Amaro Freitas
Rasif

Thirty years in the making, Kraig Kilby’s Satori is an exercise in perspective. The classically-trained trombonist and pianist put down his professional roots in the Soul, Jazz, and Funk scenes of 1970s California, contributing to records by Bennie Maupin and Dynasty as well as touring and recording consistently with The Whispers and Etta James. While off the road in the SF Bay Area, he found himself adjacent to some of the most forward-thinking and far-out Jazz musicians of the time. He asked two of them, bassist Paul Jackson and drummer Michael Clark, to help him realize a set of his own compositions. The duo, already legendary for their roles in Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters band, went into the studio with Kilby to record the foundational tracks in the spring of 1977. Throughout the next four years, he would return on his own to apply layer after layer of additional instrumentation, up to the absolute limits of what was possible with the available equipment. This exacting process gave the sessions an unusual and compelling signature that bears something in common with the contemporaneous work of the Mizell Brothers, Norman Connors’ Aquarian Dream, and Detroit’s Tribe Records, but with a depth and lyricism unique to Kilby’s sense of harmony that lies amorphously between the worlds of 70’s Jazz, Funk, and Experimental Rock. Kraig's busy touring schedule throughout the following decades would leave the album fermenting until 2007, when it was paired with two more recent improvisational recordings and self-released on CD.Satori's mercurial twists and turns lead us through a dense sequence of melodic and rhythmic figures as calculated as they are tripped, always at the edge but navigated with a precise sense of balance. Rife with hooks that will startle even the most seasoned breakbeat sleuth and sheets of emotive texture that sound right at home with today’s wave of Cosmic Jazz torchbearers, it spins like a collector's fever dream, surely one of the most prescient Jazz albums to have fallen through the cracks. Upstart Detroit label Just Us is pleased to offer this crucial missing link on vinyl for the first time.

Fabled as the city where dreams come to thrive or die, Johannesburg is forever pumping out the life-giving force of criss-crossing sonic tributaries. As this collection of specially-recorded new music shows, every generation must discover for itself what perfecting the alchemy of that expression entails. Indaba Is - produced and managed by pianist Thandi Ntuli and The Brother Moves On bandleader Siyabonga Mthembu, tackles that inquiry with refreshing insight.Overall, the pair also provided enabling briefs which harnessed the collective energy of scenes often seen as operating centrifugally to Johannesburg’s all-consuming pull, or a little further down in its tiers of visibility. There are several examples where this approach yields astounding results.Indaba Is by Various Artists

Repress from rare private hawaii spiritual jazz-funk album from 1979This exclusive Jazz-Fusion album is a work composed by famous Hawaiian composer/musician/educator Gary Washburn. "A Life in a Day" was a project to fulfil a National Endowment of the Arts grant that he was awarded, and he performed it to fulfil a State Foundation grant that was also awarded to him.Gary composed the music in Hilo specifically for the individuals who performed the music (in the same way that Duke Ellington composed for his band). It's a concept album.The Justin Thyme line-up played a series of shows across the island, and they were initially recorded on a 4-channel recorder. The songs was introduced to brother and producer Kent Washburn, and he agreed to release it on his independent label EmKay Records. The album was mixed and pressed, but the distribution company he was with doubled it up and the album never really made it to the public. The musical Styles used by Washburn to present this unique conceptual representation include traditional and contemporary Jazz, Funk, Pop and, in some passages, classical.

After the recent reissue of their first eponymous album, Favorite Recordings proudly presents Vegas, the second LP from Venezuelan band Esperanto. Rare and sought-after for many collectors, it was recorded in between Las Vegas and Caracas and originally released in 1981. Following bandleader Jorge Aguilar in his musical trip to the infamous American city bathing into flashing lights and vivid colors, we're invited to an excursion in Disco, Boogie and Jazz-Funk territories. Finally reissued, fully remastered, Vegas will be available as Gatefold Tip-On Vinyl LP.

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