Category: jazz
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fievel is glauque – flaming swords
We never entirely trust the ostensible positivity of Flaming Swords. It’s a disarming album of very smooth jazz, which it then cuts up into unpredictable, coltish motions. The septet have an infectious sense of play that – forgive the middle-class dad analysis – the French do very well. Fievel is Glauque succeed less in producing […]
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the wau wau collectif – mariage
The Wau Wau Colectif found each other when Karl Jonas Winqvist was stranded in Toubab Dialaw, an hour down the coast from Dakar. He encountered local musicians in a spirited artistic community and, when he returned to Sweden, traded Whatsapp notes until a debut was born. Mariage is their second record, pieced together without hiding […]
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gaelle – transient (2004)
Gaelle had a lot on her mind in 2004, or maybe it was one omnipresent thought. Either way, one hundred words might be too few to list the genres she brandished on her sole full-length release. Gaelle’s stunning house shines through padded kicks, nocturnal moods, and, later on, longing piano licks. The R&B and neo-soul […]
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billie holiday – all or nothing at all (1958)
“Why people tear the seam of anyone’s dream is over my head.” Billie Holiday’s life was shaken by clandestine, anti-jazz government officials who sought to disgrace the African American public image. The opening line on All or Nothing At All, sung acapella, creates the image of a single spotlight on her face—everything else silent and […]
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miquela e lei chapacans – miquela e lei chapacans
Found between Southern France and the Pyranees, this starburst of folk-funk compiles the work of a delightful progressive girl group from the late 70s and 80s. After her beloved self-titled debut in 1978, lead singer Miquela continued to promote the baroque Occitan language in which she sung. Here, as a unified force, her troop of […]
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