great https://soundcloud.com/bleucommeuneorange/sets/soul-funk-forever-vol-29

great https://soundcloud.com/bleucommeuneorange/sets/soul-funk-forever-vol-22

Great remix just entered my Playlist this month !!  https://soundcloud.com/nowagainrecords/james-reese-and-the-progressions-ft-marlene-king-throwing-stones-kenny-dope-mix?in=ness-errahmani/sets/music-is-a-spiritual-507692559

A smoothed out, catchy little downtempo bobber from a cool late-winter night in The Vault.  Makaya bounces on a flammed rimshot, Abrams jumps in quickly with some nice bass chords, Justefan colors the progression with his singing vibraphone harmonies, and Marquis tops it all off with a gorgeous trumpet melody and solo verse.

Recorded on March 5th, 2014 by Dave Vettraino.  Personnel: Makaya McCraven - drums, Joshua Abrams - bass, Justin Thomas - vibraphone, Marquis Hill - trumpet.

Steppe Smoothe

Recorded as part of a four-day session at Berlin’s Brewery Studios with a cast of close collaborators from both Budapest and Berlin’s vibrant jazz scenes, Destruction Everywhere marks the beginning of a new chapter for Àbáse.

The track features Ziggy Zeitgeist (30/70) on drums, Ori Jacobson on saxophone, flautist Fanni Zahár, Andras Koroknay on bass and Ghanaian percussionist Eric Owusu. The release brings in an era of partnership with Analogue Foundation, who are dedicated to preserving and furthering analogue creation via record releases, international events, and activities at its recording studio and hi-fi listening bar. The Foundation is headed up by Grammy-winning New York City recording and mixing engineer Russel Elvado, Soundwalk Collective, and Berlin recording and mix engineer Erik Breuer.
credits
released March 28, 2024
Fanni Zahár - flute
Ori Jacobson - sax
Eric Owusu Sunday - congas, bongo
Szabolcs Bognár - Rhodes, Roland SH2000, clave
András Koroknay - bass
Ziggy Zeitgeist - drums

Written by Szabolcs Bognár

Recorded and mixed by Erik Breuer at Brewery Studios, Berlin
Assistant engineers: Rhea Sodemann, Heinrich Matis
Mastered at The Carvery Studio, London by Frank Merritt
Cover design and layout by Mark Fridvaszki

Oshu Records x Bridge The Gap x Analogue Foundation

Supported by Initiative Musik gGmbH with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media.

Destruction Everywhere

Idris Muhammad - Loran's Dance

Koln by The Sure Co. from the 5ives EP (Jazz Refreshed).
Richard Spaven - Drums
Grant Windsor - Keys


Koln

📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀
📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀📀

#lofi #boombap #ambient

soul sample demos! ep - mix of jazz soul & funk samples from 1970's & 1980's united states

sound design, production, mixing, & mastering via - stracct

samples are used

artwork - stracct

contact me if you are interested in using any of my beats/instrumentals for whatever reason.

nowhere to go! [stracct] [73bpm Cmajor] [soundcloud exclusive]

This EPx15 builds up from Indie LoFi, to Blues, and Burlesque Punk Rock. It quotes the newly rebranded "Department of War" Secretary's official announcement speech. The cover features "Operation Blitz", the shameless Naz! offensive nomenclature used by the government to designate their latest mass-deportations initiative #truestory.

DHS—i.e. the U.S. "Department of Homeland Security"—has launched a military operation called “Operation Midway Blitz” targeting undocumented immigrants in Chicago, Illinois. The news coverage spans AP, Washington Post, Reuters, and The Guardian—all information sources as real as reliable.

Yet, when I shared a screenshot of the real DHS tweet announcing ‘Operation Midway Blitz’ to chatGPT, it called it fake news! WHY? Cuz the truth sounded too fasc!st to be real, sadly, obviously, that is why... because DHS shamelessly chose to name their latest large-scale deportation crackdown after "The Blitz"—i.e. the Nazi Germany’s bombing campaign that terrorized civilians. Yup. Blitz. On U.S. soil. Targeting immigrants. The bot doubted it because it was too extreme to believe, which imho, literally proves just how extreme it actually is!

So here’s the question of the day: If it sounds too fascist to be true—but it’s true—
how far gone are we already?! 🇺🇸

☩ ☩ ☩

@bananasutra (aka the Better Bananas Bureau of Peace) lyrics "It’s War, My Friend"

[Intro]
“Maximum lethality… 
not tepid legality…” (*)
They changed the name, 
but not the game… 

[Verse 1]
The shield became a sharpened blade,
The dove was shot, the deal betrayed.
They smiled and switched the words they use,
Then blamed the blood on evening news.

[Chorus]
It’s not defense — it’s war, my friend,
No truth to guard, no rules defend.
They paint the crime in red, white, blue,
And sell it back as brave and true. 

[Verse 2]
They built the tanks on stolen dreams,
Then fed us fear in silent streams.
The court was blind, the laws grew thin,
So violence marched its power in.

[Verse 3]
They stripped the schools to fund the fight,
Then prayed for peace beneath the blight.
They called it strength, I call it fraud,
A wolf that hides behind the law.

[Bridge – Dreamy, echoing tone]
When war gets dressed in Sunday best,
Who dares to ask, “Who cleans the mess?”
When war is peace and law is bent,
The truth is just a false pretense. 

[Repeat Chorus]
It’s not defense — it’s war, my friend,
No truth to guard, no rules defend.
They paint the crime in red, white, blue,
And sell it back as brave and true. 

☩ ☩ ☩

(*) WTH "Maximum Lethality, Not Tepid Legality" actually means??!
This is the stark, official statement made by Pete Hegseth, i.e. the newly rebranded American "Secretary of War"... By saying "Maximum lethality", he emphasizing his intention to deploy overwhelming force and power. And "Not tepid legality" is clealrly a d!ck-jab at what he sees as legal constraints that are weak or overly cautious-indicating more military actions, with fewer legal handcuffs. He also said "Violent effect, NOT politically correct" (for real), underlining the prioritization of forceful outcomes over worrying about optics, cultural sensitivities, or so-called "woke" norms. Long story short, the fasc!st Quack administration is making things clear (for once, ha): this isn't about defense or diplomacy. It's about offense, authoritarian purpose, and unapologetic strength. 

Blessed be the Peace fools 🕊️


[09] It's War, My Friend • QUACKsutra Psychedelic BLUES

Taken from the debut Kamaal Williams LP 'The Return'
Buy / stream here: www.smarturl.it/kw-thereturn

The Return 

Kamaal Williams - High Roller

When The Expansions self released their first single in 2013, the laid-back jazz funk of Lavender, it quickly gained strong support from soul and rare-groove aficionados including Kenny Dope, Dom Servini, Patrick Forge and Andy Smith. A run of shows followed and before long, when someone was asking if there was a soul-jazz band around to play with, “The Expansions” was the answer. 

Although this popularity meant a hiatus in releasing music, the band have been constantly busy, playing around Europe with legendary British-Ghanaian soul singer, Andrew Ashong and the exceptional, upcoming talent Connie Constance. 

There has also been a breakout project from drummer Jonny Drop - the album Sub Plot gained massive support and love from BBC Radio 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne. While keys-man Dave Koor has been busy playing shows with Gilles Peterson favourite Hector Plimmer, Shaun Escoffery, and Ego Ella May, improvising with Yussef Dayes (Yussef Kamaal) and Nubya Garcia, releasing music as Deoke and collaborating with label-mate Scrimshire on their Modified Man exploration. 

But always, The Expansions has remained a central focus and the true home of these four jazz and soul lovers, with occasional trips out to the country to form ideas and practice new music for the eventual album. 

Murmuration, recorded over three days at Big Noise in Southend, is constructed of single takes, with minimal overdubs, as the band attempt to capture the feeling and energy they create live. 

Debut single Breakthrough introduced the insanely catchy but deeply soulful blend of synths and groove, but here on the album that is explored to the fullest with longer breakdowns and more expansive, experimental solos. Pocket 5 displays the, possibly unexpected, influences of broken beat and almost combative rhythm playing – particularly in the complex guitar and keys breakdown where Koor and O’Keefe layer conflicting time signatures and battle to ride it out to the heavy drum return. 

Cannonball brings warm mellowness that delicately evolves through beats, touching on bossas alongside their fundamental hip-hop sensibilities. But even here there is a raucous zenith before the band sublimely recede into the silence of the a-side ending. 

Colossal album highlight Ivory Mountain is truly an epic. Evoking moments of 4Hero, there is a lightness of groove in the first half of this soulful exploration. But at the halfway point, all restraint is let go as a live string section joins the four quarters of the band for three glorious minutes of soulful disco. Evoking sounds of Quincy Jones, George Benson and Johnny Hammond, all the way through to a beautifully cacophonous finale. 

Dragonfly undoubtedly reflects on the work of Herbie Hancock and is the most direct throwback to the band’s earlier work, which is a welcome marker of how far they have come. A quintessential jazz funker. 

The album closes with the thoughtful and introverted shuffle of Miles Away. In the final eight minutes of Murmuration, The Expansions allow space and time to take precedence, with once-more-restrained peaks and developments. It becomes clear though, that the band cannot resist one last explosive finale, as they rise with screeching synths, strings and dubs for a perfect race to the finish line. 

You can hear the influences of Idris Muhammad, Grover Washington, even parallels with South London peers Yussef Kamaal and Ruby Rushton. But The Expansions have tirelessly worked to create a sound of their own and are very proud, along with label Albert’s Favourites, to finally share it.

Murmuration

Miles Away

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Far Out Recordings proudly presents two albums of previously unheard Azymuth demo recordings from 1973-75

Since their debut album release in 1975, Azymuth have risen to rank alongside the world’s greatest jazz, funk and fusion artists. As young men in Rio de Janeiro, they stood out for both their exceptional talent as musicians, and their wild rock ‘n’ roll antics in the predominantly middle-class worlds of bossa nova and jazz. Their signature ‘Samba Doido’ (crazy samba) sound ruptured the tried and tested musical structures of the day, resulting in what can only be described as an electric, psychedelic, samba jazz-funk hybrid.
But before they became Azymuth, Jose Roberto Bertrami (keyboards), Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti (drums), Alex Malheiros (bass) and Ariovaldo Contesini (percussion) played backing band to just about every major artist in Brazil.

Bertrami was also contracted as an arranger and songwriter at some the biggest labels of the era: Polydor, Philips, Som Livre, and EMI being just a few. Azymuth’s name can be found on record sleeves by the likes of Jorge Ben, Elis Regina, Marcos Valle, Ana Mazzotti and countless others. But at the dawn of the seventies, fascinated by developments in improvisational music - from jazz in the US, to progressive rock in the UK and of course samba, bossa and tropicália on home turf - the energetic young group were inspired and ready to move forward.Any spare moment in which they weren’t in sessions and writing music for other artists, they would be carving out their own sound.

These previously unheard recordings took place between 1973-75 at Bertrami’s home studio in the Laranjeiras district of Rio de Janeiro. At the time of recording, there was nothing in Brazil, less the world that sounded anything like them, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that when Bertrami presented his demos to the record companies he had been working for, he was turned away, and told in effect that the music was ‘wrong’.

One of the demos ‘Manhã’ would be picked up by Som Livre and Azymuth released their seminal debut album in 1975. Throughout the late seventies and eighties, the group released a series of now classic albums for Milestone Records, before taking an indefinite hiatus to pursue their individual careers.
When English producers Joe Davis and Roc Hunter arrived in Brazil in 1994 to record the first Azymuth album in over a decade, Bertrami dug out the demos which had sat virtually untouched for over twenty years. Joe recalls how he was “blown away by the freedom and intensity of the music, as well as the genius of the ideas musically.” Beginning a long and fruitful relationship, ‘Prefacio’ would be the first track Azymuth recorded for Far Out Recordings and was released on the Carnival album (1996).

Along with ‘Manhã’ and ‘Prefacio’, only a handful of these demos were ever professionally recorded and released, making this the first opportunity to hear many of these early Azymuth compositions in their raw, original form.

On every track the frenetic energy in the studio is palpable, giving the recordings a beautifully personal feel and a sense of the phenomenally creative vision Bertrami, Malheiros and Conti were realising at the time. Fifty years on, Azymuth’s earliest recorded music retains an ineffable, futuristic quality, standing amongst their most captivating and moving work.

Vinyl / CD / Digi

Azymuth - Manha

nowagainrecords.com

This 2/LP gatefold vinyl is available with:
Now-Again Reserve: a deluxe vinyl subscription.

Trombonist, bandleader, songwriter, arranger and producer James Reese never issued an album with his Progressions band, only a series of 45s – some under his own name, some under that of his collaboraors – out of Spartanburg, South Carolina on his Najma label, from the late 1960s until the mid 1970s. He was as ambitious as he was talented, and his ouevre ranges from brutal, deep soul to sophisticated instrumental ballads to jazz-inflected funk. Now-Again’s Egon first discovered Reese’s music on a 24 lock-in in Concord, North Carolina’s legendary record and antique clock repository, Ye Olde Clock Shoppe, in 1999. After he tracked down Reese, he officially reissued two of Reese’s songs on his seminal Stones Throw anthology The Funky 16 Corners. He later issued more of Reese’s music on the Now-Again anthology Loving On The Flipside.

Sourced from rare 45s and multi-track master tapes, Wait For Me: The Complete Works 1967-1972 presents both issued and recently-rediscovered songs in the full-length format, in a cohesive set that shows the brilliance still arising from the American soul and funk sub-strata. Long time Now-Again associate Kenny Dope presents a remix of the song “Throwing Stones,” and Now-Again mastering engineer Jason Bitner presents alternate mixes of various cuts on a bonus second LP, available only to subscribers. Those mixes are also included as part of the 2 CD set that accompanies the vinyl album. Both LP and CD version contain an extensive booklet detailing the trajectory of Reese and his band. Download card for WAV files included with the LP.

James Reese and the Progressions ft. Marlene King - “Throwing Stones (Kenny Dope Mix)"

https://jupitertuningcenter.bandcamp.com/track/mini-jass

James Reese and the Progressions ft. Marlene King - “Throwing Stones (Kenny Dope Mix)"

Now-Again Records

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