Jazz is the Teacher – Funk is the Preacher
Leeds UK has always had a great reputation for Jazz DJs and Leeds Jazz Club for the last five years (2017 to 2023) has showcased some of the best. Check out below a photographic record of the club in action. Best looked at with some classic Blue Note sounds playing on your turntable.
A landmark is an object or feature of a landscape or that is easily seen and recognized from a distance. Landmarks can enable you to establish your location. For me, landmarks can mean more than one thing. For instance, I have always associated music with place. When I first moved to Leeds in the UK, I went out looking for music and the landmarks for me were the clubs that played jazz, latin and soul. Club nights like the Cooker and Casa Latina where you could hear Curtis Mayfield segued into Pharaoh Sanders via Marcos Valle. Predominantly, those heavyweight nights were run by Leeds Dig collective. DJ Lubi Jovanovic, Gip Dammone, Chico Malo and DJ Ez. These nights were landmarks in Leeds musical heritage and made a huge impact on my musical consciousness. This mix is dedicated to them and hopefully gives a little flavour of those incredible times.
Leeds Cityscape by Lizzie Prestt
A bit like waiting for a bus, you are expecting a DJ2tee mix, then suddenly two come at once! Volume One features music for millennials or perhaps made by millennials. All the tracks are bang up to date with post-modernist vibe. It starts with a winning groove from beat scientist Makaya McCraven, son of jazz drummer Stephen McCraven (Sam Rivers, Archie Shepp) and Hungarian folk singer Agnes Zsigmondi. Justin “Justefan” Thomas features on vibes. The vibes continue with Mexico’s Incognito Traveller followed by master drummer Herlin Riley. Delta Saxophone Quartet create beauty – GTQ create funk. Mosaico get hip with some beat vocals – Larry Stabbins of Working Week fame, channels Coltrane. Beautiful vocals from Dionne Bennett complement Jason Rebello’s pianoistics. Florian Pellissier covers Harold McNair’s The Hipster, then we end with an excellent track from Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodríguez.
Volume Two features some old favourites and some new favourites. Generally, a more straight-ahead jazz feel to this mix, although we begin with a funky session from African Roots of Jazz featuring current hip cat Carlos Niño. Next up a couple of big bands, firstly trombonist Scott Reeves Orchestra, then the Swiss Jazz Orchestra featuring Mike Mainieri & Peter Erskine. Following that some modernism from Empirical’s new album “Connection”. Then we get into an elephantile vibe from sax player Derf Reklaw (The Pahrohs), possibly dedicated to the next artist Hannibal Lokumbe. Ian Shaw then vocalises sweetly on a cover of Traffic’s Low Spark of the High Heeled Boys followed by our finale an amazing track from Open Source Trio featuring Bulgarian pianist Momchil Atanasoff.
My new mix is a tribute to Roy Ayers, one of my favourite musicians. Roy was born in 1940 and hails from South-Central Los Angeles. Roy started recording as a bebop sideman in 1962 and rose to prominence when he joined jazz flutist Herbie Mann in 1966. In the early Seventies Roy formed the band Ubiquity and became one of jazz-funk’s leading proponents. My musical choices on some of the many tracks Roy wrote or played on as a sideman. I have avoided the usual favourites, but I couldn’t resist Everybody Loves the Sunshine! At seventy-five Roy is still going strong and I can personally vouch that his live act is stunning. A true giant!
As 2015 comes to a close it’s time to post DJ2tee’s Top Twenty Albums of the year. Naturally musical taste is a purely subjective thing. So if you are looking for a selection of popular albums, better stop reading now. There is no Adele or Justin Bieber or Coldplay. Not knocking those “celebrities”, just not in my musical bag!
Hopefully, you will appreciate the music I have chosen which generally has a jazz flavour, but includes other genres. And, if you are not familiar with the artists, please check them out. Remember, this is no definitive list, I could have chosen a completely different selection, but these are some of my favourites.
I have chosen not to make comment on the individual albums, it’s best to let the music do the talking! Lastly, the albums are listed in no particular order, they are all amazing in their own way. If you want some more information on the artist, just click on the cover picture.
1. Stretch Music – Christian Scott
2. Choose Your Weapon – Hiatus Kaiyoti
3. The Epic – Kamasi Washington
4. Into Forever – Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra
5. Offerings – Chrenee Wade
6. The Light Years Of The Darkness – Emanative
7. The Bronx Pyramid – Carlos Henriquez
8. Search For Peace – Heads of State
9. To Pimp a Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar
10. Heartbreak Pass – Giant Sand
11. Starfire – Jagga Jazzist
12. Muriel – Sean Khan
13. Lest We Forget What We Came Here to Do – Sons of Kemet
14. The Sorcerers – The Sorcerers
15. Invocations – Nat Birchall
16. Lucky Man – Alfonso Diedda
17. III – Bixiga 70
18. Ancient Mechanisms – LV
19. Debi – Sangoma Everett Trio
20. Same As You – Polar Bear
The “cosmos” is the universe regarded as an orderly system; the opposite of chaos. The philosopher Pythagoras was probably the first to use the term cosmos to describe the order of the universe, but the term was not fully embraced until the 19th century Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer and polymath, Alexander von Humboldt, resurrected it for to his study, “Kosmos”, and influenced the modern (perhaps erroneous) perception of the universe as one interacting entity.
Sometimes it’s hard to accept that there is any unity to the world we live in. Chaos, emptiness, void, chasm, abyss seems to be the defining feature of our current age. The Germans have a word Chaoskampf which roughly translated means the struggle against chaos. In myth and legend, often a hero figure is depicted as battling against the the chaos monster, a creature that takes many forms, often that of a dragon.
All this preamble, is just a way for me to suggest that in some ways music represents a struggle against chaos. Music generally imposes an order on chaos. The violinist Yehudi Menuhin puts it this way:
“Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.”
Although, many of these concepts tend to be quasi-religious I embrace them in a metaphorical sense. Music is my fight against chaos! For this reason alone I called my latest compilation of music on Mixcloud: “Cosmos”. My tiny struggle to impose meaning on a world that of late seems to have become dark and chaotic.
Marshall McLuhan famously said: “The medium is the message.” Well let me tell you the medium is jazz! This Mixcloud selection is deliberately populist, featuring some of my favourite sixties funky jazz classics. Starts quiet, then gets loud. So watch that volume knob! Oh! and any hip-hop aficionados get kudos for saying who used “Bring Down the Birds” as a sample? Not that hard really! Anyway, tap your feet, clap your hands and get down on that thing!
Just published my new novel BROKEN and in a blatant piece of self promotion I have posted the mix below. The novel take place in Yorkshire in 1979 and concerns a series of unexplained deaths. Here’s the publishers blurb:
When university lecturer Morris Lane’s grandfather is found brutally murdered in his home, there appears no motive for the killing. But before long, Morris uncovers a secret that will ultimately threaten his life. As Morris digs deeper into the riddle, each revelation reveals another piece to the puzzle. Caught in a spiral of self-pity, Morris’ life starts to unravel as he loses himself in a vortex of sex and alcohol. Who will save Morris from himself? Will it be beautiful student Skye Laroche or police detective Dobrilla Koudelka? As he lurches from crisis to crisis, Morris realises that his world has become BROKEN. His only chance of redemption seems to lay in solving the mystery of his grandfather’s death. But, will collecting the pieces of the puzzle help reclaim his soul, or will it leave him reeling at the hands of an obscure enemy.
You can find it on UK amazon here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=tony+todd+broken
It is on all other Amazon outlets worldwide.
The mix itself features tracks that came out in 1979, mostly jazz-funk. If you don’t read book, just enjoy the mix.
Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937) has always been controversial. Part of the black nationalism movement in the sixties, his anger and defiance manifested themselves in such compositions “Malcolm, Malcolm—Semper Malcolm,” from his breakthrough 1965 Impulse! release Fire Music. He blew sax using an aggressive, grating sound, that nevertheless paid homage to the past. Shepp became the jazz world’s Malcolm X. His controversial statements about race relations and justice only added to this perception. This mix begins by showing Shepp’s more funky melodic side, before delving into his more “difficult” music. Give a listen to one of jazz music’s true innovators.
Jazz funk seems to divide opinion, a bit like Marmite, you either love it or hate it. Maybe that’s an extreme view to be honest, like any form of music, there are tracks that really kick it and others that are lightweight. When jazz funk first came on the scene in the 1970s many hard-line jazz heads saw it as a dilution of contemporary jazz. But, jazz has always reflected popular music, from Coltrane covering “My Favourite Things” to Miles cutting a Cyndi Lauper track. Some purists have selective memories. Dance has always been an important element of jazz, right from its conception. So while elitist jazz critics were sat in front of their expensive hi-fi units listening to fifties be-bop, we were dancing to Herbie Hancock, Donald Byrd, Hubert Laws, Lonnie Liston Smith, Paulinho Da Costa, Roy Ayres, Ronnie Laws, the Crusaders, Bob James, George Duke, Willie Bobo, Charles Earland, et al.
I took a little nostalgic trip recently through the golden period of the late seventies early eighties jazz funk. I wish I could say I was there dancing at Wigan Pier or Legend in Manchester during that period. I was actually studying in Hull, out on a limb on the Humber, watching Fatboy Slim kick a football around Queens Gardens and Roland Gift jog past my window. Romeo and Juliet’s wasn’t exactly a world class jazz funk venue. So as now, I made do with homemade C90s of jazz dance classics. Imaging my tiny bedsit was a grimy disco, I danced around the wardrobe, of course the alcohol helped. Around that time I started DJing, my first engagement was a gay disco at the famous Wellington Club (famous in Hull anyway). Can’t remember what I played, but I do remember being called “too butch”. Is that an insult? Not sure really, but it didn’t put me off, thirty years later and I’m still rocking the disco, albeit a virtual one.
Anyway I digress, what I mean to say is I took a nostalgic trip through some old favourites on Mixlr. Two hours of jazz dance classics. If you would like to join me on a dance orientated excursion just follow the link: http://mixlr.com/dj2tee/showreel/dj2tees-jazz-funk-weekender/ Alternatively, if you feel jazz funk is not worthy of your time, bung a fifties Miles platter on the turntable, settle down in your armchair and fire up your pipe. But you could do both, I know I do. Now where did I put my slippers?
Tracklist
Paulinho da Costa – Love Till The End Of Time
Bob James – Sign Of The Times
Ronnie Foster – Argentina
P. Magadini – Samba De Rollins
Billy Frazier and Friends – Billy Who? (Long Version)
Hubert Laws – Family
Benny Golson -The New Killer Joe
Lesette Wilson – Caveman Boogie
Mass Production – Shante
Willie Bobo – Always There
Ronnie Laws – Young Child
Deodato – Night Cruiser
Eddie Russ – Zaius
Francine McGee – Delirium
Mongo Santamaria – Sambita
Hiroshima – Lion Dance
Hiroshi Fukumura – Hunt Up Wind
Al Hudson and the Soul Partners – Spread Love
Roy Haynes – Vistalite
Eddie Henderson – Prance On
Light of the World – Pete’s Crusade (12″ Version)
Candido – Jingo
The Blackbyrds – Rock Creek Park
Locksmith – Blackjack
Chico Hamilton – Strut
Chick Corea / Return to Forever – 500 Miles High
Rodney Franklin – The Groove
Atmosfear – Dancing in Outer Space
John Tropea – To Touch You Again
The Starship Orchestra – The Genie
Lonnie Liston Smith – Space Princess
Charles Earland – Let the Music Play
Sea Level – Fifty-Four
Cedar Walton – Latin America
Kat Mandu – The Break
D Train – You’re The One For Me
Gilberto Gil – Palco
Dennis Coffey – Wings of Fire
Once again apologies for nicking a picture. This time from Mark ‘Snowboy’ Cotgrove’s seminal ‘From Jazz Funk to Fusion & Acid Jazz: The History Of The UK Jazz Dance Scene’ . You might want to check that out: http://chaserpublications-ukjazzdance.blogspot.com/
Weird Jazz Collective 