Brooklyn Funk Essentials is a soul/funk/acid jazz collective, featuring Groove Collective's trombonist Joshua Roseman, producer Bob "Sassy" Brockmann, DJ Jazzy Nice, and saxophonist Paul Shapiro. Surprisingly, Cool and Steady and Easy isn't at all schizophrenic in its tone -- it's a cohesive, smooth, and funky collection, standing as a testament to the talents of the musicians involved.
Carmen Souza - Protegid (Portugal - Cabo Verde, 2010)
One often hears the expression, "It's all over the map." But it's rarely used been more truthfully or appropriately than when applied to Protegid, the third album by vocalist Carmen Souza, born in Lisbon, of Cape Verdean descent, and now residing in London. Singing in a colorful, eclectic Portuguese-based Creole, Souza illuminates, stretches, and snaps back the elastic connections between Latin, African and Arabic music, American jazz and the music of Cape Verde.
Souza conclusively proves that the "world music" evolution/revolution has transformed modern vocal as well as instrumental music. This transformative power breathes new life into the most famous song written by Cape Verdes' most famous native musician, "Song for My Father" by Horace Silver. Her new "Song"—more than mere rearrangement—tosses together a Latin shuffle from piano and percussion that keeps the original's rhythm rocking, with her vocal softly tracing the padded steps of her electric keyboard solo. "I came to discover that the songs that people sang in the fields on Cape Verde have the same pentatonic scale identified with the blues," she marvels.
Souza's half-spoken, half-sung introduction, and subsequent verses, to "Dos Eternidade (Two Eternities)" suggestNina Simone pattering in French surrounded by a carnival of steel drums, a scene that abruptly shifts into jazz piano backed by percolating congas, jingling bells, and whistles. "Tente Midj" jumps out of this production, stewing percussion, acoustic guitar, and vocals together with jackrabbit accordion until thoroughly blended and steaming hot. The piano chords and horn chart of "Kem e Bo (Who Are You)" turn toward yet another time and place, the studied jazz-pop cool of Steely Dan. Unified with fretless bass, piano and percussion, her closing vocal to "Magia ca tem (Passionless)" even seems to whisper the same rarified breath as Flora Purim from Purim's magical tenure inReturn to Forever.
"Afri Ka" and "D'xam ess moment (Worthwhile)" erupt with the wondrously inexplicable joy of vibrant, sunny African rhythms, teased and played out by Souza's vocal, sighing and flying, mewing and cooing, and very much sounding like a prowling cat.
Track Listing: M'sta Li Ma Bo (I'm Here for You); Afri Ka; Dos Eternidade (Two Eternities); Tente Midj; Protegid (Protected); D'xam ess moment (Worthwhile); Sodade; Song for My Father; Kem e Bo (Who Are You?); Magia ca tem (Passionless); Decision (Decision); Mara Marga (Bitter Mara).
Personnel: Carmen Souza: vocals, acoustic guitar, Fender Rhodes; Theo Pas'cal: acoustic bass, double bass, double bass bow, udo, cajon, snare timbales, brushes effects, skin percussion, traditional reco, traditional Agogos, backing vocals, wood and shakers, metal percussion, acoustic steel guitar, marimbas, kisange; Omar Sosa: acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes; Jonathan Idiagbonya: acoustic piano; Claudio Cesar Lima Ribeiro: solo nylon guitar; Tiago Santos: nylon guitar; Pedro Segundo: drums, percussion, kaxixe; Zoe Pas'cal: Funana rhythm, percussion; Sebastian Sheriff: bongos, cajon, timbales, kaxixes, congas, batas, vibraslap, cabaca, guiro, cowbells; Derek Johnson: nylon guitar; Marc Berthoumieux: accordion; Joao Frade: accordion; Victor Samora: acoustic piano; Rick Lazar: cebolo, cajita, shaker, triangle, pandeiro; Lars Arens: trombone, euphonium, horn section arrangement; Miguel Goncalves: trumpet, flugelhorn; Johannes Krieger: trumpet, flugelhorn; Ze Maria: tenor saxophone, alto saxophone; Luis Cunha: trombone, euphonium; Adel Salameh: oud; Naziha Azzouz: vocals.
02. Tired Fi See Mi Face 03. What Part of No Didn't You Understand 04. Catch the Feeling 05. Get To Know Ya 06. Right There 07. On the Other Hand 08. Got a Thing for You 09. When Will I See You Again feat. Julie Payne 10. Stop 11. Make Time for Love 12. Just so That You Know 13. Sharing the Night (LB'S Remix) 14. Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye 15. Sunshine 16. Better To Have Loved 17. Private Life feat. Grace Jones & Sly 'N' Robbie 18. Pay No Mind 19. Pass It On feat. Don Campbell, Wayne Marshall & Delroy Pinnock 20. Tribute
What we have in Alborosie
as an artist in reggae is clearly a scholar of reggae. A multi-instrumentalist,
with phrasing, vocal parts like a Vivaldi opera. But these tunes are hard, and they go to
places that not many have gone since King Tubby and Scientist were building
speakers and moving knobs to innovate a music movement.
This new set, out on VP
Records, ESCAPE FROM BABYLON TO THE
KINGDOM OF ZION was actually released in Europe last summer. The record is just getting into the hands of
the American market which prior to now, only had his limited edition import
SOUL PIRATE to satisfy cravings for his gravelly chant, studious observance
ofvintage reggae technique, political stance, genuine street sense, and
spiritual vibes.
The record was produced in
Kingston where Alborosie, native of Sicily in Italy has been living for the
past ten years. The lead track on the
album "Kingston Town" pays homage to the rudies that have trod for
half a century there. With a nod to foundation engineer Scientist, the cover
art reflects the series of illustrations that the veteran has to his credit as
a superhero of dub. Now Alborosie is in
his PhD program, studying with the Specialist who has Shabba Ranks to his
credit, and whose formula for success has left clues, ones that the explorer
from the East has come to unearth and dust off, to conquer the rest reggae
world.
One of the key cultural
singles to blaze 2009, was "Kingdom of Zion." "If you a wicked
man cannot enter the kingdom of Zion,' seems easy enough to say, but unlike
those who flow with the same recycled rasta rhetoric, or worse, those who have
sold out for the bling, with hype topics, abandoning the class struggles that
birthed reggae, this one rings true. Alborosie chants, "For the kingdom of
Zion there is no VIP pass, no JLP, PNP tax, no subject, no class....and "Enter the kingdom, free up Jamdown,
come join this stardom, no killings no phantom." "
The American version of
the ESCAPE FROM BABYLON album has several combinations including one with David
Hinds of Steel Pulse on the classic "Steppin' Out" and a slack
and very slick dancehall song,"Blue Movie Boo" sung over
Shabba's "Bedroom Bully," a retouched riddim with a chorus that uses
the patois term for porn flicks. review by reggaeville.com
The idea of a milestone
album is pretty laughable if you'reMidnite. After all, with so many albums so
many miles have been covered that marking any temporary resting place as one of
special significance makes little sense.
But Beauty for Ashes is a
milestone of sorts for those involved. It's the first of a trio of long-players
helmed by Tippyof St Croix’s I Grade Records using rhythms by US/VI production
troika Zion I Kings - the follow-ups being byPressure and Lutan Fyah (both
featured here). Despite a decade old association with I Grade, it's also a
landmark in that it's Midnite’s most accessible effort since the up-tempo JA
style roots of 2011’s Andrew Bassie Campbell production Kings Bell.
As with Kings Bell Midnite
keyboardist and musical director Ron Benjamin is not producing the music and
singer/lyricist Vaughn Benjamin’s dense reasonings are laid over less languid,
more conventionally classic roots backings. Zion I Kings rhythms possess a
meditative depth that can be likened to the Roots Radics with a temperate,
distinctly non Jamaican feel. The horns and guitars evoke cool misty mornings
in ancient tropical lands – while the drum and the bass pitch and roll like
ships on choppy seas.
Midnite’s reputation for
prolific issuing of their recorded output is matched by the amount that stays unreleased.
Several tracks originally considered for the project have been culled in the
process of its making and the final ordering is as sure and flowing as can be.
A theme of Vaughn's
thinking is the interconnectedness of everything. And this is a central concept
of the record - both in using a network of collaborators and in the lyrics.
Songs like Same I Ah One (with Pressure) and Same Boat We stress importance of
losing our island mentality. Compassion for all races, especially women and
children figure strongly. Generation Again says of man and woman “Separate and
equal, are together an equal”. Other topics include technology (All I's On You)
and substance abuse (A Healing).
Vaughn’s voice is
insistent and haunting, ancient and yearning, as if calling to us from a dream.
He is often content to take the chorus in the collabs with Pressure, Lutan Fyah
and Ras Batch. Yet even when he has a song to himself he locks with the music
and chants his messages at an intense, measured pace. Every thesis, antithesis,
digression and dialectic is given sufficient room.
Where musically this might
not be as commercial as Kings Bell, it is the next step for people that don’t
“get”Midnite. Those that find the majority of their albums impenetrable may
have an easier time having heard Beauty For Ashes. For it is surely one of
Midnite’s most significant and faultless works – although its true substance is
hard to gauge until the Pressure and Lutan Fyah sequels follow.
