Pedro Ruy-Blas
Cyber Dolores

FARO220LP - UK - 2021

Recorded when Johnny Walker was touring Worldwide with Veteran Jazz Star Lionel Hampton in 1982 and originally released on his own Private Press label: Walk On Productions.This neglected underground classic LP has been off the radar since then except for the appearance of "Dipping" on the Kev Beadle ‎– Private Collection (Independent Jazz Sounds From The Seventies And Eighties) compilation on BBE Records.Almost unknown and unjustly negected, it's a funk drenched jazz journey with some crunchy fat beats laid down by the excellent rhythm section complementing Johnny Walkers cool horn stylings. Reminiscent of the albums of that early Jazz Dance era by Tom Browne and Rahmlee but with less of a commercial edge and wholly instrumental this is Funky Jazz that has not dated and sounds like it was fresh out of the studio in 2022.

Honk If You're Sad by Ebi SodaBorn from ten-hour jam sessions in peeling Brighton bedsits, the technical parameters of a bootstrap recording process and the osmotic, multi-genre influence of internet music archives, quintet Ebi Soda have been steady-cultivating a unique sound amidst the exploding UK jazz scene.In typical Ebi style, while recalling jazz pioneers in playing style, ‘Honk If You’re Sad’ draws from a vast neural network of influences: the Ebi Brain has been marinating in a digital soup of trap, drill, dub, post-punk and no wave to name but a few. The result is a mercurial record that beams in psychedelia, dissonance, serene ambient passages, tough, neck-snapping beats and lush textures, all underscored by the intersection of jazz, hip hop and electronic music.From influences as diverse as Kokoroko, Can, Lounge Lizards, BadBadNotGood, Ronin Arkestra, and The Fall, ‘Honk if You’re Sad’ focuses on a cohesive whole; an explorative, playful and technically brilliant record that coaxes the listener through immersive phases of fun, chaos and harmony.

The South African response to Chick Corea’s Return to Forever and Miles’ On the Corner• A defining musical statement in South Africa’s jazz canon – pinpointing the moment of social and musical ferment in which the country’s terms of engagement with jazz were irreversibly changed.• Forged when township kids were facing down bullets, this is an electric mulberry funk – slick, intense and complex.• Reissued for the first time since 1977 with inner sleeves containing archival photographs and new liner notes by Francis Gooding.• Audio remastered and cut for vinyl by Frank Merritt at The Carvery with heavyweight 180g vinyl pressed at Pallas in GermanyAt a distance of more than forty years, the radicalism and significance of African Spaces can be seen more clearly. Ambitious, uncompromising, and resolutely progressive, it represents a unique high-water mark in South Africa’s long musical engagement with the newest developments in American jazz – a response to the cosmic call of Return To Forever, and an answer to Miles’ On the Corner.Spirits Rejoice drew together some of South Africa’s most abundantly talented and forward-thinking jazz players and created a complex and challenging jazz fusion that shifted the terms of South Africa’s engagement with jazz towards new music being made by pioneers such as Chick Corea, Weather Report, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny and others.African Spaces, their debut recording, is one of the key documents in the South African jazz canon. Emerging in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto uprising, and taking its place alongside the crucial mid-1970s music of Malombo, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Batsumi, it is a defining but unsung musical statement of its era.

You Loved Me by Patty Waters