Chici Mann is the new project by Antibalas’ guitarist, Marquitos Garcia. It’ll be of no surprise for people who have heard Antibalas to hear that Garcia has stayed with what he knows best- afrobeat- but has added more experimental sounds, with the use of a childhood Casio keyboard and 80’s drum beats. This might sound like a mish mash of ideas but it makes the whole project a little more interesting to listen to and it’s good to see people pushing this forward, rather than trying to copy the greats like Fela and Allen. Highlights for me have been “Soul Freedom” and “Who You Runnin’ From”. Simply Kindred Spirits never put a foot wrong.

Scarborough is not a town you’d usually associate with hip hop but Kista has been causing quite a stir with his DJ sets, graffiti work and productions. Just for starters you must check out his “Talk with God” which featured Tableek from the excellent Maspyke. The twelve tracks here are sourced by Kista and are an ace selection of laid back hip hop instrumentals by artists from all over Europe. Many of the names will be unknown to you but that shouldn’t detract you from the quality beats. The artist work has been created by Breakface who’s done illustrations for Lowdown and Wax Poetics magazines, which adds to the finishing touch.

Jazzman is one of my favourite re-issue labels and has been responsible for me spending hours trying to get more information on the artists that have been released on their collectable 7" and 12" series. The albums Gerald has put together over the years have always been well thought out with informative sleeve notes and saved us a fortune because some of the rarities featured are well out of my price bracket. Good Things: The Story Of Saadia Records continues with more quality selections and includes all the information you would want to know. Saadia was based in Miami in the 60s and released many rare, one-offs but the most important thing being that the music is top quality which shines through on tracks by Pearl Dowell, Robert Moore and Little Beaver.

Freddy Fresh is one busy man: He’s dj-ed all over the world, compiled what seems like hundreds of DJ mixes and compilations, runs several record labels and somehow also has time to get into the studio to produce a huge back catalogue. Stark Ravin’ is a new label set up by Freddy and to kick things off he’s brought in a gifted mc The Conductor Crucified for this new project. This first thing I noticed was that the productions were not what you’d usually expect from a so-called hip hop album. No jiggy business here, just simple quality beats with quality vocals and lyrics. You must lend your ears to the old skool sounding "Paradise O’ Bleeding" and "Heart Vs. Hardware". I hope this is just the start of something special from these guys.

Dego and Marc return after six years with another sure to be classic and sought after album. From the moment I pressed play I knew this was another album I will treasure for years to come. Proceedings kick off with the Rotary Connection style “Morning Child” with beautiful vocals from Carina Andersson, who sounds amazingly similar to Minnie Ripperton and, of course, featured on the cover of “Les Fleur”. The guests are, of course, top notch but I bet people were queueing up to work with the duo. They include Jody Watley, Talita Long, Larry Mizell, Face, Phonte, Bembe Segue & Kaidi Taitham to pick a few at random and all sound wonderful with the strings, drums and beautiful arrangements. Also watch out for the cover of “Superwomen” featuring Terry D: it’s up there with the best of their previous re-works. A little late for album of 2006 but it’ll be certainly up there in 2007, mark my words.

I’ve been playing this more & more over the past few weeks, a special priced double CD from one of India’s most popular contemporary singers. Classically trained but not afraid to collaborate or bring his excellent voice to other styles, he’s been the regular singer for A.R. Rahman and worked with John McClaughlin in the reformed Shakti. Also includes a video of his 1998 hit ‘Breathless’ Superb.

Well we would have included this one for the name alone but Ceilidh Minogue has deservedly developed over the last eight years to become one of Scotland’s most popular ceilidh bands. This is ceilidh with a new twist provided by Gregor Lowrey (accordion) Gavin Marwick (fiddle) Bob Turner (piano) and Al Morrow as the core of the band joined by Duncan Findlay (guitar) Roy Percy (bass) John Burgess (sax) Steven Hawkes (trumpet) and Angus Wares (guitar/mandolin). Really good.

Despite numerous releases I’ve got to admit to knowing little by French vocalist Isabelle Antena other than ‘Playback’ from her 1986 LP ‘En Cavale’, which was covered brilliantly by Yukihiro Fukutomi in more recent times. Her latest offering, ‘French Riviera’ sees her team up with some of Japan’s top producers such as the aforementioned Yukihiro Fukutomi, Tatsuo Sunaga (Sunaga T), Kazuma Fujimoto (Orange Pekoe) and Jazztronik. The result is a gorgeous bossa laced jazz set which includes the outstanding fusion dancer ‘Brazilian Dorian Dream’ produced by Kyoto Jazz Massive’.

John Kong, head honcho at Do Right further delves into the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s archives to bring us another fine selection of deep jazz grooves. Highlights include Nick Ayoub’s ‘Perception’ and Alvin Pall Sextet’s ‘Melancholy’, both exceptional modal pieces, The Montreal Black Community Youth Choir’s take on Roberta Flack’s ‘Tryin’ Times’ and the funky fusion outings ‘Hidden Strength’ and ‘Beloved Gift’ by Ted Moses Quintet and Bernie Senensky Trio respectively. Note there are 12 tracks on the CD but only 6 on the vinyl version. However the vinyl does feature 2 exclusives not found on the CD, Elizabeth Shepherd Trio’s ‘Soya’ and the firing dancer ‘Capricorn Dance’ again from Bernie Senensky Trio.

Although Robb Scott has been performing on the live circuit for years now, ‘Afro Odyssey’ is his first long player. He seamlessly blends cosmic-soul with Afrocentric-jazz and subtle broken-beat to create an album that is contemporary yet classic sounding at the same time. Consistently strong throughout, it’s difficult to select particular favourites but at a push I’d go for the single ‘Fallin’ and ‘Reflections’, featuring the legendary Ellen McIlwaine.

After teasing us with the Nostalgia 77 Remix of ‘Reversed’, Elizabeth Shepherd Trio now come with their impressive debut album. Contained within are some first rate vocal jazz performances from the opening title track, which pays tribute to some of the scene’s innovators, to the quirky ‘Price Is Right’ which concludes the set. In between there are moments of pure brilliance like the original version of ‘Reversed’, ‘Melon’, an up-tempo Latin jazz excursion and the immaculate ‘Circles’.