Phil Ranelin
The Time Is Now!

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 Even if some of his long introductions, spoken in jive rhythm, may sound a bit outdated these days, you can tell from the music that Kirk greedily absorbed the energy in the room.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

With a voice that has stopped critics in their tracks, Lady Blackbird is a revelatory new talent with music that transcends the jazz scene through which the LA-based artist is rooted. Reflecting influences as varied as Billie Holiday, Gladys Knight, Tina Turner and Chaka Khan, with critics drawing comparisons to Adele, Amy and Celeste, Lady Blackbird’s distinct and beguiling talent is not one to be missed.Honouring the great's has come as a musical process to Lady Blackbird, having recorded her highly anticipated debut album Black Acid Soul in legendary Studio B (Prince’s room) in Sunset Sound, produced by Grammy-nominated Chris Seefried.Minimal yet rich, classic yet timely, the album connects backwards to Miles Davis (his pianist, Deron Johnson, plays Steinway Baby Grand, Mellotron and Casio Synth throughout) and forwards to Pete Tong (he made the Bruise mix of ‘Collage’ his Number Two Essential Selection tune of 2020) and, yes, Victoria Beckham – Matthew Herbert’s remix of second single ‘Beware The Stranger’ soundtracked the designer’s Spring/Summer 2020 Fashion show.

2020 and 2021 were tough - this music was made as a balm for me and can hopefully be one in some way for you too.-Barney McAll

The Real ShooBeeDoo (AKA Reggie Fields) has always been a consistent name on the Detroit jazz scene … Fields who played with Pharoah Sanders while he was living in Motor City, worked with Sun Ra in the late 1970s and early 80s and who was also a close associate of the Afro-centric TRIBE label and artist collective, leaving his marks on a few essential TRIBE sessions such as Phil Ranelin’s “The Time Is Now!” as well as Ranelin & Wendell Harrison’s masterpiece “A Message From The Tribe”. It was Wendell Harrison who gave Fields the chance to record a solo album as a leader on his own WENHA imprint where “Reminiscing” found release in 1981. Reggie chose to record under his moniker “The Real ShooBeeDoo” because he built a rock-solid reputation as an internationally acclaimed performer under that name. This can later be heard on his fantastic ‘‘Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, 1982” album. “Reminiscing” is a deep and rewarding spiritual jazz album with bass lines that can blow through walls as if they were made from paper. Foot stomping rhythmic beats and lyrics that are pure poetry, far-out (and less obvious) vocal duties … this all takes the avant-garde approach featured here on his album to new ‘cosmic’ heights. ‘Originality’, ‘unique’ and ‘standing out’ are the main key-words here. Also…a quick closer look at the cast of players is most likely to be enough to get an impression that this is a special record. The album features an all-star line-up that includes Billy McCoy (Pharoah Sanders) on piano, Tani Tabbal (Roscoe Mitchell, Sun Ra) on percussion, Allan Barnes (Nina Simone, Bootsy Collins, Gill Scott-Heron) on saxophone, and Wendell Harrison (Tribe) himself on tenor saxophone/vocals.