Cubic Zirconia - Black & Blue

Nostalgia 77 - The Sleepwalking Society (2011)

Nostalgia 77’s long-awaited fourth studio album, ‘The Sleepwalking Society’, featuring the vocals of German singer Josa Peit, is out on 21st March 2011 on Tru Thoughts.

5 tracks from the forthcoming Nostalgia 77 album

BOOK: Bossa Nova Cover Art by Soul Jazz

This is the first ever collection of bossa nova record cover artwork, featuring stunning modernist and revolutionary designs that reflect the radical and exciting idealism of Brazil at the start of the 1960s.

Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) bring you this amazing new deluxe hardback 12" x 12" book, 200 pages, 100s of stunning absolutely killer Bossa Nova sleeves from Brazil plus loads of historical, cultural and social text as well as biographies on loads of the artists!

As Brazil developed into an urban society, with ‘apartment living’ and consumer goods, bossa nova projected an image that was modern, sophisticated and cool. Bossa Nova music arrived in Brazil at the end of the 1950s with an optimism and modernism that parralleled the arrival of the new Brazilian president, Juscelino Kubitschek, who promised 'fifty years of progress in five' in his election campaign and announced the building of a new capital city, Brasilia, deep in the heartland of Brazil. The city was designed by Oscar Niemeyer, a man who had just designed a new musical theatre production in Rio of a play written by Vinicius de Moraes and with music written by Antonio Carlos Jobim. These two, along with the singer João Gilberto were about to make Bossa Nova, the first modernist Brazilian art form, the most succesful Brazilian export since coffee.

This book is a unique collection of the cover art of Brazilian bossa nova music, containing hundreds of record covers complete with a history of bossa nova, biographies and essays on many of the artists involved in the movement. The book follows on from our previous cover art book on Jazz called Freedom, Rhythm and Sound, also edited by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker.

To coincide with the book, there is also a separate double-CD album, 'Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s' also released on Soul Jazz Records.

Stuart Baker interview on Jungle Drums mag

4 more Bossa covers click the Guardian photo library here

Talib Kweli – Gutter Rainbows (2011)

Remaining one of the most proficient lyrical social commentators, Kweli’s lyrics evoke much emotion and genuine care, which makes every verse (in which he addresses issues) the more convincing. Whilst an abundance of past and present emcees have donned the conscious thinking cap, Kweli today still remains one of the best. It’s his skill to marry thoughtful stories with his gift with words, which creates epic records, such as ‘Tater Tots’ playing the role of an ex-soldier disillusioned with life after the army. Production is handled by an array of talented (and somewhat slept-on) beatmakers, yet they all manage to arrange some of the hardest, emotive and true to the vintage sounds of Hip Hop.
more here...

Quasimode - Magic Ensemble (2011)

Quasimode soar nicely on this great little set for Blue Note Japan - a record that draws on their many years in the club jazz scene, and finds a way to give their music even more focus than before! All the piano-driven grooves we've always loved are firmly in place - hard-rolling modal lines that step out boldly over acoustic bass and percussion - but this time around, the horns are even more prominent than before - some tight trumpet and tenor that both sound mighty nice, given some occasional string sweetening on a few cuts, but never in ways that dampen the highly rhythmic energy of the combo! Titles include album versions of "Whisky's High" and "Flyin To The Dark" - plus "Seven Colors", "Cosmic Eyes", "Lush Life", "Music Can Change The World", "Nahogoi Jumping", and "Ant Soldier".