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Didymus by John Haycock & John Ellis

Greg Foat's Greek Jazz quartet featuring Sokratis Votskos, Warren Hampshire and Ayo Salawu recorded live in Mykonos. Big fat Synth bass lines with Psychedelic Guitar, Hypnotic Bass Clarinet, mystical Flute and Killer Drums.

Two fabulous funky tracks originally released on the award winning album Goma-Laca – Afrobrasilidades in 78 rpm which updated Brazilian Music originally recorded on 78's in the 1920s to the 1950s. With musical direction and arrangements by Letieres Leite, the vocal pyrotechnics of Russo Passapusso and Juçara Marçal masterfully accompanied by double bassist Marcos Paiva, Hercules Gomes on piano, Sergio Machado on drums and percussion master Gabi Guedes. Under the direction of Letieres, the group created with the singers arrangements of jazzy tones over Afro-Bahian rhythms, and everything was recorded live at Estúdio Traquitana, in São Paulo.The version of Cala Menino Boca best known from the version by Joao Donato that's been doing the Dancefloor round since the early Acid Jazz days here gets a funky and rhodes led percussive update and of course the traditional tune "Ogum" gets a soulful jazz run through, folky funk like you've never heard before. This is yet another welcome addition to the Jazz Room canon, watch those dancefloors light up when this wax spins!

For the third release in our Mr Bongo Cuban Classics series, we reissue the iconic 1974 debut album by the mighty Grupo Irakere. Led by Chucho Valdés, son of Cuban pianist and bandleader Bebo Valdés, the band would go on to become of the most influential and successful groups emanating from Cuba in this period. Their debut ‘Teatro Amadeo Roldan Recital’ is an in-demand and incredible Afro-Cuban, jazz-funk masterpiece originally landing on Cuba’s state-owned imprint, Areito.One of the jewels of the album is the beast of an opener, 'Bacalao Con Pan’. A heavy dancefloor Latin-funk burner, with ripping Wah-Wah guitar, a blistering mix of Latin percussive elements and horns firing on all cylinders. It’s a song which builds and breaks with an energy and power that still lights up the dance to this very day.The album is a varied bag of tricks, traversing moods, styles and genres whilst melding traditional rhythms with more contemporary mindsets. Take the delectable downtempo ballad ‘Danza Nañiga’ or ‘Valle Picadura’ that starts on a similar tip, before erupting into a horn heavy heater. Move through to find ‘Taka Taka Ta’ where Afro-Cuban jazz, call and response vocals and brain-busting organs marry in steamy unison.Elsewhere, continuing this melting pot of musical influences, the prog/psychedelic rock leaning 'Quindiambo', expertly combines traditional Latin music with psych rock in a similar way to Santana. 'Misaluba' is another highlight, a cover version of a song by the British-Italian based group Cyan, written by Mario & Giosy Capuano, making it their own with this tripped-out, percussion-rich makeover.As debuts go, Grupo Irakere’s ‘Teatro Amadeo Roldan Recital' is about as good as it gets and gives a snapshot of Cuba in the mid ‘70s, with a band that were destined for big things.

Remont Pomp (repair of pumps) is a band playing ethnic, avant-garde and improvised music, which was founded in 2003 at the Polish Association for People with Intellectual Disabilities Koło in Gdańsk, created by the association's charges. The band's inspiration is ethnic music with an emphasis on the richness of African music. Remont Pomp also discovers the space of experimental music by playing unusual instruments and objects not usually associated with music.The band uses a variety of instruments, starting from ethnic percussion instruments, i.e. djembe, balafon, kalimbas, log drum, through melodic instruments: metallophone, chromatic bells, tang drum, and ending with objects such as glasses, bottles, bowls, jugs or barrels.Remont Pomp has released three albums so far. The first one entitled "Golden Platinum" released in 2012 was recorded with Mikołaj Trzaska and Mike Majkowski. The next album entitled "Pomp Power" was recorded by the band with Mikołaj Trzaska, it was released in December 2016 by kilogram records.At the end of 2022, the band recorded the third album "Sam Jest Pompa Vol.1" with Mikołaj Trzaska (saxophone, clarinet) and Adam Żuchowski (double bass) and as the title says, at least one more part from this recording session will be released later.Thanks to these meetings, the band's music on the albums gained a more free jazz, improvised character.This is the second part of the session "Sam jesteś pompa" ("You are the pump yourself") - on 180g vinyl incl. downloadcode. The album "You are the pump yourself vol.2" was recorded with the participation of Mikołaj Trzaska (saxophones, clarinet) and Adam Żuchowski (double bass).

Kamal Keila’s album is the first in a series of releases covering the Sudanese jazz scene on Habibi Funk. Be on the lookout for albums by The Scorpions and Sharhabeel coming soon.