Black Flower
Future Flora

Lake Minnetonka have crafted a slick contemporary Melbourne take on the Minneapolis Sound.

As the final chapter in the initial run of Jazz Is Dead releases, Remixes JID010 continues the creative catharsis of an exhilarating new chapter in jazz music. Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad tapped nine iconic creators to reimagine their personal favorites from Jazz Is Dead’s catalogue to-date, who created striking new versions of songs by Marcos Valle, Roy Ayers, Gary Bartz, Azymuth, João Donato, Doug Carn, Brian Jackson and The Midnight Hour. Holding the line taut like a bass string, Younge & Muhammad only invited those special musical alchemists who have previously participated in Jazz Is Dead happenings, or those who are slated to share that stage soon: Cut Chemist, DJ Spinna, Georgie Anne Muldrow, Akili, Shigeto, Pink Siiffu, Dibiase, Natureboy Flako, and Kaidi Tathum. It’s a family affair.The album blasts off with Kaidi Tathum’s reinvention of Marcos Valle’s wistful beachside stroll, transforming “Gotta Love Again” into a strutting, pulsating excursion equally at home in the club and headphones. Building off of Valle’s mellifluous vocalizations, Tathum harnesses the composition’s polyrhythms to build a soulful, jazz-house track that floats over ethereal synths and stutter-steps to a propulsive beat entirely unimaginable, yet true to the spirit of the optimistic and effortless original.On his remix of Gary Bartz’s “Soulsea” Cut Chemist taps into the big-beat atmospherics of his old running partner, DJ Shadow, to craft a moody, echo-laden, percussive down-tempo saxophone meditation. Creating drama over bombastic beats, Cut Chemist layers Bartz’s searching sax refrains over sparse keyboard bars. Brian Jackson’s mellow masterpiece dedicated to the recently departed jazz vocalist, “Nancy Wilson”, receives an epic overhaul by producer Shigeto with help from harpist Ahya Simone and DJ Dez Andres. More than tripling the original’s duration while adding layers of new sounds, Shigeto’s remix weaves in and out of movements that alternately showcase Jackson’s soulful flute work, Simone’s sparkling harp and Andres’ bubbling percussion. Imagine if Dorthy Ashby and Hermeto Pascoal dropped in on Miles’ In A Silent Way sessions...It might have been a foregone conclusion that Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad would give their Jazz Is Dead series the remix treatment, but that doesn’t mean this is your average remix album. Just like Younge and Muhammad fused their aesthetic with the musical masters they invited to collaborate with for Jazz Is Dead, the DJs, producers and musicians tasked with remixing songs from the catalogue tapped into the same jazz ethos, resulting in imaginative and sometimes radically reimagined versions of the originals.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk's live club appearances were usually a very engaging, casual affair, full of good humour and with a fantastically large selection of different types of music. The double album "Bright Moments" is an almost authoritative document of what you could experience in a concert by Kirk, and also his best album from the seventies.The extroverted Kirk was in front of audience in his element, constantly narrating, explaining his concepts and singing anecdotes from the history of jazz. Even if some of his long introductions, spoken in jive rhythm, may sound a bit outdated these days, you can tell from the music that Kirk greedily absorbed the energy in the room. Most of the pieces are long (seven minutes and more) and demonstrate Kirk's rich variety of solos in different styles (and of course with different instruments)."Pedal Up" is a performance - in which the air stays away - of Kirk's never copied technique to play three wind instruments at the same time, including a lot of unaccompanied passages that sound simply unfeasible. Another of Kirk's essential madness can be heard on "Fly Town Nose Blues", which features much of an instrument called a nose flute; and on the title track, Kirk offers a generous portion of another specialty of his: singing a second voice using a (traditional) flute. His repertoire typically draws from various sources: Ellington's "Prelude To A Kiss"; a groovy pop song by Bacharach: "You'll Never Get To Heaven"; a delightful version of Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz"; and a stomping, jubilant New Orleans style original, "Dem Red Beans and Rice".But perhaps best of all is a passionate interpretation of the well-known ballad "If I Loved You", in which Kirk's crude, almost choked tones coming from within indirectly point to the avant-garde without ever losing the melodic basis. "Bright Moments" conjures up all the great tricks from Kirk's box of tricks, offers a pretty microcosm of his talents and shows a perfect and knowledgeable stage artist. In short, it's nothing less than a tour de force.Recording: 1973 live at Keystone Korner, San Francisco, by Biff Davies, Ed Barton & Jack Crymes