SOUL CYCLE - Mosaic (2009)

Funky brilliance from Soul Cycle, a group with a killer classic blend of Jazz and Soul, one that takes us back to some of our favorite moments of the Bay Area scene of the 70s!! The group's got a few contemporary touches, such as the odd turntable scratch from DJ King James, but most of the instrumentation is live, and Jazz-based, played on Fender Rhodes, organ, saxes, bass, and drums, inflected in really unique ways by a string quartet on a few of the album's tracks. There's a depth here that goes way past the group's initial album, and although the vocals are great, we're especially in love with the instrumentation!!

Tracklisting:

1. Lagos
2. Club Groove
3. Sunset Park
4. Blue In Green feat. Rogiérs
5. Enoki
6. Above The Clouds
7. Simply Beautiful feat. Rogiérs
8. Streets Of Gold
9. Sun Stream

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SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA - Rising Sun (2010)

An amazing set from this band that never fails to excite us, and a record that has them really living up to the spiritual promise of their name!! Although still filled with the Afro Funky lines that first got the group some notice, there's also a deeper vibe running through this record too, one that has links to 70s righteous Jazz, and a wider range of African expressions too, including bits of Ethiopian and Egyptian elements as well!! The instrumentation is great, really complex and interesting, with bits of vibes, reeds, and a range of percussion instruments that really keep things fresh, plus some beautiful piano lines that create an almost Build An Ark sense of peace and promise!!

Tracklisting:

1. Awakening
2. Agbara
3. Negus Negast
4. Lotus Flower
5. Mamaya
6. Serenity
7. Consecration
8. Rejoice, Pt. 1
9. Rejoice, Pt. 2

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DJ CAM - DJ Cam Presents InLove - Stories (2009) / Diggin (2009)

A special DVAN double feature from DJ Cam!! DJ Cam Presents InLove is a turn into both laidback Soul, jazzier numbers, and uptempo cuts from DJ Cam and singer InLove!! The set rolling from a sweet homage to Minnie Ripperton, to solid beat backed funky Soul, to piano & bass steeped jazzier numbers, with Paris based singer InLove's lovely vocals over the top. She's been a nice, laidback female blue eyed Soul foil for DJ Cam in the past, and this easygoing full length lives up to the promise first put down on the Soulshine album!! Diggin brings a batch of jazzy Soul sounds from DJ Cam with himself as DJ, InLove and players working some magic with Soul Jazz classics by Bobby Hutcherson, Roy Ayers, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd and more, all laidback, soulful and jazzy!!

Presents InLove: Stories (With InLove) (2009) - Tracklisting:

1. I Want You
2. For Minnie Riperton
3. Sweetest Pain
4. Talk To Me
5. Winter In New York
6. Rain
7. Fight
8. Rock With You
9. Look Of Love
10. Real



Diggin (With DJ Cam Quartet) (2009) - Tracklisting:

1. Nebulosa
2. Montara
3. Everybody Loves The Sunshine feat. Inlove
4. Boss Guitar
5. Think Twice
6. Little Sunflower feat. Inlove (Tribute To Freddie)
7. Quincy
8. Mystic View
9. Climax feat. Fillet Of Soul
10. You've Got To Have Freedom feat. Inlove
11. Inside My Love (For Minnie)

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ROBERT GLASPER - Double Booked (2009)

Great work from Robert Glasper, one of our favorite new artists on Blue Note in years, a hell of a great piano player, with a fluid groove that just gets better and better with each new record!! Glasper has a way of warming us up right away, sliding into a compelling piano line that holds us rapt, and really takes us on a journey, a bit like the best work of Bheki Mseleku back in the 90´s, but with an undercurrent of funkier NY modes too!! Half the record features Robert in trio format, playing both acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes, and the rest of the set moves into "experiment" tracks that bring in Casey Benjamin on saxes, plus some electric bass, and very funky drums from Chris Dave, who also plays on the trio numbers. Mos Def makes a vocal appearance on one track, and Bilal appears on two more, but our favorite grooves are always from Glasper's keyboards, especially his acoustic piano!!

Tracklisting:

The Robert Glasper Trio
1. Intro
2. No Worries
3. Yes I'm Country (And That's Ok)
4. Downtime
5. 59 South
6. Think Of One

The Robert Glasper Experiment
7. 4eva
8. Butterfly
9. Festival
10. For You
11. All Matter
12. Open Mind

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STEFON HARRIS & BLACKOUT - Urbanus (2009)

Don't let the cover put you off, as the album's got all the Deep Soul and subtle touches we've come to love in the music of Stefon Harris over the years!! There's just a slight Urban undercurrent to the record, and if anything, the inventive rhythms and shifting instrumentation reminds us a lot of Harris' best albums for Blue Note over the past decade or so, a really creative reworking of the sound of vibes in Jazz music, inspired strongly by the best artists on the instrument of the 70´s, but tuned here with a newly modern edge. Marc Cary's on most tracks, playing both Fender Rhodes and acoustic piano, and Casey Benjamin plays alto sax on a number of tunes, although a few have a larger horn section joining in. Great!!

Tracklisting:

1. Gone
2. Christina
3. Tanktified
4. Shake It For Me
5. Minor March
6. They Won't Go (When I Go)
7. The Afterthought
8. For You
9. Blues For Denial
10. Langston's Lullaby

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WILLIAM KURK – The Sound Vol. 3 (2009)

A diverse mix of styles from William Kurk, soulful, jazzy and unpredictable from one tune to the next!! William's channel's 70´s Stevie Wonder here, as he's done on previous sounds, but he draws from deeper well of influences, too, and applies his own unique approach. The record starts out with kind of a Baroque Soul sound that segues nicely to spaced out jazzy Soul on the next track, mixing in some organic grooves and programmed beats. Co-produced by Anthony Nicholson, it's an uncompromising mix of mellow jams and cosmic flourishes!!

Tracklisting:

1. Evolution Of Man
2. K-Ville feat. Corey Wilkes
3. Kendi
4. Vanity Fair feat. Buddy Fambro
5. I Miss U Bad
6. Carousel
7. Day Of Honor feat. Marqueal Jordan & Khari Parker
8. Another Day feat. Bob Mintz & Will Kennedy
9. Satellite Dreamer
10. Khallib feat. Benny Reid

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THE HI-FLY ORCHESTRA - Mambo Atomico (2008)

The grooviest work so far from The Hi-Fly Orchestra, a set that moves even farther past the sublime territory of their debut, into a really classic blend of Soul Jazz and Latin rhythms, produced to perfection with a wonderfully solid feel!! Instrumentation here is all live, a blend of sax, flute, trombone, Fender Rhodes, piano, and plenty of percussion, all handled with a feel that takes us back to some of our favorite territory on Verve Records from the 60´s, those wonderful records that blended elements from the Latin underground with some of the harder Jazz leanings of the period, a legacy these guys are happy to add to with their wonderful grooves!!

Tracklisting:

1. Carioquinha
2. Polonesa
3. Crosstown Traffic
4. Mrs.Shing-A-Ling
5. Hi-Fly Stomp
6. Mambo Atomico
7. Afro-Boo
8. Chove Chuva feat. Miriam Aida
9. Gettin' Down
10. The New B!
11. Sp Samba

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THE PERCEPTIONS - Introducing The Perceptions (2008)

A Deep Funk supergroup, one that features Snowboy on congas, alongside members of The Sound Stylistics, Speedometer, and James Taylor Quartet!! The groove's as classic as you might expect from such a resume, a sound that starts in 60´s Soul Jazz, and moves up to funky 70´s moments, almost sitting perfectly in that great era when Prestige and Blue Note were changing up their groove at the start of the decade!! Instrumentation features Grant Green-like guitar, Jack McDuff-ish Hammond, and nicely cooking tenor, alto, and flute, all used in different combinations throughout the set!!

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Tracklisting:

1. Right The Wrong
2. Inside Outside
3. Nickys Knack
4. Rolling And Tumbling
5. Fathead
6. Running The Risk
7. Loopy Doopy
8. Hurricane Warning

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