The Stance Brothers are brothers Isiah (vibes/keys) and Dwayne Stance (bass/guitar) plus drummer/percussionist Byron Breaks. Produced by Teppo ‘Teddy Rok’ Makynen (Teddy Rok Seven/The Five Corners Quintet/Nuspirit Helsinki), ‘Kind Soul’ is the trio’s debut album and features a fine selection of funky jazz cuts. ‘Steve McQueen’, ‘Jay’s Lament’ and ‘Roll Call’ from the singles are included but better in my opinion are the string laced boogie flavoured ‘Bright Moments’, the conga driven ‘Upside The Head’ and the cosmic Roy Ayers influenced ‘Mean Spirit’.

Andy Allen

Spoonface’s velvet tonsils have graced numerous productions over the past few years from house and broken-beat to R&B. His debut album follows a slightly different path though, focusing largely on acoustic folk orientated material. Of which ‘We Don’t Need To’, with its’ Spanish guitar flurries works particularly well but also check the mellow digital soul cut ‘It’s All Love’.

Andy Allen

Percussionist Francisco Mora Catlett follows up his superb ‘River Drum’ album (Premier Cru 2005) with the equally impressive ‘Outer Zone’. As with ‘River Drum’ this set combines deep/avant-garde jazz with elements of Latin. It kicks off with the spaced-out intro ‘Space Chord’, a theme he returns to throughout the album, before moving into masterpieces such as the fierce ‘Saints Of Congo Square’, ‘PaLos Mayores’, a tough fusion excursion and the mellower ‘La Lu Banche’. Releases on Premier Cru are not always easy to come by but do some digging and your efforts will be greatly rewarded!

Andy Allen

Rob Gallagher (Earl Zinger/Galliano), Dillip Harris (Demus) and the crew are back with their third album as Two Banks Of Four. As with previous releases ‘Junkyard Gods’ fuses deep jazz sensibilities with modern production techniques to create a twisted yet beautiful soundscape. Valerie Etienne is on hand to provide her gorgeous vocal tones on delights such as ‘Queen Of Crows’, the spiritual ‘Shadowlands’ and the waltz ‘Dead Afternoon’. With other strong moments including ‘Go’ and ‘Flags & Words’ this makes for an unmissable and innovative album.

Andy Allen

Following her recent guest appearance on Quasimode’s ‘The Land Of Freedom’ the great jazz vocalist Carmen Lundy is back with her ninth album to date. ‘Come Home’ is a stunning collection of, other than a version of ‘Nature Boy’, original compositions and features players of the caliber of Geri Allen on keys, percussionist Mayra Casales and of course her brother Curtis Lundy on bass. From the opening magical moments of ‘Lost In San Rafael’ Ms Lundy takes you on a journey of emotions with dancers such as ‘Gossip’, the uplifting title track and funky Fender Rhodes workouts on ‘Lil’ Lu’ through to brooding numbers such as ‘My Wedding Vow’. A new Carmen Lundy release is always something to behold and ‘Come Home’ is certainly no different!

Andy Allen

Macedonian native and New York resident, Vladimir Cedkar is a guitarist, vocalist, composer, arranger and producer whose debut studio album ‘We Will Never End’ is pure class. He cites George Benson and Earth Wind & Fire amongst his influences and it shines through the up-tempo feel-good grooves ‘All For You’, ‘Born For The Screen’ plus the string laced jazz-funk cuts ‘The Open Space’ and the title track. How this guy hasn’t been picked up by a major label I’ll never know! 

Andy Allen

After wetting our appetite with the brilliant single ‘Honey’ Erykah Badu’s much anticipated 4th studio album is finally here. Ms Badu’s music has always been innovative and on ‘New Amerykah’ she pushes the neo soul boundaries further with the help of The Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Madlib, 9th Wonder (Little Brother) and James Poyser on production duties. The set opens with ‘Amerykahn Promise’ which is essentially Erykah’s remix/replay of Ramp’s ‘The American Promise’ and ends with ‘Honey’, included here as a bonus track. In between we’re treated to killer tracks such as ‘Soldier’ and ‘Master Teacher’, two low slung bumpers, the Roy Ayers influenced ‘The Cell’, ‘Me’, a dreamy cut with subtle trumpet undercurrents from Roy Hargrove and the gorgeous ‘Telephone’. ‘New Amerykah Pt.2’ is due later this year!

Andy Allen

To pinpoint the essence of any musical genre is always difficult and in the case of nu jazz it’s pointless even trying when Jazzanova have done it so well on this compilation. ‘Neu Jazz’ includes some of the best tracks of recent times from some of the scene’s leading players such as Dalindeo’s ‘Solifer Lento’, ‘Wind’ from Sleep Walker featuring Yukimi Nagano, Soulstance’s ‘Lead The Way’, ‘Carrousel’ by Hipnosis and ‘Last Nine Days’ from Quasimode. There’s also some tasty exclusives in the shape of ‘Queen Of Crows’ from the forthcoming Two Banks Of Four album and Jazzanova’s own ‘That Night’ featuring Bembe Segue, which is a new version of a track they originally recorded with Vikter Duplaix and later with Clara Hill on their Belle Et Fou project. Plus there’s ‘Simple Timeless’ by Fertile Ground which I was unfamiliar with but is apparently from a Chico Hamilton tribute compilation.

Andy Allen

Natalie Gardiner returns with the follow up to her 2004 self-titled debut set. Overall ‘California’ is a more accomplished album and features eleven down-tempo soul tracks which showcase Natalie’s smoky vocals to great effect. The acoustic ‘Bittersweet’, ‘Summer Rain’ and the jazzy ‘Let’s Not Worry About Tomorrow’ work particularly well and are beautiful in their simplicity.

Andy Allen

‘Homenaje’ is the debut album from the Austin, Texas based eight piece band Brownout. Their sound is most definitely rooted in funk but with plenty of Latin and Afro-beat influences thrown in for good measure. The majority of the tracks here are aimed directly at the dance-floor but my personal favourites are the mellower cuts particularly the string laced psychedelic soul of ‘Brown Wind And Fire’.

Andy Allen