Pop & Rock Vinyl New Releases - News

After releasing two records with the quintet Fazer, German guitarist Paul Brändle presents his solo debut on Squama Recordings.
Paul's minimalist compositions move in slow-motion between Straight Ahead Jazz, Folk, and Blues, only subtly disclosing their musical origins.
The album was recorded in Vienna during the annual 'Hundstage', a period in the summer during which the whole city succumbs to the sweltering heat. Short on oxygen, but not on ideas, Paul created 9 tracks of soothing excellence that are worth calming down for.

If you collect vintage 70's soul-jazz vinyl, there is a good chance that you already own a record that features the amazing vocal talents of Dee Dee Bridgewater. Whether it be Roy Ayers, Norman Connors, Billy Parker or Carlos Garnett - Dee Dee is the glue that fuses these artists together. Although best known for her jazz work, Dee Dee has had a wonderfully rich and varied career encompassing soul, musicals, gospel, and underground disco from the 70's to the present day. She is still active as a vocalist, composer, and producer and remains one of our favourite vocalists at Mr Bongo HQ. We take things back to the early years of Dee Dee's career with her debut album 'Afro Blue'. Recorded in Tokyo in 1974, the album was released exclusively in Japan via two different Japanese labels (Trio Records in 1974 and All Art in 1985 respectively). Each release had unique cover art and we have opted to present the album in its original 1974 form.

'Afro Blue' features an exquisite collaboration of American and Japanese musicians, such as Cecil & Ron Bridgewater, Motohiko Hino and producer Takao Ishizuka. The result is a sublime deep soul-jazz masterpiece with timeless versions of 'People Make The World Go Round', 'Love From The Sun', and 'Afro Blue'. It is arguably one of the finest albums in its genre. This record has long been a sought-after item for DJs and collectors alike, so we are delighted to finally make this wonderful music from an understated great available to all.

Recorded in 1964 at the Federal studio in Jamaica, this elegant yet unique previously unreleased album is said to be the origin of the Jamaican Mento meets 4 Beat Jazz sound.

This brilliant album is one of the most important Jamaican Jazz recordings that Ernest Ranglin has ever made. Everything in this album starts with the traditional Caribbean Jazz classics and then develops into 4 Beat Jazz. Produced by the Godfather of Jamaican music, Ken Khouri, this album really deserves its title. You may want to add this next to the Guitar In Ernest album (DSRLP501) in your collection.

Full length by Abdul, delivering on ever-changing consumer demand. Tax Free did it again.

BBE Music presents the sixth release in its acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series: ‘Stop Over’ by Hideto Sasaki - Toshiyuki Sekine Quartet +1. Released at the height of the electric fusion era, ‘Stop Over’ is an all-acoustic hard bop killer, sounding like the Jazz Messengers on speed. When it was originally issued on the private Smile label in 1976, only 100 copies were pressed, making ‘Stop Over’ one of the most sought after and rare LPs in the J Jazz canon.

Trumpeter Hideto Sasaki tears it up as if he’s Kenny Dorham on a classic late 50s Blue Note session. He also provides the breakneck title track to the album, the one stunning original that sits next to solid covers including Bobby Hutcherson’s modal classic ‘Little B’s Poem’ and Denny Zeitlin’s ‘Carole’s Garden’. Pianist Toshiyuki Sekine is also on top form with his deft touch and fluid keyboard runs, playing Horace Silver to Sasaki’s Dorham. If you dig that late 50s/early 60s breathless hard bop sound, you’ll love this. Licensed and released with the approval of Toshiyuki Sekine himself, ‘Stop Over’ will be available for download and streaming, as a CD and double vinyl LP, the first vinyl reissue of this amazing album since originally slipping out to family and friends in 1976.

With a deluxe packaging and translated sleeve notes, there will also be new notes and an interview with Toshiyuki Sekine. The BBE J Jazz Masterclass Series is personally curated by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden and is dedicated to presenting the very finest in Japanese modern jazz. The series features rare material presented in the highest quality reproductions of the original releases, fully licensed and authorised.

A limited edition 7” release by Roy Ayers – taken for the first time from the Change up the groove LP.

DYNAMITE CUTS give you a super fresh loud 45 cuts of these wonderful jazz and funk dancer First time on 45, don’t miss out x500 only.

A) “Fikisha” (to help some one arrive) another monster from the Roy ayers Ubiquity camp, vibe tastic - BANGER!!!!
B) Boogie back (breaks and samples, Djs tools) deep vibes groove, classic

The third installment of the Baast album series "Trident" sees the band heading into the direction of electronic soundscapes, delving deeper into soundtrack and ambient textures more so than previous albums "Dimension" and "Bazaar".
R. Scott Dibble and the inimitable DJ Johnny Basil remain at the helm with a round of uber talented guest artists who've contributed in the past along with some new players, heavy on talent but even more so on the vibe that's captured in the recordings.

First vinyl reissue of this fantastic 1981 album by Marcos Valle, one of the essential artists of Brazilian music.

Recorded in Brazil after spending the late 70s in the US, Marcos Valle brought together his innate talent and diverse influences on this irresistible record bursting with groove. Among a selection of top musicians, the line-up features Sivuca, Chicago's Peter Cetera, Robson Jorge and Azymuth's Jose Roberto Bertrami. Presented in facsimile artwork and pressed on 180g vinyl. A Record Store Day release.

After the success of his first EP 'The World of Eshu Dina' last year, trumpeter Yelfris Valdés debuts his new project 'For the Ones…'

Released on October 4th via newly formed Música Macondo Records.

For this record Yelfris employs an adventurous and experimental shift in his composition, drawing on his classical training and love of jazz whilst at the same time delving further into the world of electronica, gaining inspiration from artists like Jon Hassell, Bonobo and Aphex Twin resulting something truly unique:

"For this album, I worked deeply and meticulously to find a more layered sound including a trance feeling with grounded rhythms"

Yelfris has deliberately connected with his Yoruba religion and its shamanic chants, subtly infusing those deeply personal elements with electronica and live instrumentation creating a beautiful pulsating soundscape. In purposefully mutating the acoustic sound of his trumpet he adds depth without losing his power and tenderness.

'As a Santero my beliefs in the Orishas from the Yoruba religión have helped me to improve my faith in the gift of life and the things that really matter to me: family, spreading of positive energy and actions, and the Truth, as ultimately this is what we need to grow. Only a few of us have been given this knowledge and as a Cuban musician living abroad I feel it is my duty to spread this message and expand it in a new direction, connecting with a wider range of musical styles.'

The album opens with 'Canto Congo' an acapella that pays homage to his Central African origins.

The lead single 'Aceleyo Aña' refers in Yoruba to the 'Deity of drums', a beautiful up-lifting hypnotic piece setting the tone for the rest of the album.

Yelfris teams up with Moroccan Guembri Master Simo Lagnawi on Gnawa influenced 'Maktub' and incredible voice of Senegalese singer Modou Toure in a highly spiritual call to his forbears on 'Ancestry'.

The rhythm section has all the Latin and African influences of traditional Cuban music but fused with the complex harmonies and electronics, it develops into an unexpected place becoming the new Yelfris Valdés stamp on contemporary music.

The meaning behind 'For the Ones..' is exactly that: 'this music is for anybody who wants to experience this new journey, for those that don't put limits to creativity and empowerment.'

"After a long career (20 years) and touring with some of the biggest music icons, I can say that my voice is way bigger and richer now. This album is a mixture of my Cuban heritage, my travels and my life in London. If I was still living in Cuba or anywhere else, I could have never made an album like this and that is My Truth. I live in London but I am Cuban."

The artwork is an original creation of Spanish artist Fran Rodríguez, who said:

"This design is strongly inspired by altered states of consciousness, by mystic and transcendental experiences that you can achieve in many ways: through music, meditation, love, psychedelic substances, etc. The design represents that exact moment when you cross over to another level. The enlightenment, the transcendence".

'I'm New Here' sees proto-rap pioneer Gil Scott-Heron still looking forward, still challenging conventions and expectations, with his first album in 13 years.
Without doubt one of the most important voices in 20th century music, Gil Scott-Heron's unfailingly sharp and ironic eye spared neither Black Power phonies or scheming presidents. In 1971 he laid out the blueprint for the whole rap genre with his slinky anthem 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' while, throughout a career spanning five decades, his deep, soulful voice spoke of nukes, Reaganomics or apartheid, always from deep inside the tradition.
I'm New Here' sees Gil Scott-Heron sounding as vital as ever; a record that reveals something unexpected at every turn; one that sees Scott-Heron pushing, probing and testing the boundaries just as he always has. Alongside his 'I'm New Here' collaborator - producer and XL Recordings head Richard Russell - Scott-Heron has made an album that eschews the cosy arrangements and retrospective leanings one might expect from an artist over forty years into their career.
o Available on CD and special edition double 180gsm Audiophile vinyl, which includes two prints housed in a rigid-bound gatefold sleeve.

"I'm always looking for ways to be surprised," says composer and multi instrumentalist Jeff Parker as he explains the process, and the thinking, behind his new album Suite for Max Brown, released via a new partnership between International Anthem and Nonesuch Records.

"If I sit down at the piano or with my guitar, with staff paper and a pencil, I'm eventually going to fall into writing patterns, into things I already know. So, when I make music, that's what I'm trying to get away from-the things that I know." Despite its musical departures, in presentation Suite for Max Brown is an informal companion piece to The New Breed, Parker's debut release on International Anthem, which was honored as one of the "Best Albums of 2016" by New York Times, Observer, and Los Angeles Times.

"I made The New Breed based off these old sample-based compositions and mixed them with improvising," Parker says. "That's in a nutshell how I make a lot of my music; it's a combination of sampling, editing, retriggering audio, and recording it, moving it around and trying to make it into something cohesive... With Max Brown, it's evolved." Though Parker collaborates with a coterie of musicians under the group name The New Breed, theirs is by no means a conventional "band" relationship.

Parker is very much a solo artist on Suite for Max Brown. His accompanists are often working alone with Parker, reacting to what Parker has provided them, and then Parker uses those individual parts to layer and assemble into his final tracks. The process may be relatively solitary and cerebral, but the results feel like in-the-moment jams-warm-hearted, human, alive. Suite for Max Brown brims with personality, boasting the rhythmic flow of hip hop and the soulful swing of jazz.

This is an exact repro reissue of an early Allen Toussaint record, originally released in 1958 and one of his earliest solo recordings. Compelling and soulful New Orleans R&B, featuring the songs "Whirlaway," "Up The Creek," "Happy Times," "Nowhere To Go" and "Nashua."

After the huge success of the first two albums At Last! and The Second Time Around, Etta James in 1962 suddenly became THE Queen of soul music and this record, originally released on Argo Records, shored up her fame, paving the way to her ascent to stardom.

"Recorded on June 24 1958 at the Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, NJ, these sessions (except for the bonus, 'Once In A While' ) feature original compositions by Wilbur Harden (best known for his work with Yusef Lateef and John Coltrane) and hard-bop trombonist Curtis Fuller (best known for his work with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and appearance on the classic Blue Trane album).The 32-year-old John Coltrane had only just recorded Blue Train a year earlier and it is interesting to hear his style beginning to stretch out, as he makes his musical transition from strict hard bop to the groundbreaking style that would become legendary the following year on Giant Steps, making Coltrane one of the biggest names in jazz."

One the most beautiful and essential albums of all times. The 1959 Miles Davis's masterpiece is one of those rare pieces of art beyond ages and genres. A must have for any musically sensitive human being on earth. Miles Davis - trumpet, John Coltrane - tenor sax, Cannonball Adderley - alto sax, Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly - piano, Paul Chambers - bass, Jimmy Cobb - drums.

Sam Cooke, inventor and true King of Soul, recorded Night Beat in 1963, an album that was more bluesy and moodier than we had seen before from Cooke. Night Beat is an album that approaches the music at a slow pace but is never lazy. It is easy-going without losing its keen sensibilities.

Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange is the meeting point of improvisation and dance music.

Headed up by drummer Ziggy Zeitgeist, a staple of the Australian music scene, most prominently touring and recording with Melbourne Nu-Soul/ future-jazz collective ‘30/70’. Ziggy’s music has already been championed across the breadth of the jazz and dance world, with support from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Kamaal Williams, Byron the Aquarius and Alexander Nut just to name a few.

Growing up in Australia, with no real club culture in sight, Ziggy’s formative years were at the ‘bush doof’ - an outback rave where speakers were driven to remote lands and dance music would blast from the wee hours in the morning to the wee hours at night. This is what Ziggy describes as the playground of Australian Electronic Music.

“This is our culture of electronic music. It’s about exploring the spectrum of consciousness and a connection with ourselves, one another and the land.”

Z*F*E*X is the synthesis of dance music in human form. A live band experience humanising the extended DJ set. Heavily influenced by club culture and transcendent psychedelic experiences - Z*F*E*X is a continuous odyssey of sound, where synths intertwine with flutes, jazz drums are played with the raw energy of classic broken beat records, and natures call and response is mimicked in musical form.

From the bubbling, syncopated, exuberance of opening track “Candy Flip”, through to the hypnotic, twilight introspection of “Still Swag” (wherein the band are joined by label founder Jitwam), the LP provides a mesmerising, continually evolving sonic landscape. The driving, bossanova-infused percussion of ”Rendezvous” and “Mas O Menos”, meet the insatiable, rhythmic currents of “Logan's Run” and “River Run Deep,” allowing the band to show the full extent of their impeccable musicianship across the album.

“Music is the method of tapping to the eternal source.. the moment, the sacred place we break out of these divisions of the mind and we realise the oneness that abounds us.”

Utilising the spirit of live improvisation, Z*F*E*X reaches to the furthest echelon’s of the human mind to create dance music with a cosmic pocket. Recorded in Melbourne with Lewis Moody on keys, Erica Tucceri on woodwinds, Matthew Hayes on bass, and Javier Fredes on percussion - the recording sessions were an exploration into sound... an exploration into the zeitgeist... jazz music that isn’t jazz, electronic dance music that isn’t electronic.

Big Gigantic is saxophonist/producer Dominic Lalli and drummer Jeremy Salken, due to release their new studio album ‘Free Your Mind’ via Counter Records.

The Boulder, Colorado-based duo make a triumphant return with their first studio album in three years. ‘Free Your Mind’ emphasizes uplifting, expansive soul vocals that truly engage their fans through themes of self-love, gratitude and manifesting your dreams.

The 13-track album features artists like Pell, Felly, TOBi,
Jennifer Hartswick, Louis Futon and The Funk Hunters, to name
a few. In true Big Gigantic fashion, the album spans a variety of genres, offering up playful electronic pop to modern jazz fusion compositions. For fans of Louis The Child, ODESZA, Rudimental, Sigma, Jonas Blue, Sigala.

180g coloured (yellow and white marbled) vinyl double LP in 350gsm gatefold sleeve with 180gsm printed innersleeves. Big Gigantic are well-known for their epic live show, playing major festivals such as Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, ACL, Ultra, Outside Lands, Hangout, HARD, Governors Ball, Electric Forest and more.

Big Gigantic have sold out their own headlining festival, Rowdytown, at Red Rocks Amphitheatre (10K+ tickets) every year since 2012.
They have an extensive sync history, including placements with Google, HBO, ESPN, Macbook Pro, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, AirBNB and The Bachelor.

“A celebration of sound.” - Billboard

Classic 1998 debut album from the drummer best known for his work with Norah Jones, Joni Mitchell and Wayne Shorter.
The first of four Fellowship albums to date on Blue Note. Recorded and mixed at The Teatro, Oxnard, California. Produced by Daniel Lanois, best known for his work with Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson and U2. Featuring Melvin Butler (soprano and tenor sax), Myron Walden (alto sax), Jon Cowherd (keys), Dave Easley (pedal steel), Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker and Christopher Thomas (bass).
The album showcases seven slow-burning Blade originals, plus Cowherd’s powerful ‘Lifeline’.

This 28 track soundtrack was lovingly curated by the director Stanley Nelson and pairs with short excerts from the film itself. Features recordings/performances across labels and Davis' musical evolution. From early Charlie Parker collaborations, the 1949 Capitol sessions, seminal 1950's Columbia material, tracks form 'Miles Ahead', the ever popular 'Kind Of Blue' alongside 'Sketches Of Spain' and the iconic 'Bitches Brew' material. Also includes new/previously unreleased material. Marketing activity across all media outlets. (CD was released February 21st).

Bassist Antti Lötjönen, one of the most highly-regarded and active musicians working in the Finnish jazz scene, steps ahead with his debut album as a leader on Helsinki's We Jazz Records. "Quintet East" features hard-hitters Verneri Pohjola on trumpet, Mikko Innanen (of Koma Saxo) and Jussi Kannaste (of 3TM) on saxes, plus Joonas Riippa on drums. Lötjönen himself is best known from his inspired work with The Five Corners Quintet, 3TM, Ilmiliekki Quartet, Aki Rissanen Trio and Timo Lassy, to name but a few. In late 2018, Lötjönen completed a successful trio stint of European headline shows with Jeff "Tain" Watts and Kurt Rosenwinkel.

On his new album, Lötjönen shines bright as both bassist and composer, presenting a compact yet far-reaching program of 9 tracks, 8 of which are penned by him. Monumental compositions such as the steadily swinging lead track "Erzeben Strasse" and the calmly confident "Le Petit Lactoire" rub shoulders with short-but-sweet teasers such as the funky "P.S.", the pastoral "Rowan" and the two solo bass tracks, "Monographs" I & II. While star-studded and packing unlimited improvisational potential, the band remains together as a unit and delivers a beautiful musical statement, one which echoes the DIY ethos and fire of the late 60's free music but also one which is very much of today and tomorrow, as constantly evolving jazz music.

Antti Lötjönen's "Quintet East" is released by We Jazz Records on 17 April on vinyl with old school tip-on sleeve and silver lettering, on CD and digitally. It arrives a day before the artist's 40th birthday, thus also achieving his goal of releasing his debut LP before turning 40. Already a fixture in the local live circuit, the band heard on "Quintet East" will likely be a force to be reckoned with outside of their native surroundings, as well.

Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba’s double-bill Lesotho concert was a daring, defiant and ultimately dazzling act. For the first time since its limited release in South Africa in 1981, Matsuli Music is proud to re-issue this gem of a pan-African, funk-infused, extended audio double album with unpublished photographs and new liner notes from Atiyyah Khan. The Christmas-weekend stadium-filled concert deeply challenged and disturbed South Africa’s apartheid regime. Makeba and Masekela were banned from entering South Africa, yet tens of thousands of their South African fans invaded Lesotho to party with their musical heroes. Live in Lesotho documents an inspired Hugh Masekela and his stellar New York band putting a new spin on crowd favourites. Another South African jazz gem from Matsuli Music’s growing catalogue of essential high-quality reissues. For an artist as prolific and famous as Hugh Masekela, it is a real surprise that this particular recording took so long to resurface.

'Nothing Remains Unchanged' is the new album from multi-award winning antipodean composer, producer and bass player Ross McHenry.

Part meditation on the turbulent times we are living through, and part nostalgic reflection on memories from long ago, 'Nothing Remains Unchanged'is McHenry's fourth studio album for Worldwide Award-winning UK label, First Word Records, and features jazz luminaries Eric Harland (drums), Ben Wendel (saxophone) and NYC-based Australian pianist Matthew Sheens.

'Nothing Remains Unchanged' places McHenry's music firmly at the vanguard of modern jazz. Written in the Leighton Artist Colony at the Banff Centre for Creativity in May and June 2018, the album was strongly influenced by the majesty of this setting and the grounding presence of the mountains, which provided the solitude and space for deep reflection on both the present and the past. This album pushes Ross' unique compositional voice into new territory that is brought to life by the remarkable instrumentalists who feature across the record.

In Ross' words "I have a sense that this is an important recording for me. It feels like the jumping-off point to a new body of work, where things I have been working on for some time have come together and now many new things seem possible. It was an incredible privilege to work with such an esteemed band on this project, and their performances are really what makes this music special. I feel in part that they have shown me what is possible within my own music - it's like that when you work with amazing people, they open the door to new things that you didn't know were there."

Produced by Ross McHenry, Nothing Remains Unchanged was recorded over three days at Oktaven Studios in Mount Vernon, New York by acclaimed engineer Ryan Streber, mixed by Tom Barnes and Ross McHenry and mastered by Dave Darlington.

This new album follows a period of significant activity for Ross including recent tours and major award recognition through the Marten Bequest Scholarship and APRA AMCOS Art Music Award for Excellence in Jazz. Tour dates for 'Nothing Remains Unchanged' are planned for mid/late 2020.

'Nothing Remains Unchanged' is out on LP, CD & Digital on Feb 28th 2020.

Charlotte Dos Santos exists in a lane all her own. As a fiercely independent producer, singer, composer and arranger, she takes full ownership over her art, imbuing it with feather-light vocals one moment and a rumbling piano line the next. Her warm, emotive and jazz-inflected song writing weaves seamlessly between themes of identity, womanhood and human connection.

On Harvest Time, the follow up to Cleo (2017 EP), Charlotte shows no signs of letting up. These are songs written with an honesty that can’t be neatly placed into a box. Rather, they beautifully tell a story of rebirth, growth, self-belief and empathy.

FRANK SINATRA - SINATRA FOREVER - Remastered Edition,
12" Vinyl.

One of the best Piero Piccioni's contribute for the 7th art. Recorded for the homonymous documentary (1974) by Folco Quilici and Carlo Alberto Pinelli, looking for some people who reject civilization to withdraw in nature and peace, “Il Dio Sotto La Pelle” was released for the first time long time ago (2000), quickly becoming one of the
most sought after records by many collectors and fans. Musica Per Immagini e Sonor Music Editions are proud to release a renewed edition of “Il Dio Sotto La Pelle”, where jazz, exotic and lounge music and psychedelia are mixed in an admirable way: introduced by the dreamy voice of Catherine Howe for It's Possible, Piero Piccioni's
organ gives us fragments of a dazzling splendor such as Night To Come or Give Love A Chance, while Inventions and Katmandu handed down to the posterity the guitarist vein of the opera, demonstration of the period of great creativity crossed by the Italian composers, capable of filtering their traditional and classical action with some
rock elements. “Il Dio Sotto La Pelle” is available again as double-LP album with tracks remastered by Claudio Fuiano from first generation master tapes and sequenced by Lorenzo Fabrizi, also including twelve unreleased gems, new graphics inspired by the original posters and designed by Luca Barcellona and Marco Ferretti's linear notes.

The Flying Luttenbachers’ “Shattered Dimension” is the first offering by the seminal cult band since 2007. It is released on CD and download on March 1st, 2019 via ugEXPLODE Records and on gatefold double LP in April 2019 via the Austrian God Records label. The current New York City based version of the group on this recording features stalwart leader and primary composer Weasel Walter on drums, saxophonist Matt Nelson (GRID, Elder Ones), bass guitarist Tim Dahl (Child Abuse, Lydia Lunch) and guitarist Brandon Seabrook.

The project of Trimolo was setup more or less in 1984. The group won a price at a band contest 1987 where they stepped up from a basement band to a highly asked live band in the upcoming years between 1987 and 1992.

After winning the price they earned their first studio experience and the first two songs published on an LP – the Rock Feierwerk 1987 Sampler. The year after they released their debut LP that is a master piece.

The sound of Trimolo is a melting pot of all 4 musicians that is not divisible from each other. All of them giving a unique sound that blends different styles together to one. Trimolo sometimes sounds like a jazz record but with influences that can sound like a Caribbean or an oriental or a classical record.

The original press of the debut album is nowadays high in demand and a collectors item that has been sold recently for more than 200€. Back in the days it was pressed in a tiny number and was only sold on concerts around the Bavarian capital Munich.

We Jazz Records presents "Pu:", the boundary-breaking solo debut of bass player Ville Herrala, to be released on 21 February 2020. Utilising only the double bass but looking at the instrument from various different perspectives. The end result is an inspired set of 14 miniatures, each pushing the concept forward in a highly personal way.

The first single "Pu: 12" presents a rhythmic approach with echoes of from the world of minimal classical music and electronic music. Bowed tracks such as "Pu: 2" offer another perspective, as does the second single "Pu: 10", going back to the essence of the instrument and opening new doors while doing so. Each of the tracks is a compact musical adventure unto its own.

Ville Herrala (b. 1979) is one of the most higly-regarded bass players working in the Finnish scene. He's known from the ranks of such top ensembles as PLOP, Jukka Perko Jazztet, U-Street All Stars, Jukka Eskola Orquesta Bossa and UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, to name but a few.

WE JAZZ RECORDS presents ' Pu: ', the boundary-breaking solo debut of bass player Ville Herrala, to be released on 21 February 2020. Utilising only the double bass but looking at the instrument from various different perspectives. The end result is an inspired set of 14 miniatures, each pushing the concept forward in a highly personal way.

The first single "Pu: 12" presents a rhythmic approach with echoes of from the world of minimal classical music and electronic music. Bowed tracks such as "Pu: 2" offer another perspective, as does the second single "Pu: 10", going back to the essence of the instrument and opening new doors while doing so. Each of the tracks is a compact musical adventure unto it's own.

Ville Herrala (b. 1979) is one of the most higly-regarded bass players working in the Finnish scene. He's known from the ranks of such top ensembles as PLOP, Jukka Perko Jazztet, U-Street All Stars, Jukka Eskola Orquesta Bossa and UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, to name but a few.

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• ***PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A NON-DISCOUNTED TITLE
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Bram De Looze is a Belgian pianist and composer whose distinct musical vision has found its way through both solo projects and collaborations. His unique technical skill and musical maturity have earned him considerable critical acclaim back home as his work spotlights his far-ranging interests - from traditional classical piano music, to solo improvisations that have often been compared to Keith Jarrett and Jason Moran. On the 21st February 2020, Sdban Ultra will release his highly anticipated new solo album, 'Colour Talk'.

De Looze made his entrance onto the national jazz scene with LABtrio, formed in 2007 with Anneleen Boehme and Lander Gyselinck, and he immediately impressed, flirting with urban jazz, electronics and hip hop.

After a period of studying abroad at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, where he studied with Uri Caine and Marc Copland, in 2014, De Looze launched the international septet, Septych, that once again stressed his affinity for jazz, classical music and improvisation. With diverse and astounding improvisors like Daniel Levin, Lester St-Louis, Robin Verheyen, Gebhard Ullman, Bo Van Der Werf and Flin Van Hemmen, it was the start of an explorative musical journey.

Over the past few years, De Looze could frequently be heard with kindred spirits like Stephane Galland, Dre Hocevar and Antoine Pierre but it was a visit to the historical collection of pianofortes of Chris Maene that inspired De Looze to release his first solo album 'Piano e Forte' (2017), and it received critical acclaim for its creativity, spontaneity and passion. He would later garner further acclaim working alongside fellow Belgian Robin Verheyen and American rhythm painter Joey Baron with whom he recorded 'MixMonk' (2019), a tribute to the legendary jazz pianist Thelonius Monk.

Bram De Looze's solo career took off in an unexpected way with 'Piano e Forte', a project for which he approached historical instruments from a contemporary perspective. The switch to the Chris Maene Straight Strung Grand Piano for 'Switch The Stream' (2018) indicated a renewed search for movement, evolution and introspection. His latest solo project 'Colour Talk', continues this trajectory with another revolutionary piano model, designed by lauded architect Rafael Vinoly, and a continued attempt to renew from within.

On 'Colour Talk', what you hear is a musician who has freed himself from stylistic constraints and limitations. While still rooted in jazz, classical music and free improvisation have found a new balance, a coexistence that enables the pianist to express himself with a new vigour. Switching between shorter pieces that feel like curious, unresolved puzzles and more extended explorations, 'Colour Talk' is once again an ode to (re)invention in the grey zone were the classical idiom and improvisatory urges meet, with the 13-minute tour-de-force of 'Hypnosis' as one of several undisputed highlights.

If you asked De Looze about his current position as an artist, he would probably tell you that it's all about forward movement and the need to keep evolving, about a trajectory as work-in-progress. However, if you consider 'Colour Talk' as a freeze frame of where De Looze is at, it is hard not to consider it a highlight in a career that should have some more surprises in store.