O Yinne Te San Tue!

Some Snowy Savages Scrambling Slugs Slowly

FIGHT - Mountains

Jazz orchestra themed for the seasons, with a spicy latin track as dessert!

Fall

The Transformations Suite combines music, theatre, and poetry to examine the radical history of resistance within communities of the African diaspora. The themes of the suite move through five distinct phases: Transformation, History, Cycles, Momentum (parts 1 and 2), and Ascension. Continuing in the tradition of artists like Bob Marley, Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye, Billie Holiday, and Tupac Shakur, the suite paints a musical picture of the current state of social inequality and injustice in the United States and beyond.

Within this framework, the project connects contemporary issues, such as the prison industrial complex and the Black Lives Matter movement, with the history of revolutionary movements of color. The composition builds a bridge between the past and the future – all within the context of poignant, beautiful, and sweeping moments created by the suite’s music. The powerful lyrics consist mostly of original poems by actor and poet Jeremie Harris, augmented by contributions from Pinderhughes, Saul Williams, and Tupac Shakur.

The Transformations Suite has been performed throughout South America and the U.S., at venues including the American Museum of Natural History, the Harlem Arts Festival, Juilliard, UC Irvine, NYU, Joe’s Pub, the Jazz Gallery, MoMA, and Columbia University. Most recently, the project was featured as part of Blackout for Human Rights’ #MLKNow event which was viewed by over 500,000 people and trended #1 on Twitter.

Centered in the belief that there is a soundtrack to every revolution, the vision for The Transformations Suite is that it will foster dialogue on social justice issues throughout the world, show how art can create social change, contribute to the powerful growing movement on behalf of black lives around the country, and empower all people – especially youth – to make their voices heard.

The release of The Transformations Suite was preceded by an event called “Black Male Re-Imagined”, a project co-presented by the Campaign for Black Male Achievement, where The Transformations Suite served as the prism through which artists and activists reflect on the current state of our nation. This event, doubling as the album’s release show, took place on October 11 at The Kennedy Center, including Lalah Hathaway, Freeway, Christian Scott, Haile Gerima, and more.

The Transformations Suite is released worldwide on October 12, 2016.

You can find the album on iTunes, Bandcamp, and all other outlets.
Special free bundles of the album will be available for youth organizations, activist groups, and schools.

“Wonderful...an absolutely gorgeous piece of music. A huge undertaking;; a nuanced, delicate, and powerful perspective on heavy and important topics."
- Anna Deavere Smith

"An urgent and powerful record by one of this generation’s most captivating composers. Not to mention an incredibly formidable player – Samora's command of the piano is out of this world! A must have record for anyone interested in progress. Musically or otherwise.."
- Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah

“Samora Pinderhughes calls for reappraisal of black life's value in ‘The Transformations Suite’... it is a five-part tone poem, arranged over meticulously created big band jazz instrumentals, with aims to provide a motivational and emotional engine to push forward the mission of Black Lives Matter."
- Mic.com

02 History - from "The Transformations Suite"

United Future Organization /Loud Minority (1992)

Unity & The Downbeats - Love Dream

Hackney Colliery Band's brand new album 'Collaborations: Volume One'

Collaborations: Volume One

Netsanet (feat. Mulatu Astatke)

Super-funky business from Nigerian-born multi-instrumentalist, Peter King; fuses funk, jazz and highlife vibrations. Official Mr Bongo reissue.

‘Omo Lewa’ follows his ‘Miliki Sound’ album, also available on Mr Bongo. Recorded in London, originally released in 1976 by Orbitone, this is one of his finest records.

Licensed from Clinton Roberts.

Omo Lewa

Peter King - Afro-Funk

Drummer-producer Teppo Mäkynen's celebrated alias The Stance Brothers returns with a properly groovy 7"/digi single "Resolution Blue / Where Is Resolution Blue?" on We Jazz Records, 19 June. The source of inspiration here is an original track by Timo Lassy & Teppo Mäkynen found on their self-titled 2019 We Jazz LP. The Stance Brothers mangles the track up into two different versions with crisp drums, catchy vibraphone riffs, distorted guitars and 100% signature Stance Bros groove, like only Teddy Rok can deliver it. The digi version adds a "bonus beats" type of treatment in "Teddy Rok Mass Appeal Edit".

True to We Jazz style, the 7" comes with an old school heat-pressed labels and a generic brown paper sleeve.

Resolution Blue

Buy / Stream the album here: https://orcd.co/takeashot

Unearthed by The Mighty Zaf for BBE Music, Into A New Journey by Ambiance is an impossibly rare and sought-after private label spiritual jazz masterpiece from 1982 with Latin, Brazilian and Afro overtones. Ambiance was the ‘nom de guerre’ of an ever-shifting jazz collective headed up by Nigeria-born, LA-tutored multi- instrumentalist, arranger, producer and photographer Daoud Abubakar Balewa.

Balewa studied composition and jazz improvisation at the feet of innovators such as Frank Mitchell (Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers), Jackie McLean (Blue Note) and other masters from the golden Blue Note era. Although he favoured alto, soprano and tenor, he was equally happy on flute, keyboards, and Latin and Brazilian percussion. What’s more, he had the knack of using musicians who were bold enough to welcome being part of such multi- faceted sessions: guitarist Jim Lum’s flexibility suits the theme of this album perfectly, as does prolific Japanese soul-jazz drummer Danny Yamamoto; the stunning Hawaiian pianist Kino Cornwell (Yamamoto’s colleague from funk-fusion supergroup Hiroshima); and the wonderful Jean Carn-like tones of Daoud’s wife, jazz vocalist Monife Balewa.

From the band’s reading of Joe Henderson’s modal masterpiece Black Narcissus, through the deep multicultural percussive jazz-dance workout that is the title track, and on to the three-octave vocal embellishments of Monife, on her own composition Something Better as well as on the Chick Correa fusion classic 500 Miles High, nothing here is generic, nothing taken for granted, nothing comfortable or predictable.

All of the half-dozen or so albums recorded and released by Daoud and Ambiance during just six years of frantic creativity between 1979 and 1986 are well worth seeking out, but in BBE Music’s opinion Into A New Journey is the pinnacle: spiritual jazz worthy of the very best practitioners of the genre, by an obscure group of ludicrously talented artists on a tiny, self- financed indie label with an equally tiny promo budget: that’s what great jazz is all about.

Into a New Journey

Ambiance - The Black Narcissus

Stimulator Jones breaks new ground on his sophomore LP, La Mano. The Stones Throw affiliate heads over to Mutual Intentions for a novel instrumental record that expands a musical dialect built on his singular fusion of sounds. The artist explores the musical possibilities contained in his hands as he moves between keys, guitars, drums and wind instruments in arrangements that break down the intellectual barriers of genre for the corporeal intimacy off the soul.

www.mutualintentions.com 

@stimulator-jones

Stimulator Jones - Drama Time

"Reinventing the brass-band format for the 21st century" - Times
"This is the most enjoyable, fun music that I know of" - Observer
"One of the best live bands we have in this country" - BBC Radio 2
"Clever, and enormous fun" - Guardian
"An ingenious blend of showmanship and intelligence" - Sunday Times