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Jazz and Milk Recordings drop sublime Brazilian selection by Tahira

Tahira is a name that many will become more familiar with now – after hearing his superb selection of Brazilian music for Jazz & Milk.

This is the first Afro-Brazilian compilation for the German label, which has specialised in jazz and funk influenced productions and reworks. It’s an insightful decision to team up with one of São Paulo’s most active DJs and music collectors.  While many DJs tend to play Brazilian music that has more cross-pollination with jazz, soul, funk and disco, Tahira’s has selected tracks from the past four decades that display more wide ranging influences and roots – Levanta Poeira expertly encompasses Brazil’s various regional musical styles influenced by African and Amerindian forms and that is what makes it so special.

Most of these tracks will be made available on vinyl for the very first time with a highlight certainly being Tahira’s A Toda Menina Baiana remix (vinyl-only) of one of Brazil’s absolute musical heroes, Gilberto Gil.

Below is a video featuring Tahira discussing the project, with more words from the label underneath. More from Tahira and Jazz & Milk Recordings label boss, Christoph Doepke, can be read from their interviews, click here to access the WTM labels section.

“Tahira is a well known character and good soul of São Paulo’s music and digging community, regularly searching through record shops, private collections or dusty attics around the country. The passionate DJ dedicated the past four years extensively researching Brazil’s broader spectrum of musical styles and slowly started to introduce more and more African and indigenous elements in his DJ sets. Encouraged by the great acceptance and success during his shows he decided to curate his first compilation project to share his discoveries with the world. “Levanta Poeira” is a popular Brazilian expression meaning “kick up dust.” This is a phenomenon that can be found throughout the country, a cultural manifestation that exists where people gather to play, dance and party. Earth is hit by the foot of the dancers raising a cloud of dust. It is a sign that the heat of the Brazilian spirit is present!

“The compilation starts of with a key figure of Brazil’s music scene. Since the 1950s, the Genius Gilberto Gil has been gifting us with countless musical blessings. Very few artists were able to not only explore but embody the diversity of Brazilian music as well as he did. Gil’s endless row of classics include the wonderful track Toda Menina Baiana which has been revisited by Tahira himself. Adding Ijexá beats, as well as Afrobeat stlye guitars and a horn section on top of the original, Tahira managed to make this legendary song attractive to a young and modern audience. The remix starts of with a long percussion intro, builds up very slowly before finally introducing the first vocal verse – an arrangement especially designed for DJs who love to mix and blend Brazilian rhythms in their sets. This remix will be available on vinyl only!”

Click here for Jazz and Milk’s Bandcamp. To read more from the label and Tahira, click here to access the WTM labels section.

Africa Seven please collectors again with timely Eko reissue

Africa Seven continue their prolific output with a much needed reissue of this rarely found LP of disco and unique  funk from Cameroon.

Eko Roosevelt Louis has had a music career spanning more than  40 years. He was born the grandson of a Kribi tribal chief and his musicianship and artistry began with his village’s local church, before his formal education at the Senegal conservatoire and Paris’ Ecole Normale de Musique. Eko then cut his teeth making jazz funk and disco records in the mid-seventies before extensive touring in and around France.

In the 90’s Eko returned to Cameroon to take over his grandfather’s tribal chieftaincy, a role he still holds today. Eko also works with the Cameroon artistic societies and schools performing, teaching and even leading Cameroon’s national orchestra.

Funky Disco Music was Eko’s third LP. Africa Seven tracked Eko down in Cameroon and persuaded him that a re-issue was most definitely needed after a long dialogue.

Highlights include the LP opener and title track, jazz-funk-disco hybrid Ndolo Embe Mulemadolo and Une Chanson Sans Paroles, combining French power pop with African swing. belter to keep the LP tempo high. The uplifting Bowa’a Mba Ngebe  was also a recent highlight of the African Airways Volume 4 compilation.

To check out more music from the label, visit:

Africa Seven’s website

Nat Birchall charts new ‘Cosmic Language’ for Jazzman Records

The forthcoming release for Jazzman will feature Nat Birchall treading new paths towards spiritual communion on new LP Cosmic Language.

The legendary player connects jazz with classical Indian influences guided by his expert playing and flow of the harmonium. Fans will be ecstatic that the UK-based saxophonist, composer and arranger returns to the ever-trusty imprint Jazzman Records: exploring the parallel musical paths of jazz and Indian ragas. Birchall takes influence from spiritual jazz forebears, like Alice Coltrane and Yusef Lateef.

The idea for the album came from an inspirational one-off performance at a meditation centre, the Maharishi Golden Dome in West Lancashire, UK. Seeking to bring a band set-up that was fitting to the quiet-minded setting, Birchall brought the harmonium with him to the concert instead of the (comparatively louder) piano.

The harmonium – a small pump-like organ which sounds like an accordion – was common in the 19th century. It’s an instrument Birchall has been in possession of for many years, but hadn’t previously used in his music. Building on the spiritual context of the Golden Dome show, it led naturally to the musical approach undertaken on the album.

Both the album – and the show which preceded it – were recorded with the same tight-knit group of players which have featured on Birchall’s previous albums. The record was recorded at Manchester’s Limefield Studio as were his previous three.

All members of the group are part of the same like minded circle of Manchester-oriented jazz musicians, sharing stages and acquaintances with the likes of Matthew Halsall (a longtime collaborator with Birchall) and GoGo Penguin.

Nat Birchall’s Cosmic Language is expected to be released in early March on Jazzman Records.

Turkish legend Selda to perform in UK

The first lady of Turkish psych music and hero for the working class will perform and collaborate with Israeli surf-rock quartet Boom Pam – for her first headline concert in the UK for six years at Koko, in London, on February 18th.

Selda’s space age Anatolian music, progressive-protest songs and psych-folk-funk-rock spans more than 45 years. She was the first person to sing and release a Kurdish folk song ignoring potential reprisals. Her outspoken lyrics and pursuit of freedom of speech was spurred by her immense popularity and influence – but it led to her imprisonment three times by the Turkish government between 1977 and 1985. Immediately after the coup in 1980, Selda had her passport revoked and was not allowed to leave the country for seven years. Amid media blackouts and other crackdowns, she was forced to cancel a performance at WOMAD festival in the UK that year.

UK based label Finders Keepers brought Selda to new audiences with the reissue of her 1976 self-titled classic album Selda in 2005.  The use of the electronic saz (Turkish stringed instrument) and polyphonic synthesizers were cutting edge when it was released. Songs such as Meydan Sizindir and Ince Ince were viewed as calls to revolt by the working classes. Her music and songs soon became more available to a wider market with the introduction of the cassette tape format, selling millions worldwide.

Selda Bağcan and Boom Pam: at Koko, Camden High St, London, UK, NW1 7JE, on Sunday 18th February.

Advance Tickets: http://bit.ly/2EtaIHQ

World Treasures Music radio

Here’s the tracklisting for the last show on KMAH Radio:

(1) The Survivals – My Brother (2) Gilberto Gil – Toda Menina Baiana (Tahira Remix) (3) Maga Bo – No Balanco da Canoa (Chico Correa Remix) (4) Selda – Yaz Gazeteci (5) Selda – Yaylalar (6) Selda – Ince Ince (7) The Hykkers – Stone The Flower (8) Jerry Krusade – Everybody Likes Something Good (9) Pacific Express – The Way It Used To be (10) Guy One – Po’ore Ye La Be De Geta Gurengo (11) Guy One – Bangere Tomme (12) GoGo Penguin – Prayer (13) E Rusha V – Endless Summer (14) E Rusha V – Gravity Waves (15) Nat Birchall Man From Varansai (16) Michel Sardaby – Gail (17) Michel Sardaby – Welcome New Warmth (18) GoGo Penguin – Strid (19) ***South African mix***

Soundway to drop ‘Gumba Fire’ – expertly curated by Miles Cleret and DJ Okapi

Miles Cleret and DJ Okapi have handpicked a killer selection of bubblegum soul and synth boogie and have further built on the South African canon. All tracks have never been reissued or available digitally before on Gumba Fire: Bubblegum Soul & Synth-Boogie in 1980s South Africa.

This Soundway compilation covers music that evolves from the disco-boom in South Africa and was mutating and morphing into a synth-orientated sound that was often stripped down and overlaid with deeply soulful vocals and harmonies. The 18 tracks here highlight a period where American-influenced jazz, funk and soul merged with local mbaqanga music. It then bridged into the 1990s when kwaito, pantsula and eventually house-music ruled the dance floors, shebeens and sent collectors into a frenzy (especially in recent times).

Miles Cleret is the label boss at Soundway and DJ Okapi is a world renowned collector and journalist thanks to his recent compilation work with Rush Hour and his fantastic Afrosynth blog and recently established record label. The pair explain: “The compilation takes its name from the band Ashiko’s track of the same name Gumba Fire that features on the compilation. It is derived from ‘gumba gumba’, the term given to the booming speakers of the old spacegram radios that broadcast music into South Africa’s townships and villages. The phrase later evolved into ‘gumba fire’ to refer to a hot party.

“Whilst the title may be based on a specific song it is of course ultimately emblematic of the whole album, 18 tracks that radiate a glowing warmth in both tone and in the hot intensity of some of the rhythms that spark throughout, whilst also offering an important and intoxicating insight into the history of South African music – [the] sound dazzlingly contemporary in the process.”

To preorder, click: http://bit.ly/2FOQNol

World Seven release collectors’ jazz gem: Pacific Express’ ‘On Time’

World Seven continue their fine foray into world music classics with another hard-to-find jazz classic from South Africa in 1978. Besides the success in southern Africa this album became a regional hit as a pirated music cassette in Nigeria. It was also released in France and Japan.

Pacific Express emerged from Cape Town, South Africa in the 1970s. The band were from the so called ‘Coloured’ community and were ground breakers in both musical and political arenas.

The team at World Seven explains: “On several occasions the group fell foul of Apartheid laws and discrimination by the state broadcaster, SABC. On one occasion they were asked to leave the stage of an international tour by Australian act John Paul Young, because the law forbade racially mixed performers on the same stage. The promoter, management and band members all resisted and once the incident made the Australian newspapers the authorities had little choice and turned a blind eye.”

This album features founding members Paul Abrahams (bass), Jack Momple (drums) and Issy Ariefdien (guitar) and were joined by Chris Schilder (piano), Vic Higgins (pecussion), Barney Rachabane (alto sax), Stompie Manana (trumpet) and Zayn Adams amd Kitty Tshikana on vocals for this second album.

The band would go on to record one further LP in 1979 and a single in 1981. They carried on performing past that and their years together as a band acted as central hub for jazz musicians within the Cape Town area. Players such as Tony Cedras, Jonathan Butler and Alvin Dyers were able to gain experience alongside established names.

This World Seven release follows the sublime reissue of Michel Sardaby’s Gail LP.