Sunday Swank/ Mulatu Astatke

Mulatu Astatke - Green Africa
Mulatu Steps Ahead
(March 30th, Strut Records)On Mulatu Astatke's first official solo release in over 20 years he explores new directions in the fusion of Western jazz with Ethiopian modes, building on the pioneering sound he developed during the ‘60s and ‘70s. The tracks were recorded with a variety of musicians - members of Either/Orchestra in Boston, traditional Ethiopian musicians in Addis Ababa, members of The Heliocentrics and some of the UK’s leading jazz and African players during the final sessions in London in November 2009. The record comes out March 30th on Strut.

Mulatu Astatke - Yegelle TezetaA Mulatu Astatke tune that gets sampled by Nas & Damien Marley on "As We Enter", a track from their album Distant Relatives which is out later this year.

Sunday Swank - A Jazzy Mix

Here is a nice little mix of jazz classics to soothe your Sunday and help you ease out of the weekend. It features tracks from Mile Davis, both solo & with Gil Evans, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto, The Bad Plus and Wynton Marsalis.

Sunday Swank

Miles Davis Quintet - Walkin'
Miles Davis - trumpet
Sonny Stitt - alto and tenor saxophones
Wynton Kelley - piano
Paul Chambers - bass
Jimmy Cobb - drums
I celebrated my 45th birthday last week, and one of my friends gave me this great recording of the Miles Davis Quintet from 1960. Recorded at the Olympia in Paris, it is notable for featuring Sonny Stitt on saxophones instead of long time band member John Coltrane. Miles wanted Wayne Shorter but he was unavailable, so Miles had to settle for Stitt. Their playing styles differed and there is notable stylistic tension in the music, with Miles pushing his modal style and Stitt bringing it back to the melody. Walkin' is straight up smokin'.

Sunday Swank + Hot Promo Action

THE SWANK
Solange - This BirdIf you didn't already know it, Solange is Beyonce's wacky little sister. While professionally she definitely benefits from that relationship she has chosen a different musical path from big sis. Instead of club bangers and blinging ballads she experiments with retro soul, from '60s Motown girl groups to '70s Marvin Gaye jams. There is also a collaboration with Thievery Corporation, one with The Neptunes, a couple of songs written by Cee-lo and a tune produced by Mark Ronson. The one that really got me? This Bird, which is built around a big chunk of Slow This Bird Down by Boards Of Canada (from 2005's The Campfire Headphase). Yes, that Boards Of Canada - the reclusive Scottish electronic duo. What sounds kind of wacky on paper works really well and the result is experimental, soulful,dreamy goodness.
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THE HOT PROMO ACTION

TIRK02
The world was a slightly different place in 2006, the last time Tirk put out a label comp (TIRK01). Obama had just become a Senator. Merchant bankers still had their snouts in their each others’ troughs, not the taxpayers pockets. Deamau5 didn’t exist and three times as many record shops did. Minimal still sounded vaguely edgy and interesting, disco was the preserve of thirty year old men with beards and Annie Mac was about to discover Dubstep…

Now we’re got Radio One jocks devoting half of their shows to Aeroplane mixes, and “edits” are in danger of becoming a genre itself. Just as record sales head ever closer to what must finally be the bottom of the sales curve, the spirit of disco finally rises again.

It’s here in Todd Terje chopping Chaz Jankel up into piano scream up heaven, or new Russian lads Acos Coolkas creating ice cool electronic house. Prins Thomas adds Scando swing to Sorcerer’s West Coast lounge tackle and Richard Sen goes disco-psyche on Brad Vachal. Kelpe takes Architeq’s glistening glitchtronica for a warm and fuzzy slo-mo bath, Hercules&LA gets tracky on another Jankel track and Forty Thieves add West Coast bump to Morten Sorensen's timeless Start Something. We’ve again been lucky to work with some of the worlds better artists over the last couple of years, and couldn’t be more happy to round em’ up and show them off as a 2XCD set - TIRK02 (out March 16th) - before striding off into what promises to be an, um, “challenging” 2009.
Morten Sorensen - Start Something
Monomusique - Fog's Light (Hedford Vachal Redux)
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The label is also running a little remix competition where you can d/l song parts and rearrange them. TIRK02 Remix Competition

Sunday Swank

A random sampling of what I've been listening to this fine Sunday - Ensemble Ambrosius is a Finnish ensemble which covers the music of Frank Zappa in a baroque stylee - oboe and harpsichord in full attack! Tosca are the duo of Rupert Huber & Richard Dorfmeister, and No Hassle is their 5th album, due out in April. It is less clubby and dubby sounding, a more ambient project combining submerged samples and live instrumentation. Their goal - "to achieve an hour where you feel hassle free." I think it worked... The Cinematic Orchestra have been making moody, jazzy cinematic music for several years now, and I am a big fan. Last year they recorded the score for a Disney nature documentary called The Crimson Wing - Mystery Of The Flamingos. The film makers were impressed by the band's last record Ma Fleur, and it's themes of birth and death - themes that are represented in the movie - and brought them on board. It is a good match.

Ensemble Ambrosius - Uncle Meat
The Zappa Album
2006

Tosca - Springer
No Hassle
2009

The Cinematic Orchestra - The Dance
Les Ailes Pourpres
2008