Cool Jazz

Chet Baker ~ My Funny Valentine

Brandee Younger, harp
Stacy Dillard, tenor sax
EJ Strickland, drums
Dezron Douglas, bass

Monday Night Jazz @ Bushnell Park. Hartford, CT
8/12/13
Photo by Joe Chandler

Blue Nile, by Alice Coltrane. Live @ Bushnell Park

Waltz For Debby (Bill Evans)-- Monita Tahalea & Gerald Situmorang

Moses Boyd drums/composition/production 
binker golding- tenor sax
artie zaits-guitar
theon cross - Tuba

A Message From Saturn

From "A Monastic Trio" LP. Originally released in 1968. Reissued on Superior Viaduct, 2014. www.superiorviaduct.com

Buy Vinyl

ALICE COLTRANE - I Want To See You

All Of Me - Sarah & Bamboo

Georgia on my mind (originally by Louis Armstrong)

Dorothy Ashby - Essence Of Sapphire

Theon Cross- Tuba/composer
Nubya Garcia- Tenor Saxophone
Moses Boyd- Drums/production
© copyright

Newly Awakened

Here's a taster from Kitty's soon to be released album, dedicated to Billie Holiday. 

Lady Sings the Blues - Kitty's tribute to Billie Holiday

Nubya Garcia - Tenor Sax/Flute
Shirley Tetteh - Guitar
Amané Suganami - Keyboard
Twm Dylan - Double Bass
Jake Long - Drums
Tim Doyle - Percussion

Recorded at Royal Albert, Deptford by Tom Sankey
Mixed by Ben Hayes and Max Wallace-Jones
Mastered by Ben Hayes

Africa (John Coltrane)

"Ominous Shanti is the latest track from the wonderful percussionst / band leader Emanative (AKA Nick Woodmansey) and true to his name it is a marvelous original concoction of eastern sounds, punching horns, trance - inducing rhythms and Miles like inprovisations. Do yourself a favor and put it in your earhole!"

- Idris Ackamoor of The Pyramids - March 2017


"So this is a new one from Emanative, that's the Collective that belongs to Nick Woodmansey …
I might have to drop again next week because I love it so much!"

- Gilles Peterson BBC 6Music - Feb 2017

Emanative aka Nick Woodmansey makes his return on self-released limited 7", Ominous Shanti / Black Enchantment – two tracks that perfectly display Nick’s flavour for interesting rhythms, eastern sounds and contemporary influences.

The A-side, ‘Ominous Shanti’ sees Nick collaborate and create with Tamar Osborn, Sarathy Korwar, Suman Joshi, Ben Hadwen, Simon Finch and Jessica Lauren. Recorded between Malcolm Catto's Heliocentrics and Ibibio Sound Machine's studios.

"We're releasing this one ourselves privately, on the kind of non-existant label Home Planet Recordings, so any and all support really appreciated!
It's a limited edition, so please don't miss out!"

- Nick Woodmansey

Ominous Shanti

Order vinyl / CD / digital: https://bbemusic.lnk.to/SaturdayNightSpecial
In association with DJ Amir’s 180 Proof Records, BBE is honoured to present another gem from the small yet significant Strata catalogue. A precursor to New York’s Strata East, Detroit’s Strata Records was founded in the late 1960s by former Blue Note artist Kenny Cox. Starting life as a music-led community organisation, coffee shop studio and venue, Strata released only a few titles as a record label, gaining the imprint a cult following among record collectors and jazz lovers across the globe.
Possibly the best known of Strata’s releases, The Lyman Woodard Organization’s ‘Saturday Night Special’ is rightly heralded as a jazz fusion classic. Recorded in 1975, ‘Saturday Night Special’ features organ, electric piano and Mellotron by bandleader Lyman Woodard alongside guitar and bass by Ron English, with drums and percussion by Leonard King, Bud Spangler & Lorenzo “Mr. Rhythm” Brown respectively. Despite the fairly sparse instrumentation, ‘Saturday Night Special’ lays down an impressive wall of sound, powerfully atmospheric in its almost low-fi aesthetic. Hinting at more traditional jazz, rhythm & blues, afro-cuban styles and more, the uniqueness of this album is surely in its feel: summoning up images of a vast industrial landscape, assembly lines and urban decay. In other words, this record sounds like Detroit.
No great album artwork is complete without a good story to match, and ‘Saturday Night Special’ does not disappoint. Snapped by photographer and political activist Leni Sinclair (responsible for seminal pictures of Miles Davis, Fela Kuti and John Coltrane and many others), the cover image shows the contents of Lyman Woodard’s pockets placed on the hotel bed after a show: cigarette papers, cash and a pistol.
Following Woodard’s death in 2009, this incredible album was reissued in highly limited numbers by Wax Poetics; now just as hard to come by as the original pressings. It’s our pleasure to make this important and influential chapter in the story of contemporary jazz available on vinyl once again.

The Lyman Woodard Organization - Belle Isle Daze

By Leron Thomas
Featured on Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Bubblers Eight.
From the album Dirty Draws Vol. 3

Leron Thomas- Vocals, Michael Valeanu- Guitar, Justin Tyson- Drums, Shimrit Shoshan- Piano, Carlo De Rosa- Bass

Mr New York

Chip Wickham Flute.
From the UK's leading trumpeter Matthew Halsall's first album 'Sending My Love'

On The Other Side Of The World (Matthew Halsall)

Over the past decade, the harpist Brandee Younger has been at the center of music’s celebrated work, even if you didn’t know she was there. Be it her output with the soul singer John Legend or the rapper Common, she’s always put her stamp on the music in question, all while setting a new course for what classical music can entail. But with her major-label debut, Somewhere Different, she’s pushing her artistry to the foreground. By her own admission, Younger would’ve stepped back in years past to let others shine; the harp would’ve been mixed behind layers of woodwind instruments. Now she’s putting her instrument first. “It was important for me to thrust the harp forward in a non-traditional setting,” Younger says of her new album. “I made a conscious effort to make sure that the harp was a bit more present in this recording. It’s important for the instrument.” 
Indeed, the first sound heard on Somewhere Different is the harp, a gorgeous, tone-setting solo that ushers in “Love & Struggle,” the album’s meditative opener. It also sets the mission for the music that follows: Younger has spent her career breaking down the barriers between classical music and contemporary forms of R&B, hip-hop, and funk. This album synthesizes her work while forging new ground. “I started recording music that wasn’t common on harp in 2006,” she says. This is my way of combining all the worlds I have into one. This is me doing my own thing completely.” 
Listeners will hear this creative freedom throughout the LP, from the introspective tenor of “Olivia Benson,” “Beautiful Is Black” and “Pretend,” featuring Tarriona “Tank” Ball of the breakout New Orleans band Tank and the Bangas, to the vibrant rock and bounce-infused sounds of “Reclamation” and the title track, respectively. In that way, Younger pays homage to the pioneering harpists Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby, both of whom merged the instrument with jazz, funk and soul at a time when such ingenuity wasn’t commonplace. As a result, Coltrane and Ashby are still somewhat underrated in the pantheon of Black music, even if their sounds — an undeniable blend of angelic strings, spiritual jazz and fervent grit — still captivate. This bravery inspired Younger, and with every album, she makes it a point to celebrate the icons in some form. While Coltrane’s name tends to resonate in certain circles, Ashby’s hasn’t enjoyed the same luxury. “She was playing music of her time on the harp, which was unheard of,” Younger says. “She was doing it creatively, and never got the due that she deserved.” Somewhere Different is not only the realization of Younger’s musical journey, it channels the spirit of a deserving performer whose life merits deeper examination. Younger fully asserting her brilliance is the greatest tribute to Ashby collaborating with her longtime band members on the Album.

Blue Nile, by Alice Coltrane. Live @ Bushnell Park

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