Tributes, reminiscences, and paid dues head up the playlist this week, as Elucid follows his stellar work with Billy Woods as one half of Armand Hammer with I Told Bessie in loving memory of his paternal grandmother, Moor Mother elevates the wide intervals and dazzling harmonics of the great trumpeter Woody Shaw, and Heroes Are Gang Leaders continue to expand the aural legacy of the poet Amiri Baraka, combining an original composition by James Brandon Lewis devoted to the late author’s wife Amina with excerpts from the play Dutchman and collection of jazz essays Digging as part of a set recorded at the Sons d’hiver festival in the Val-de-Marne.
From Port Sudan on the Red Sea shore, Noori & His Dorpa Band offer listeners a rare glimpse into the heart of Beja culture as Sudanese rhythms rub up against haunting tenor sax and the hybridised licks of an electrified tambo-guitar. From the Democratic Republic of the Congo the producer Chrisman fuses the slowed-down and sensual tempos of the tarraxinha dance which originated in Angola with fuzzy drones and syrupy gqom. Zola Jesus marks the end of a relationship, Osheyack mines the utopian potential of club music, and Salamanda dabble in surrealism through layered vocals and serpentine drums.
The winning quartet of Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp, William Parker, and Gerald Cleaver return for more welcome adventures on 577 Records, while Blackhaine turns a cri de cœur for Salford and the state of life in contemporary England into a dashed love call alongside Rainy Miller on the sequel to Armour. Silvia Tarozzi and Deborah Walker reinterpret the protest songs of mondine rice workers through choral chants, bicycle bells, and the visceral strains of their violin and cello, while Don Thompson and Joel Quarrington deliver a sonorous rendition of the popular wartime romance ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’. Tracks by Namir Blade, Joel Ross, Kassi Valazza, and the Gondwana Records trio Forgiveness complete the roundup.
Playlists: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube
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Moor Mother – ‘WOODY SHAW’ (feat. Melanie Charles)
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Noori & His Dorpa Band – ‘Saagama’
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Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp, William Parker, and Gerald Cleaver – ‘Blinking Dawn’
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Silvia Tarozzi & Deborah Walker – ‘La lega’ (feat. Coro delle Mondine di Bentevoglio)
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Kassi Valazza – ‘Little Flowers’
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Don Thompson & Joel Quarrington – ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’
