dada and surrealism. 48 pages, full colour. Lovely stuff, full of vibes. Nice present!

The landmark 1968 debut recording of pianist Ibrahim Khalil Shihab, aged twenty-two; also featuring terrific young saxophonist Winston ‘Mankunku’ Ngozi, Coltrane acolyte, on the verge of huge acclaim for his LP Yakhal’ Inkomo.

Scandalously, Paypal blocks anyone trying to buy this from us, because of the artist’s Arabic name.

‘In 1972, the country of Rhodesia — as Zimbabwe was then known — was in the middle of a long-simmering struggle for independence from British colonial rule. In the hotels and nightclubs of the capital, bands could make a living playing a mix of Afro-Rock, Cha-Cha-Cha and Congolese Rumba. But as the desire for independence grew stronger, a number of Zimbabwean musicians began to look to their own culture for inspiration. They began to emulate the staccato sound and looping melodies of the mbira (thumb piano) on their electric guitars, and to replicate the insistent shaker rhythms on the hi-hat; they also started to sing in the Shona language and to add overtly political messages to their lyrics (safe in the knowledge that the predominantly white minority government wouldn’t understand them). From this collision of electric instruments and indigenous traditions, a new style of Zimbabwean popular music — later known as Chimurenga, from the Shona word for ‘struggle’ — was born. And there were few bands more essential to the development of this music than the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band…’
Their biggest hits — along with several rare tracks — recorded between 1974 and 1979.