Originally released in the mid-’80s, this intriguing funk-laced album finds the iconic pocket trumpeter navigating through the sonic landscapes that some of his jazz leftist contemporaries such as Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, Joe Bowie’s Defunkt and Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society (and Herbie Hancock’ collaborations with Bill Frisell) trafficked.
Compiled by globetrotting DJ, record collector, and label-owner Samy Ben Redjeb, Vol 2 is a 10-year-in-the-making follow up to African Screaming Vol 1, which concentrated on music from Benin and Togo. Benin get sole spotlight this time around as the country’s vandou religion functioning as its thematic binder.
Guadaloupean producer Henri Debs's influence on music from the Lesser Antilles spans four decades. A compilation made by Hugo Mendez and Emile Omar, divided into three volumes, the first of which (1960-1972) has just been released goes over this musical history which also features also Casimir Létang, Guy Conquette and Ry-Co Jazz.
Kyriakos Sfetsas’s discography is a maze of chamber music, piano solos, electronic music, works for ballet and theater, film scores, and jazz and folk records.
The Brazilian multi-instrumentalist, who made a connection between Nordeste traditions and Miles Davis in the 1970s, just added four volumes to an already massive discography. His oeuvre is as iconoclastic as it is sophisticated, and at age 82, he is touring with it again.
