Search:washington

Without sampling any breaks or loops, Funky DL has created the perfect audio tribute to arguably the best group in Hip-Hop history by remaking the beautiful sounds of A Tribe Called Quest's 1993 classic album "Midnight Marauders". This is a beautifully presented piece for keen vinyl collectors.

"The Queen", they called her and Dinah Washington's regality
was nowhere more apparent than in the recording studio,
where she was uncompromising in her demands for the best in
material and in backing. She is marvelous in this recording,
which dates from 1957, for not only did she have some great
standards to sing in arrangements by Quincy Jones and Ernie
Wilkins, two of the best around at that time, but she also had
behind her a star-spangled band (the trumpet section alone is
sufficient indication of its quality) that gave her every
opportunity to be at her best.

'The original Motown album from the history-making March, featuring the “I Have A Dream” speech in crystal clear audio: a special release on 15th January, 2021, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, the Friday of MLK Day weekend.

Kamasi Washington composed and produced the original score for Becoming, the four time Emmy-nominated film that provided an intimate glimpse into the life of Michelle Obama. Produced by Netflix Originals, Becoming documented a moment of profound change for the former First Lady, not only for her personally but for the country she and her husband served over eight impactful years in the White House. Washington, who joined the project in its embryonic stages, provides the powerful musical backdrop. Young Turks Recordings will be releasing Vinyl and CD of this Emmy nominated score on 11th December 2020.

We're glad to be back with our latest reissue, a couple undercover soul gems from the Midwest originally self-released in 1984: LaVerne Washington's "The Promise" and "I Found What I've Been Searching For".

LaVerne has dedicated her life to the arts in every possible way. As an artist herself but also behind the scenes, helping and supporting her contemporaries fulfil their callings. Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Mary Lou Williams - LaVerne grew up in Kansas City listening to the all time jazz greats, and soon discovered she was blessed with a keen sense for playing music by ear, playing the piano to what she would hear on the radio. In her teens whilst the 60s transitioned to the 70s' disco and funk era, LaVerne was there to witness it all, and she would go on to study music at the Charlie Parker Academy where she was inspired to become an entertainer.

At Langston University, LaVerne kept studying music where her career blossomed, founding and touring the US with the gospel group "Emery Shaw and the Voices of Praise", singing in several college bands and with her choir "The Voices Of Bethel". LaVerne would go on to perform notably with her bands "LaVerne Washington and Rococo" and the "LaVerne Washington Quartet", and record several songs in KC including "The Promise" and "I Found What I've Been Searching For" in 1984 before moving to Washington DC.

In DC, LaVerne was offered a position as a Program specialist with the National Endowment For The Arts where she started supporting other artists through her work. Over the next couple decades, LaVerne became an associate producer for the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and the Pioneer Awards Ceremonies held in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, which saw the likes of Prince, Aretha Franklin and Jerry Butler attending among others. She has also managed and was mentored by DeeDee Sharp and consulted with artists including Bonnie Raitt (who acted as a mentor to Laverne as well), Kim Weston, Kathy Sledge (SisterSledge), Smokey Robinson and G.C Cameron (Spinners). During that time, LaVerne has kept singing, on her own and as a backing vocalist for DeeDee Sharp and Freda Payne and has never stopped her lifelong dedication to music and the Arts.

The Promise original 7" was LaVerne's last recording in Kansas City before her move to DC and the beginning of her involvement behind the scenes. Channelling her gospel roots - with impeccable arrangement, a contagious drum machine led rhythm section, soaring vocals and relatable lyrics, "The Promise" is guaranteed to bring back smiles to dancefloors and living rooms alike! "I Found What I've Been Searching For" on the flip is a beautiful soul ballad which really showcases the strength and emotion in LaVerne's voice.

Back again in it's original 7" format, we've had the audio transferred and restored from the original 24 track tape provided by LaVerne, and got the recordings re-mixed for the best possible sound! Floating Points behind the mixing desk for this new iteration of a lost classic, comes with a 14"x14" poster of the original picture

Kamasi Washington's wide-reaching double album Heaven & Earth arrives on Young Turks. Much like his previous releases, Heaven & Earth once again finds Kamasi setting out to expand the minds and horizons of all who encounter his music. Recorded as a double album, this expanded canvas gives his trademark tones the opportunity to offer a wider than ever before selection of fully immersive, freestyling psychedelic jazz that carries a distinctly spiritual edge.In an instant, Heaven and Earth really burrows deeper into the external cosmos that we were left circling around the edge of with his debut long-player, The Epic (released in 2015 via Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label), yet it also carries us further into the distance of the deeply cinematic overtones that his debut Young Turks EP, Harmony of Difference pointed us in the direction of. While it is both instantly recognisable as a Kamasi Washington recording, Heaven and Earth's luxurious running time matched with a searching narrative sees Kamasi breaking out of any sounds or scenes he may be associated with, smoothly transcending into new, dynamic and sonically experimental levels and counterpoints of his now widely praised signature sound.
Washington convened his band, The Next Step, as well as members of the long running collective The West Coast Get Down at Henson Studios in Los Angeles to record the 16 tracks on Heaven & Earth. The music was composed, written and arranged by Washington, with new arrangements of jazz and bebop legend Freddie Hubbard's 'Hubtones' and iconic kung fu film theme 'Fists of Fury,' as well as one song by bandmate Ryan Porter. Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Ronald Bruner, Jr., Cameron Graves, Brandon Coleman, Miles Mosley, Patrice Quinn, Tony Austin and many more contribute to the album.Stretching out at two and a half hours of entirely newly recorded music, Kamasi Washington paints a vision of Heaven and Earth that is spread across two sections with eight movements apiece. It sees him wrestling with and attempting to make sense of the meaning of both Heaven and Earth within his mind and his place within the wider universe as a whole, with the Heaven side representing the world Kamasi sees inwardly, the world that is a part of him, while the Earth side represents the world he sees outwardly, the world that he is a part of. An existential experiment with saxophones that's set to take you on a journey that is as widely thrilling as it is deeply searching.

Funky DL steps into the arena with his highly demanded album 'Blackcurrent Jazz 3'. Seamlessly weaving his boom-bap style with jazz breaks throughout every track and topped with his smooth and often intense flow, his lyrical ability is top shelf and the beats are at an unequalled standard of excellence. The album showcases some of the finest Jazz Hip-Hop in the scene as it shifts through varied styles of Jazz and Jazz moods. With features from the Nujabes collaboratives Cise Starr and Substantial, the entire set oozes with golden droplets of musical magic moment after moment. The tone is set immediately as the album starts and continues an incomparable and superb standard of quality music right up until the final track.

Spiritual jazz heavyweight and Kendrick Lamar collaborator Kamasi Washington's new EP Harmony of Difference, the first new music from Washington since his universally acclaimed 2015 debut album The Epic, is out September 29 via Young Turks.
Harmony of Difference premiered as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art 2017 Biennial alongside a film by A.G. Rojas and also featuring artwork by Kamasi Washington's sister, Amani Washington. The new music is an original six part suite that explores the philosophical possibilities of the musical technique known as 'counterpoint,' which Washington defines as 'the art of balancing similarity and difference to create harmony between separate melodies.' Beyond the artistic impulse to expand the possibilities within counterpoint, Washington wanted to create something that opened people's minds to the gift of diversity.
Each of the first five movements is its own unique composition. 'Truth,' the sixth movement, fuses all five compositions into one simultaneous performance. Echoing this fusion, Amani created five paintings focused on raw shapes and colors, each inspired by one of the first five movements of the suite. Amani then combined these paintings to create a sixth: an abstract depiction of a human face.
The film, directed by A.G. Rojas, brings the metaphoric ideas found in both the music and paintings to life. While still quite abstract, it focuses on the harmony found in people from South Central and East Los Angeles and shows the beauty in their differences.
'My hope is that witnessing the beautiful harmony created by merging different musical melodies will help people realize the beauty in our own differ

Without sampling any breaks or loops, Funky DL has created the perfect audio tribute to arguably the best group in Hip-Hop history by remaking the beautiful sounds of A Tribe Called Quest's 1993 classic album "Midnight Marauders". This is a beautifully presented piece for keen vinyl collectors.

For his next release on Soundway Records,
Los Angeles-based Dexter Story hooks up with long time friend and compatriot of music, the saxophonist, jazz composer, producer and band-leader Kamasi Washington. A fierce, rumbling electro Ethio-Funk groove provides the platform for an intense and powerful interplay between Washington on tenor sax and Todd Simon on trumpet. An instrumental cover version of Tilahun Gessesse's 1970s cut of the same name, it's Story's homage to the oppressed Oromo people of Southern Ethiopia. Backed on the flip by the one cut from Story's 'Wondem' long-player that did not make it to vinyl when the LP version was cut, Nia Andrew's
sublime and atmospheric collaboration on Eastern Prayer
will keep all those happy who grumbled at it's exclusion
from wax first time around. This is a record that no lover
of Ethio-Jazz, Afro-Beat or Funk should be excused for not
owning.

Originally starting out in the late 90s, Paris-based 8 piece, Cotonete originally gained fame for renditions of tracks from their contemporaries, the likes of: Deodato, Lalo Schiffrin and Banda Black Rio. Replicating the heavy grooves, sweaty jazz-funk with a nod to the Brazilian warmth and beach breeze. Before bowing out of the game thinking the fun was over….

Fast forward to more recent times, having had their flame reignited by Melik Bencheikh, head honcho of Paris vinyl emporium, Heartbeat Vinyl. He encouraged the band to get back together and over the last two years the band released four EPs of original material - including the collaboration with Dimitri from Paris - quickly becoming collectors items, and now gearing up for 2019 they are finally ready to present a full body of work, their album debut 'Super Vilains'.

Way back in 1967, an animated superhero cartoon was released into the world. It was created by Grantray-Lawrence Animation and was based on a web-spinning, crime fighting blue and red dressed character that had originated in1962, in Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. This amazing series (that we're not allowed to mention the name of for legal reasons) ran on ABC TV in the USA, then Canada, then a few years later started to spread its web further, running here in the UK throughout summer holidays, after school and possibly early mornings at weekends in the late 1970s. The series then got released on VHS video (and probably Betamax too) in the mid 1980s and still continues to spin its animated magic around the world through further broadcasts, YouTube and DVDs.

The series was notoriously low budget, with animated errors everywhere and numerous scenes, sequences and backgrounds being re-used all the time, often across the same episode. Even a certain spider logo on a costume would appear with six legs, then eight legs later on, then back to six again in the same show.

Series One opened with a newly written spider theme, a classic, hooky song all about doing whatever spiders can, and had, as Big George (RIP) once pointed out to me, a set of session singers falling slightly out of time with the backing track after the first verse. Series One also featured background music by jobbing composers Bob Harris and Ray Ellis but these cues and master tapes are now believed to be lost.

After Series One the company Grantray-Lawrence went bankrupt, so the amazing spider series (that we're not allowed to mention for legal reasons) was taken on by producer Steve Krantz. He brought in new talent, including animation director Ralph Bakshi who later went on to turn a Robert Crumb strip cartoon into the feature Fritz The Cat. Krantz also slashed the already cripplingly small spider budget, and brought in the idea of using economic library music. Here, thanks possibly to an independent sync agent (it has been suggested that a company called Music Sound Track Services may have been the one) production turned to the KPM catalogue. This was one of the few really established library catalogues around at the time with a modern edge, it was full of fabulous, modern dramatic music tracks - often all on the same LP. But more importantly all the tracks were far longer than the one minute musical cuts that many of the fledgling USA library companies were issuing at the time. Not only would this KPM music be efficient, affordable and very easy to use, it would also mean syndication worldwide would not be held up by any future musical issues. Krantz produced two amazing spider series (that we're not allowed to mention for legal reasons), and both were smothered with KPM music. In fact barely a spider second goes by without music playing in either the background or foreground.

For many years I - and many nostalgic others - have been thinking about putting this vinyl album together. For many enthusiasts this really is formative music - a junior foray into hip swinging crime jazz and esoteric musical grooviness. I've also read on line accounts by DJs from WFMU on the trail of original spider master tapes, and there's even a whole forum dedicated to Spidey-Jazz'. Then recently I was looking at an old spider tracklist and realized that several of my favourite KPM cues were there including Syd Dale's Hell Raisers' and Walk And Talk', both from one of the most elusive and desirable KPM albums of all time (yes, you just try and find yourself a copy of KPM 1002 right now), so I decided to push on and get the album made.

So, what features on this Spider-Jazz Lp Well it's music from the amazing TV series we are not allowed to mention for legal reasons, BUT, not music from Series One. No, but it is all from Series Two and Series Three. From looking at archival cue sheets, over 50 tracks from various early KPM 1000 series albums were used across episodes. I've distilled this down into one exciting and enthralling LP, and if this works a further Spider Jazz album may well swing in to production. If you're interested (and I'm sure you may well be) cues here came from KPM1001, KPM1002, KPM1015, KPM1017, KPM1018 and KPM1043 and were composed by master library composers of the era - Dale, Hawkshaw, Hawksworth, Mansfield etc.

And if you are listening over there in the USA, you may well recognize many of the cues here not just from the amazing TV series (that we're not allowed to mention for legal reasons) but also from classic 1960s and 1970s NFL highlight shows that we are allowed to mention.

This unique set brings together a treasure trove of R&B rarities enshrined by the $3,000 Lookin' For My Baby', recorded by The Nightriders in 1959 for Juggy Murray's Sue imprint.
Murray had co-founded Sue Records two years earlier with fellow New Yorker Bobby Robinson whose Fire label provides us with the equally compelling Keep A'Calling' by Paul Perryman (side 1, track 1), a snip at only $300!
The set bursts into life with Vernon Harrell's hot dance ticket Slick Chick', currently commanding a cool $400 on its original Lescay label. Northern Soul fans will be interested to know that Harrell co-wrote Seven Days Too Long' with J R Bailey (aka Chuck Wood) and Sweet Sweet Lovin'' for The Platters. 
Mike Robinson ( Lula') also has a tenuous Northern Soul connection, he was originally in Bobby Thomas' Vibranaires before joining the Orioles alongside the legendary Sonny Til. 
BOTH Earl King's make the playlist: Earl Connelly' with his hard Every Whicha Kinda Way' and the New Orleans native Earl King with Darling Honey Angel Child', an early prototype of the standard Come On'.
Look out too for rare soul sweetheart Baby Washington, Medicine Man'.
A Collection to Treasure...

Norman Jay MBE presents his latest compilation, titled 'Good Times Skank & Boogie', set for release 9th October 2015 on Sunday Best Recordings. This is his first compilation since 2011's Good Times 30th Anniversary Addition and follows on from his hotly anticipated Good Times Goes East party at St John Church at Hackney on 29th August.
Norman Jay is undoubtedly one of the finest and highly respected DJs in the world today and yet again pulls from his impressive collection to provide the ultimate eclectic selection.
For this 12th compilation, for those of you counting, Norman kicks off with St Germain's version of Henry Mancini's Pink Panther Theme. A cult favourite from 2004s Pink Panther Penthouse Party album, it of course immediately brings Peter Sellers to mind and a smile to your face. Next up former Uniques front man Slim Smith's Everybody Needs Love is a classic from 1968, cut at the legendary Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio. Penned originally by Motown heroes Norman Whitfield and Eddie Holland and covered by household names including The Temptations and Glady's Knight & The Pips, Slim's version became something of a signature tune until his mysterious death in 1971. Sticking with Motown, Stevie Wonder's Living For The City is up next but it's the Michael McDonald rendition from his 2008 album Soul Speak, which proves the man who gave us the sublime Sweet Freedom had lost none of his class 20 plus years on.
D-Influence's Good Lover takes things up and brings them closer to home, to the streets of London infact. After a couple of independent releases the band, who had strong connections to the London Jazz and Soul scenes, served up this contemporary boogie tune as part of their 1992 debut long player for East West. They would subsequently score hits as a production team for a number of British R&B acts. Homegrown soul continues with Paul Johnson's Better Than This, released here via longstanding UK soul imprint Expansion to deserved acclaim last year. It's quality and appeal are simply timeless, whilst master Dego and Kaidi's mix adds a classic 80s soul dimension to proceedings.
The Chi-Lites I Keep Comin' Back To You and The Real Thing's Love Takes Tears continue and expand the 80s theme, bringing in 2-step and boogie, as does Deodato's Never Knew Love from the same period.
We switch again with Delroy Wilson's Better Must Come, a massively popular sufferers lament from 1971 by this former Jamaican child star, it would go on to be used in election campaigns by various Jamaican political parties. Kent People by Laurel Aitken & The Gruvy Beat is the next one out the box and was the flip to the 1969 anthem Skinhead Train. It features the UK's top reggae band of the era The Rudies, who along with Aitken, the widely-proclaimed Godfather of Ska, comprised of Earl Dunn (lead guitar), Trevor White (bass), Sonny Binns (keyboards) and Danny Smith (drums). They would go on to enjoy UK chart success backing singer Freddie Notes before they evolved into Greyhound. From the same year Splash Down by The Crystalites is another slate that ignited dance floors in both Jamaica and the UK upon release. Some of you will have noticed the rhythm track is the same as that of the earlier Kingstonians' best-seller, Sufferer, which came courtesy of legendary producer Derrick Harriott.
As the end draws close The Stone City Band featuring Rick James serve up some hard edged boogie, hotly followed by a classic Tom Moulton slice of late 70s disco courtesy of The Fantastic Four and their I Got To Have Your Love. If that doesn't have you dancing then Chanson's superb Don't Hold Back featuring James Jamerson Jr. on bass will leave you no choice. Classic Good Times indeed.

Italian cinematic funk heroes Calibro 35 announce a limited edition 45 rpm vinyl featuring two previously unreleased singles. The record is pressed on clear orange vinyl, limited to 600 copies, making it a must-have collector’s item.

On the A side, Calibro 35 reimagine Grover Washington Jr.’s jazz-funk classic “Mister Magic” with an ultra-groovy cinematic funk stormer, perfect for DJs and collectors alike. On the B side, the Milan-based combo revitalizes Can’s krautrock anthem “Vitamin C” with a fresh jazz-punk energy, a track recently brought back into the spotlight through Kanye West’s sampling. Both tracks are taken from the Deluxe Edition of their latest studio album Exploration, set for digital worldwide release on February 6th via Record Kicks.

Praised by Rolling Stone as “the most fascinating, retro-maniac and genuine thing that has happened to Italy in the past few years,” Calibro 35 have built an international reputation as one of the coolest independent bands around. Their music has been sampled by Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and The Child of Lov (featuring Damon Albarn), and they’ve collaborated with icons such as PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, and Stewart Copeland, continuing to push their cinematic funk universe further.

To celebrate the release, Calibro 35 will hit the road starting mid-October, with two special U.S. shows in Miami and Los Angeles, followed by a European tour including Barcelona, Berlin, Paris, and London.

Midway through Martin Luther King, Jr's historic speech at the 1963 March on Washington, a voice rang out from behind him: "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" That voice belonged to Mahalia Jackson, King's close friend and one of the most revered gospel singers of the 20th century - Glorious Mahalia, a visionary tribute to Jackson's life by the internationally renowned Kronos Quartet, uses that moment as a springboard to explore the depth of Jackson's musical craft and its impact on the Civil Rights Movement, including her relationship with Clarence Jones and Studs Terkel, other luminaries of the time

Almost 20 years on, Washington-based Drew Sullivan's 2007 debut as Slow Dancing Society hasn't dated the way you'd expect. The Sound Of Lights When Dim is a reserved work with reverberating guitar drifting through broad, unhurried tones. On opener 'Be There' reversed guitar and blurred vocal traces dissolve before they resolve on 'The Delicate Sound Of Silence.' It's deeply emotional ambient with endless oceanic scale and plenty of encouragement to reflect on your own. The glowing synths, patient guitar work and preoccupation with memory that would define Sullivan's next two decades are all present from the start and still have the same lasting impact.

Los Angeles-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Dexter Story returns with his sixth album, T'som (pronounced sawm), a deeply personal work inspired by the spiritual practice of fasting. Meaning "fasting" in the Afro-Semitic languages Tigrinya and Amharic, as well as in Arabic, Tsom represents a time of prayer, reflection and discipline across northeast Africa. Guided by this tradition, Story draws on the musical heritage of the Horn of Africa and musical traditions of the Middle East to create a spiritual jazz album that reflects on devotion, transformation and the power of letting go. Working with frequent collaborators Carlos Nino, Sudan Archives, Kamasi Washington, Jimetta Rose and Kibrom Birhane, the album touches on themes of reflection, inner poise and a quest for deeper connections, bound by explorations of traditional rhythms from the Horn of Africa. Named after jazz saxophone legend Dexter Gordon, Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, music director and producer Dexter Story is one of the key figures in the city's vibrant creative music scene. Renowned for his genre-defying approach, he has collaborated with an extraordinary range of artists, including Carlos Nino, Madlib, Kamasi Washington, Build An Ark and Gaslamp Killer. His acclaimed solo albums Wondem and Bahir, released by Soundway, established him as a distinctive voice at the intersection of jazz, African music and contemporary production. Most recently, Story produced Mulatu Astatke's acclaimed studio album Mulatu Plays Mulatu, further cementing his reputation as one of today's most sought-after creative producers and musical collaborators.

Los Angeles-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Dexter Story returns with his sixth album, T'som (pronounced sawm), a deeply personal work inspired by the spiritual practice of fasting. Meaning "fasting" in the Afro-Semitic languages Tigrinya and Amharic, as well as in Arabic, Tsom represents a time of prayer, reflection and discipline across northeast Africa. Guided by this tradition, Story draws on the musical heritage of the Horn of Africa and musical traditions of the Middle East to create a spiritual jazz album that reflects on devotion, transformation and the power of letting go.


Working with frequent collaborators Carlos Niño, Sudan Archives, Kamasi Washington, Jimetta Rose and Kibrom Birhane, the album touches on themes of reflection, inner poise and a quest for deeper connections, bound by explorations of traditional rhythms from the Horn of Africa.


Named after jazz saxophone legend Dexter Gordon, Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, music director and producer Dexter Story is one of the key figures in the city's vibrant creative music scene. Renowned for his genre-defying approach, he has collaborated with an extraordinary range of artists, including Carlos Niño, Madlib, Kamasi Washington, Build An Ark and Gaslamp Killer. His acclaimed solo albums Wondem and Bahir, released by Soundway, established him as a distinctive voice at the intersection of jazz, African music and contemporary production. Most recently, Story produced Mulatu Astatke's acclaimed studio album Mulatu Plays Mulatu, further cementing his reputation as one of today's most sought-after creative producers and musical collaborators

Zum 100. Geburtstag von John Coltrane verneigt sich Miguel Atwood-Ferguson mit “ANANTA: Spirit
of Coltrane” vor einer seiner wichtigsten musikalischen und spirituellen Inspirationsquellen. Der in Los
Angeles beheimatete Komponist, Arrangeur und Multiinstrumentalist ist ein Grenzgänger zwischen Jazz,
Klassik, Hip-Hop und elektronischer Musik und arbeitete bereits mit Künstler wie Flying Lotus, Kamasi
Washington, Thundercat und Anderson .Paak.
Gemeinsam mit einem 21-köpfigen Ensemble und Gästen wie Brandee Younger, Shabaka, Immanuel Wilkins,
Jeff Parker, Flying Lotus und Aja Monet überführt er Coltranes Musik ins Hier und Jetzt. Klassiker wie
“Naima”, “My Favorite Things”, “A Love Supreme” und “Giant Steps” erscheinen in neuen Klangfarben.
Mehr als eine reine Hommage versteht Atwood-Ferguson “ANANTA” als spirituelle “Cosmic Music” – und
als zeitgenössische Weiterführung von Coltranes grenzenloser musikalischer Vision.

Producer duo Crossroads is back with another track featuring the talented young singer Cler. This time, they’re taking on a huge classic originally by Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers. 'Just The Two Of Us'—a soul classic that’s been loved across three generations—gets a fresh update here, perfectly matching today’s modern soul sound. And once again, Cler delivers goosebumps with her vocals, bringing a seamless mix of simplicity and passion to an timeless hit.

Deluxe LP features 140g virgin vinyl; heavy-duty board jacket, artwork by Art Rosenbaum + DL. RIYL: Bob Dylan, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Ry Cooder, Michael Chapman, Michael Hurley, The Youngbloods & Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Jake Xerxes Fussell’s 4th album finds the acclaimed folksong interpreter, guitarist, and singer navigating fresh sonic and compositional landscapes on the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered, and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalog. Produced by James Elkington and featuring formidable players both familiar (Casey Toll, Libby Rodenbough) and new (Joe Westerlund, Bonnie “Prince” Billy), it includes Jake’s first original compositions; atmospheric arrangements with pedal steel, horns, and strings. One of the most striking and strangely moving moments on Jake Xerxes Fussell’s gorgeous Good and Green Again an album, his fourth and most recent, replete with such dazzling moments arrives at its very end, with the brief words to the final song “Washington.” “General Washington/Noblest of men/His house, his horse, his cherry tree, and him,” Fussell sings, after a hushed introductory passage in which his trademark percussively fingerpicked Telecaster converses lacily with James Elkington’s parlor piano. That’s the entire lyrical content of the song, which proceeds to float away on orchestral clouds of French horn, trumpet, and strings, until it simply stops, suddenly evaporating, vanishing with no fade or trace, no resolution to its sorrowful minor-key chord progression, just silence and stillness and stark presidential absence. It feels like the end of a film, or the cold departure of a ghost, and is unlike anything else Jake has recorded. In all his work Jake humanizes his material with his own profound curatorial and interpretive gifts, unmooring stories and melodies from their specific eras and origins and setting them adrift in our own waterways. The robust burr of his voice, which periodically melts and catches at a particularly tender turn of phrase, and the swung rhythmic undertow of exquisite, seemingly effortless guitar-playing here he plays more acoustic than ever before pull new valences of meaning from ostensibly antique songs and subjects. On Good and Green Again, Jake not only ventures beyond his established mastery of songcatching and songmaking into songwriting, but likewise navigates fresh sonic and compositional landscapes, going green with lusher, more atmospheric and ambitious arrangements. The result is the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered, and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalog. It’s also his most deliberately premeditated album, representing his fruitful return to a producer partnership after two self-produced projects, What in the Natural World (2017) and Out of Sight (2019) (William Tyler produced his friend’s self-titled 2015 debut.) This time James Elkington produced and played a panoply of instruments, bringing to Jake’s arcane song choices his own peerless sense of harmony and orchestration, balance and dramatic tension. The pair enlisted a group of formidable players including regular bandmembers Casey Toll (Mt. Moriah, Nathan Bowles) on upright bass, Libby Rodenbough (Mipso) on strings, and Nathan Golub on pedal steel. They were joined by welcome newcomers Joe Westerlund (Megafaun, Califone) on drums, Joseph Decosimo on fiddle, Anna Jacobson on brass, and veteran collaborator and avowed Fussell fan Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who contributes additional vocals. Album opener “Love Farewell” (featuring some beautiful singing by Bonnie “Prince” Billy), an elliptical tale of the folly of war, set to the world’s most heartbreaking goodbye march for a lover left behind. “Carriebelle” and “Breast of Glass” each similarly concerns, in its own way, romantic love and leavings. All three songs highlight Jacobson’s diaphanous, understated brass parts, tying them together in a true lover’s knot. “Rolling Mills Are Burning Down,” with its distant keening strings and capacious sense of space, observes and mourns the loss of work and community in the wake of elemental disaster. Nine-minute tour de force “The Golden Willow Tree,” the sole explicitly narrative song herein, is a hypnotic, minimalist rendering of a tragic maritime ballad about scuttling an enemy ship in exchange for wealth and glory and a captain’s inevitable betrayal. “Fussell is creating his own legacy within the long lineage of traditional folk musicians and storytellers that have come before him.” The New York Times // “So elegant … It’s relaxing in the way that pondering a Zen koan is relaxing, and sweet in the way that the wounded, honey-voiced blues of Mississippi John Hurt are sweet.” Pitchfork // “Music that resides at the seams of Appalachia and the cosmos.”

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do!

Jonah Ellis came to the Drifters as a guitarist but was soon singing with the group and acting as their musical director.

This multitalented musician/ songwriter hailed from DC where he was born on 25 August 1947 and grew up to graduate from Springarn, Senior High in Washington.

He went on to study further at Morris Town Junior College in Morris Town, Tennessee.

Then he received a BA degree in Music from Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee, and a Master of Arts in Music from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.

His first move into recording came with his group Jonah and the Whales and ‘Savannah Sun’ which sold well locally by didn’t chart nationally.

Jonah’s second single ‘I Get Hot/ Popcorn Cellar’ on Viking Records in 1970 had similar results but he was writing great songs and creating a lot of interest. In addition to penning Yarbrough and Peoples big hit ‘Don’t Stop The Music’ in 1980 which hit platinum.

Jonah was writer/ producer at Total Experience Records where he found time to cut a single under his own name ‘Christmas Won’t Be Christmas Without My Baby’ and also wrote hits for the Gap Band the biggest hit being ‘Desire’. Jonah only stayed a Drifter for about a year between 1986-87.

A short time later he joined the Temptations as their lead guitarist but didn’t stop writing songs for other artists (sometimes in his pen name Lonnie Simmons) like Alicia Keys ‘Gangsta Lovin’, Puff Daddy ‘Soul Food’, Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King ‘Shame’, Billy Paul ‘Fire In Her Love’and so many more including Aretha and sister Carolyn Franklin, Esther Phillips, Rose Royce and Burt Bacharach.

Jonah continued to write and perform internationally until his untimely death from a stroke on 22 February 2010.

»Memorial« grew out of Nate Wooley’s work alongside Annea Lockwood recording the Columbia River, and in particular from a visit to Kettle Falls in northern Washington, once one of the river’s great salmon fishing and meeting grounds and a place of enormous importance to the Sinixt and other Indigenous peoples of the Upper Columbia. The falls disappeared from view following the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam in 1940, submerged beneath what is now Lake Roosevelt, yet beneath the still surface of the reservoir, a fast current continues to move across the buried cliffs. That tension between what remains and what can only be recovered through memory runs throughout »Memorial«.

In the essay accompanying the record, Wooley returns repeatedly to the idea of translation: the attempt to carry an experience from one form into another, from river to recording, memory to sound, landscape to music. He moves between Lockwood’s sound maps, John Ashbery’s rain falling on canal machinery, Ravel’s attempts to make water move through a piano, Christian Wolff’s »Stones«, and the Sinixt First Salmon Ceremony, where rocks struck together recall the sound of salmon once moving through the river in their thousands. These translations cannot restore what has been lost; however, they allow us to revisit what remains beneath in another form.

»Memorial« exists as an uncertainty, concerned with the distance between a place and its recording, between an event and what survives of it, and with the way listening itself becomes entangled with memory. Kettle Falls remains submerged, the river constrained and radically altered, but the water continues to move over the old rock beneath the reservoir. »Memorial« tries to listen for that persisting memory.

2026 Repress

Up next in Champion’s LTD 12 inch reissue series is Sandy B’s club stomper, ‘Make The World Go Round’ with Washington D.C. don’s Deep Dish on remix duties. Iconic ’96 stateside house gold. On the B, Deep Dish take on, ‘Ain’t No Need To Hide’ with their ‘97 Sequel Re-edit with a dose of vocal house at its finest.

Originally released on cd in 2017 on Rope a dope and Sounds of Crenshaw, this landmark project now receives a strictly limited audiophile vinyl edition. This release marks the debut of Terrace Martin’s all-star collective, featuring Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, Chachi a.k.a. Problem and more, a defining statement of modern Los Angeles jazz, hip-hop and soul.

Roman Norfleet aus Portland (Cosmic Tones Research Trio, MerKaBa Brotherhood) und die Be Present Art Group setzen ihren unglaublichen Schaffensschub an spiritueller, befreiender Musik fort. Saxophon, Keyboard, Elektronik, eine kraftvolle Rhythmusgruppe und eindringlicher Gesang treiben Songs wie die erste Single ,Headed On To Freedom" voran - wirbelnde Klangreisen für Fans von Pharoah Sanders, dem Art Ensemble of Chicago und dem Sun Ra Arkestra. ,The Remembering" ist ein klangliches Trankopfer für diejenigen, die vor uns da waren. Ausgehend von der Geschichte der schwarzen Amerikaner, revolutionärem Denken und dem ungebrochenen Geist des Widerstands verwebt die Musik Anklänge an die Persönlichkeiten, Bewegungen und Ideen, die Generationen geprägt haben. Sie ehrt die Vergangenheit und trägt ihren Geist gleichzeitig in die Gegenwart.

Cold, Bold & Together (CBT) CBT was founded in Bellingham, Washington in 1971 by percussionist Tony Gable and musicians Solomon Harris, Keith Hooks and twin brothers TC & Jamar Jenkins. It soon became evident that Bellingham was not a particularly welcoming environment for R&B music, so they moved to Seattle to try their luck and plumb the rich supply of venues, which they successfully did until disbanding in 1978. They spent their early Seattle years playing a combination of covers and originals in clubs, later becoming the "go to" opening act for various nationally known artists, such as Ohio Players, Kool and the Gang and Earth, Wind & Fire. While they were paying their club circuit and opening act dues, they squeezed in recording sessions whenever they could and released their own material, which was well-received and got strong regional airplay. However, because of the feudal nature of the music business at the time, they just couldn't break out, and like a lot of Northwest bands with great potential, they inevitably broke up and went their separate ways. Upon disbanding, they left behind a collection of original recordings at Seattle's legendary Kaye-Smith studios.

Unfortunately for CBT, the studio passed through several owners and at some unknown point in time, one of them did the unforgivable and destroyed the storied studio inventory of two-inch tapes and quarter-inch masters. Unknown to the band, a copy of their masters was smuggled out by their producer who added them to his legacy collection of cloned quarter-inch masters. After several years and many moves, he became concerned about the tendency for magnetic tape to deteriorate over time.

He sent the tapes to a Seattle lab to be restored and digitized, with the hope that perhaps, some day, they might be made available for the listening pleasure of R&B fans. The hoped-for day has finally arrived. Russell Paine and Super Disco Edits has pressed two of the Kaye-Smith CBT tracks: "Go For It", a jazz-influenced instrumental, featuring Kenny G, and "Unity", sung by the group en masse with Tony Gable singing lead. The musicians on these tracks are: Tony Gable, leader, vocals and percussion Harry Alexander, drums Kenny Gorelick (now world-renowned "Kenny G"), sax, flute and horn arrangements Chris Ishi, trumpet Michael Young, Trombone Jamar Jenkins guitar, vocals TC Jenkins bass, vocals 1 Philip Woo, keyboards Footnotes: CBT gave legendary saxophonist Kenny G his start in the music business. Kenny was still in high school when he was recruited to play sax and write horn arrangements. Kenny co-wrote, arranged and played sax and flute on the instrumental "Go For It." He rips a smoking tenor sax solo in the middle, which showcases his already masterful technique and solidifies his R&B bona fides. He went on to have a spectacular career recording for Clive Davis and Arista Records. Before his untimely passing in 2016, Tony Gable went on to found contemporary Jazz group, "Tony Gable and 206" (206 being Seattle's then only area code). With songwriting, performance and production help from Kenny G.

Power Of Soul is the third record as a bandleader by legendary jazz drummer Idris Muhammad, originally release in 1974. He embarked on his solo career in 1970 after years of work as a sideman for the absolute biggest names in jazz such as George Benson, Lou Donaldson, Grant Green, Ahmad Jamal, Pharoah Sanders, and many, many others.

This record was produced by Creed Taylor, founder of CTI, and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. The architect of the Blue Note sound developed a deep relationship with Muhammad and played a big role in finetuning his sound. But, don't forget the rest of the line-up; the recorded features arrangements and compositions by keyboard legend Bob James and smooth jazz founder Grover Washington Jr., supplemented with performances by Randy Brecker, Joe Beck, and Ralph MacDonald. All in all, you can see why Muhammad's works ended up as samples on so many hip-hop records.

Power Of Soul is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on white vinyl.

For nearly 30 years, SUNN O))) – Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson – have pushed the boundaries of heavy music, straddling the worlds of the avant-garde and rock to forge a style instantly recognisable as their own. Now, SUNN O))) return with their first album of new material since 2019’s acclaimed Pyroclasts. Their tenth album – their debut for Sub Pop – demonstrates the duo’s mastery of time and space, light and dark, and their willingness to evolve their unmistakable sound into bold new forms.

The eponymously titled SUNN O))) was tracked at Bear Creek Studios, Woodinville, Washington with Brad Wood (HuM, Tar, Sunny Day Real Estate, Liz Phair). This location proved crucial to the recording process. “The vast tracking room had big windows looking out on trees,” says O’Malley. “We could go hiking and be out in the woods, spend time outdoors. That became a big part of it.”

SUNN O))) have long welcomed collaborators into their self-contained world: past work has featured, Attila Csihar (Mayhem), composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, multi-instrumentalist Steve Moore, polymath Mark Deutrom, Silkworm’s Tim Midyett and legendary singer-songwriter Scott Walker. But on this album O’Malley and Anderson found fresh possibilities in the primal territory of the duo format, performing all the instrumentation themselves. “What’s been happening with our performances over the last couple years with the two of us and no other collaborators has been really fresh and exciting,” says Anderson.

The compositions on SUNN O))) are expansive and panoramic yet finely detailed, reflecting the arboreal setting in which they were recorded. Amidst howling feedback and glacial crunch, one finds surprisingly delicate moments: a field recording of water trickles beneath, piano interludes lend a hushed, solemn feel. All while the duo attains fresh heights of telepathic intensity as they shape music that breathes the bracing, earthy air of the Pacific Northwest.

Framing the album visually are two paintings by the late American artist Mark Rothko. Liner notes are by award-winning British writer Robert Macfarlane, famed for his works concerning landscape and the relationship between humanity and nature. Through the work of the band, Macfarlane, and Rothko, sound, word and visual combine into a fully immersive experience that is undeniably, completely SUNN O))).

Epicentre was an R&B/funk group formed in Seattle, Washington by keyboardist Ric Ulsky. The band developed a loyal following, playing the extensive NW club, concert and dance venues throughout the mid-to-late 1970s. Their sound was a blend of melodic R&B and powerhouse funk that dependably filled music venues throughout the Western US. Bernadette Bascom was the lead vocalist, who captivated audiences with her powerful yet velvet-smooth voice and commanding, magnetic stage presence.

In 1978, Epicentre worked with Seattle producer Don McKinney to record their music in Seattle's now legendary Kaye-Smith studios. The result was seven strong, fully -produced R&B songs, with occasional horn and string orchestrations tastefully added to the final versions.

Their music quite literally sat on a shelf for decades until McKinney decided that all the hard work and talent should no longer remain undiscovered and it needed to find its audience. He restored and digitized his copies of the master tapes and looked for an opportunity. A chance call to the former leader of the group, Kell Houston, led to a serendipitous introduction to UK boutique/funk/R&B label founder Russell Paine. The result was an agreement to release their music, starting with two songs, "When You Were In Love With Me", and "Magic Carpet."

And now the follow up single of "Searchin/Tongue Tied"

Footnotes: Lead singer Bernadette Bascom became a protegé of Stevie Wonder, and was the first artist to be signed to his label Black Bull , starting a period of collaboration between the two. Bermadette is the daughter of Reverend Dr. Marion C. Bascomb (1925-2012), one of Baltimore's major civil rights voices and pastor emeritus of Baltimore's Douglas Memorial Community Church. Ric Ulsky eventually left the group to play keyboards and tour extensively with The Association. You can also find Epicentre's music on the compilation album "Seattle Funk, Modern Soul & Boogie: Volume II 1972-1987." In addition to Bernadette, the musicians on the 1978 sessions are Kell Houston, keyboards, Michael Cox, bass, John Carmondy, guitar, and Ricky Lynn Johnson, drums and vocals. While their recorded material is primarily original, Stacy Christensen from Seattle's Gabriel contributed two of his compositions.

The first record in Crystal Mud's new CRYM series brings four dub techno producers together across five tracks — reaching from the Australian coast to Spokane, and out of the MixCult heartland.

Federsen opens the A-side with "Rouge Dub," a name long associated with vintage tape delays and Silent Season dub, then hands over to Klordop, whose "Silver Cord" comes from one of the most restless catalogues in the MixCult orbit. The B-side belongs mostly to Noosa Sound System, the Queensland producer who takes both his name and his unhurried dub from the coast; he opens with "Trope" and closes with the title track. Between them sits Gianni Cerri of Spokane, Washington, whose "Nine Mile Fall" shares its name with the falls just outside his hometown – a small, local marker pressed onto an international record.
Crystal Mud is a division of MixCult Records

Earlier in the year, Washington, D.C-based Sol Power Allstars launched the Sweet Breeze Sound imprint, seemingly as a vehicle for oddball re-edits and nostalgic, sample-rich productions. Handling side A on release number three in San Fran's King Most, who crafts a hybrid 80s electro/proto-house jam out of echoing electronics, bobdypopping beats, and all manner of effects-laden samples (including a wealth from InDeep classic 'Last Night a DJ Saved My Life' ). Over on side B, Sol Power's own Marc Meistro takes over, laying down his own sparse, lo-fi, analogue-rich tribute to electro-era synth disco that once again nods to a variety of cult classics from the early 1980s.