Various Artists - Bar Bubbles - 2009 - Holophon

If you love nu Jazz as much as I do then this is one hell of a compilation. This German compilation really cuts the mustard, lifting numerous modern jazz cuts from Europe and the US and bundles them all together for our pure listening enjoyment. In both soul and jazz music the Europeans are washing the floor with their US counterparts and how better to exemplify this than with the BRILLIANT opening cut by the Bahama Soul Club featuring the wonderful pat Appleton on vocals? "Late Night Bossa" is a fantastic outing in a Schema / Far Out kind of style with vocals akin to Koop's featured Japanese vocalist Yukimi Nagano. Worth the price of admittance alone, I would say. This is not the case though as there is so much more to sink out jazzy teeth into! Musically the WK Collective's "All The Time" is right on the money - the rap leaves me a bit cold but the soulful, funky edge is so so tasty. One of my fave US jazz singers right now is Brenda Boykin...her endearing, deep and sonorous style is perfectly pitched on the KILLER "Far Far Away" by Tape Five. This is real jazz - let's sweep aside this boring lift music called smooth jazz and get back to the real stuff. And...here it jolly well is!

Italy's Brother Groove add a straight jazz feel with plenty of double bass and sax, and if you adore the lively and hip coolness of Nicola Conté and the High Five Quintet then you will so easily find a place in your heart for this. Check out the sax! Wynton Marsalis eat your heart out!!! A familiar name to you from these pages will be Glam Sam and his Combo - the excellent bouncing gait of "The Concept Of Being Hip" should get you moving in the right direction - straight ahead! What seriously gets me moving is Una Mas Trio featuring Malaika. This is a hard Bossa groove with strong Latin and Afro Cuban elements. AND...you may recall Malaika from her 1993 album "Sugar Time" on A+M records! The Lady sounds glorious on here and well suited to such an exotic groove. The Italo-Jazz sound of Now hits with a real vengeance on "Turtleneck" by Afternoons In Stereo. My goodness, this is what jazz is to me! Oh this song is pure heaven. plenty of fresh, vibrant instruments and a rollicking good Latin rhythm to boot! In fact, there is little or nothing on here that fails to impress me. If you love this new - yet excitingly familiar - jazzy Bossa bop straight ahead and then some (!) scene then look no further than this compilation courtesy of Djane Lady Smiles from good old Vienna. ESSENTIAL.

Barry Towler
The Vibe Scribe

Various Artists - Dont Stop: Recording Tap - 2009 - Numero Group Records

This is a collection of songs recorded between 1980 and 1982, bar two cuts from 1971 and this for me was a magical time for soul music. This material is all new to me, and I have to say it's always a nice surprise to stumble across material such as this. Must have been hidden away somewhere in New York for all these years! The flavour is very live, Go-Go in places and early rap styles pop up now and again with artists such as Fabulous 3 MCs and Missy Missy Dee. OK, this does sound dated BUT the music is real - think The Younger Generation's "We Rap More Mellow" - and the rap is more in tune with traditional rap and not the limp, yet unpleasant style of Y2K. Alongside these kinds of cuts we have the caliber of Jackie Stoudemire with her woefully short stomper, "Invisible Wind" featuring an irresistible groove, claps and darting strings. This Lady reminds me a whimsy of UK enchantress Jaki Graham and THAT is a Lady I wish we heard more from! Arnie Love attempts this track, and although very good, does not beat the aforementioned version from Jackie Stoudemire. Arnie Love makes more than a few appearances here - four in fact - and his second inclusion is the wonderful uptempo "We've Had Enough" - check out the lyrics and think of all those lovely expenses being bantered around by our wonderful MPs. Yes, I think this could be a new UK anthem!!!

Jackie Stoudemire really knocks the stuffing out of me with the KILLER "Guilty". One of THOSE early 80s grooves that really gets the juices flowing. This music could easily be spinning around on the Capitol label, it is that classy and worth the price of the CD for this song alone!!! Think Dramatics or Donna washington...Tavares...that sort of awesome flavour! Her SUPERB "Run Away Hide From Love" is equally as impressive and reminds me of the sort of chunky groove we would expect to hear on, say, a Ronn Matlock album, or Clifford Coulter. Excellent. Arnie Love and his Lovettes give us another stomper in the form of "Stop And Make Up Your Mind" and is more disco-orientated than their other inclusions - a bit more dated too - but definitely better than most of what passes as R&B today! The final two cuts from Bonnie Freeman are real gems. A strong vocalist and almost in the Patrice Holloway bag. This sort of material sounds as good today as it did in 1971, and artists like Raphael Saadiq and Anthoney Wright certainly are aware of this. The first is a ballad of excellent proportions, the second a superb Whitfield / Strong / Bristol kind of song. This is a well worthwhile CD and one for lovers of 80s AND 70s soul!

Barry Towler
The Vibe Scribe