Jazz100

BBE Music is thrilled to announce the release of Modern Love, a diverse compendium of specially commissioned cover versions of rarities and classics in tribute to David Bowie.

Featuring an array of artists such as Jeff Parker, We Are KING, Meshell Ndegeocello, Helado Negro, Khruangbin, Matthew Tavares, Nia and more, Modern Love seeks to champion Bowie’s lesser-known connection to soul, R&B, jazz, funk, and gospel. The prominent jazz influences throughout Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, were a key inspiration for curating this collection of reimagined Bowie songs with these artists. The resulting album is an eclectic tribute featuring a group of artists who not only fit together creatively, but who, like Bowie, straddle different worlds musically, with soul and jazz at their core.

Modern Love offers a fresh look at Bowie’s trailblazing career, aiming to highlight the often overlooked relationship between his back catalogue and musical genres traditionally pioneered by artists of color. The project was curated by music executive and DJ Drew McFadden, alongside BBE Music founder Peter Adarkwah. “I felt that the connection between Bowie and R&B, jazz, funk, gospel and all things soulful, had never really been explored before — at least not so much in covers, which tend to lean more towards rock and pop,” says McFadden. “Certainly, there’s been plenty of Bowie covers over the years, but none that have really tapped into what seems to have been a big part of his core musical
style and direction.”

Modern Love is an interactive sonic map. Here, seventeen artists make their way into the varied regions of his sundry catalog and circle back with seventeen unique re-imaginings of both his cornerstone and lesser-known tracks. Some, in atmosphere, feel like a sly alternate take from original sessions (Khruangbin’s ethereal, funk infused version of “Right” from Young Americans); others nod at the source, then wink before diving into the deep waters of another musical stratosphere (Sessa’s sexy Tropicalia-drenched “Panic in Detroit” from Aladdin Sane). Still others take tunes down to the studs and then re-arrange the moody interiors: Meshell Ndegeocello’s pensive “Fantastic Voyage” from Lodger and Tavares’ clever take on “Heroes” which is restructured into a kinetic hardbop-esque backdrop, fronted by ice-cool, held-back vocals. The bullseye these artists aim for is Bowie’s fearlessness. “Fame was an incredible bluff that worked,” he once reflected. “Very flattering. I’ll do anything until I fail. And when I succeed I quit too.”

Modern Love packs us off on a journey that balances on risk’s sharp blade. Track-to-track, it explores what happens when a musician throws out notions of should and safe and stretches beyond the known. These artists use Bowie both as a guide and a prism: A way of being and seeing. Their offerings, widely divergent, explore the inheritance from an artist who freed himself from labels, genres and, consequently, pigeonholes. While he was at it, he decimated fixed notions about territory (or terra) itself; boundaries hemmed-in his creative process, but his essence remained free to roam. He may have vanished in earthly form, yet, as he also promised in the lyrics of “Modern Love,” But I never wave bye-bye . . .” This compilation assures us that his spirit swirls around us. His force is alive to all of us and, here, it is summoned with an incantation that celebrates possibility.

Khruangbin - Right

Funkhaus Studio Sessions

No Use (Funkhaus Sessions)

Rondo Acapricio

Can't Let Go

The title track from Jose James' new album out now on Brownswood Recordings.

Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fr/album/blackmagic/id547333074

Bandcamp: http://brownswoodrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/blackmagic

Amazonn: http://www.amazon.fr/Blackmagic/dp/B008OCN95E/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370355304&sr=301-1

Jose James - BLACKMAGIC

To Dust

A to Z

Of All the Things

Rockin' You Eternally (feat. Dwele & Leon Ware)

I Can See (feat. Ben Westbeech)

Love Songs, Pt. 1

Hey Now (When I Give You All My Lovin')

Mother Braintree Let Me Stay Beside You unissued 1973 soul kinsman

fullmoon JTC refix

Mixed and produced by Adam Scrimshire
Mastered by Walter Coelho
Artwork from a painting by Jonny Drop
All kit drums played and recorded by Chris Boot.
All other instruments including Fender Rhodes, piano, Juno-6, percussion, drum programming, guitars and bass by Adam Scrimshire. 

His fourth album, musically, 'Listeners' draws from Scrimshire's passion for jazz, soul and electronic music of all styles; from an energetic combination of Afrobeat and garage on 'Won't Get Better', to the lushly orchestrated neo-soul of 'Thru You', and the harmonious jazz experimentations of 'I Never'. The album features a host of esteemed guest vocalists and musicians telling their own personal stories, including Georgia Anne Muldrow, Emma-Jean Thackray, Joshua Idehen, Madison McFerrin, Chip Wickham, and James Alexander Bright.

"With this album I wanted to get a more focused sound after six years of relearning and development in the studio. But I also struggled to find my own words, to speak about where I/we are now. So I allowed my collaborators total freedom to tell their own story and as they came back to me, they were telling the same stories I wanted to. It's resulted in some deeply personal confessional pieces: mourning family, collapsing relationships, extremes of self doubt and analysis, trying to balance public and inner persona, and a reminder that life in all forms is important.

It’s called 'Listeners' as I am a listener here, I feel like I've been given these very personal experiences to care for. Listeners because, the travesty of the last few years is that we stopped listening to each other, everyone is shouting at each other and no one is learning. And Listeners because I hope I've made something that is for other people more than I have before. I've tried to craft something warmer and more enjoyable, made for those who give me their time in listening to my music."
- Adam Scrimshire

Since joining the Wah Wah 45s label in 2007, Scrimshire has released three albums of experimental cinematic jazz, and electronic sounds. Following his 2009 debut ‘Along Came The Devil One Night​’, his second album ‘The Hollow’ (2011) was a BBC 6 Music Album of the Week, with Gilles Peterson calling it “A late contender for album of the year”.

In the time since the release of his last album ‘Bight’ (“An eclectic range of influences ranging from disco to fusion to more contemporary electronic styles” XLR8R) in 2013, Adam has worked with long-time musical accomplice Dave Koor on new project Modified Man, and launched Albert’s Favourites releasing projects by The Expansions, Hector Plimmer and Jonny Drop. He has continued to gain radio and DJ support for his successful “Scrimshire Edits” series and has produced and mixed records for artist including Stac, Daudi Matsiko, Bastien Keb, Rōnin Arkestra, Jonny Drop. He has also continued to develop the Wah Wah 45s label, where he is now a co-owner and director.

Listeners

Theme For Us feat. Joshua Idehen & Chip Wickham

Theme for Us (feat. Chip Wickham)

Jazzanova is many things to many different people. For more than fifteen years the eclectic collective from Berlin has been busy producing, composing, arranging, remixing, DJing and generally shaping our musical world – in the clubs, on the air, in the studio, live on stage, and with their label Sonar Kollektiv.
bookings for dj sets and live-shows: booking@best-works.com

No Use (Funkhaus Sessions)

jazzanova

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