Picnic Playground
Bomba (Australia), Asheba (Trinidad), Johnny Bregar (USA), Jose Conde Y Ola Fresca (Cuba), Safari (Denmark), Donikkl (Germany), Maggie G (Canada), Kheswa (South Africa), Jay Mankita (USA), Franck Monnet, Pascal Parisot (France), Rhythm Child (USA)
PUTUMAYO | PUT293 | CD | 790248029320

Music, food and good times just seem to go together. Putumayo Kids celebrates the joys of eating with a brand new globe-trotting CD from their awardwinning children’s Playground series. Picnic Playground serves up a colourful basket full of tasty musical treats, a veritable feast of international songs from Australia, Cuba, Denmark, France and more. Ranging from bowls of cherries to milk and cookies, these fun, upbeat songs will help get kids moving and dancing to the rhythms. Watch the video: Johnny Bregar - ‘Shoo Fly Pie’

No Tan Distinta
Gabriela Torres (vocals, guitar), Lito Vitale, Juan Subira, Pepe Cespedes, Kevin Johansen
WORLD VILLAGE | WV498031 | CD | 8427592001215

One of Argentina’s most gifted singer-songwriters, Gabriela Torres offers a seductive blend of tango, Milonga and bossa nova spiced with River Plate rhythms. Gabriela’s spirited band complements her impassioned vocals with modern tango fl air: accordion fl ourishes, lively fl ute solos and subtle electronics. For fans of Astrud Gilberto. Listen to songs from No Tan Distinta (‘Not Too Distant’). Watch and hear Gabriela on YouTube.

Lus
Nancy Vieira (vocals)
WORLD VILLAGE | WV498033 | CD | 842759001253

Cape Verdean singer Nancy Vieira has music in her blood, having grown up immersed in the island nation’s rich traditions. With her homeland’s lively rhythms as inspiration, Nancy’s captivating sound reaches beyond the island borders to embrace samba, bossa nova and Peruvian Landon. Her collaborators include Rui Veloso, regarded as the founder of Portuguese rock. Watch and hear Nancy Vieira performing live on YouTube.

Una Tarra Ci He
A Filetta
DEDA | DEDA45410003 | CD | 3770001243016

This Corsican male choir sings in the traditional folk manner, with one hand cupped to an ear, and they huddle close together because the subtleties of their counterpoint require extreme sensitivity to the composite sound...Savour the extraordinary beauty with which they first state their themes bare and unadorned, and then proceed to ornament them.' -The Independent. On the acclaimed album Bracana, A Filetta sing unaccompanied, but Una Tarra Ci Hè finds their intimate vocal sound enriched by earthy instrumental accompaniment.

De Otro Color
Kaloomé
NAÏVE | WN145172 | CD | 3298491451754

Kaloomé rekindls the flames of a locally popular but relatively unknown tradition, that of Catalan rumba, which is perhaps less dramatic than Andalusian fl amenco but no less dynamic, and which has nevertheless had its stars including Péret, the Gypsy Kings and the legendary Pata Negra. Kaloomé’s musicians include six vocalists, a slew of guitars and violins, and – amazingly – a beatboxer! On De Otro Color, Catalan folk music traditions receive a fresh modern twist. Hear and watch on YouTube.

Sweden Between Triol and Sextondel
Various
RADIO FRANCE | C560225 | CD | 794881918324

Musicians from all over Sweden play the polska in triol (triplets) and sextondel (semiquavers): solos, duos, trios and a quintet, on instruments including the nickelharp, the cittra, harmonica, flute and guitar, in rich and varied Swedish traditional music where the violin still reigns supreme.

Herencia
Harold Lopez-Nussa (piano), Ruy Adrian Lopez-Nussa (drums), Felipe Cabrera (double bass, vocals), Omara Portuondo (vocals)
WORLD VILLAGE | WV479035 | CD | 794881933129

Herencia means ‘heritage’, and this album of Latin jazz draws on a rising star pianist’s roots in Cuba and France. 24-year-old Harold López-Nussa was born into a Cuban musical dynasty, the nephew of famous pianist Ernan López-Nussa and the son of drummer Ruy López-Nussa. Harold is best known for his breezy piano work as part of Omara Portuondo’s band, and indeed the lead female singer of Buena Vista Social Club appears on this album. Harold’s formidable technique earned him the Laureate prize of the prestigious Montreux Jazz Piano Competition in 2005, leading to this stylish debut that wanders carefree from the sultry clubs of Havana to the bright lights of NYC. Herencia also features an imaginative jazz cover of Eric Clapton’s ‘Tears in Heaven’! Ideal listening for fans of Chucho Valdes, Roberto Fonseca and Buena Vista Social Club.

Book One
New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Irvin Mayfield (artistic director)
WORLD VILLAGE | WV468079 | CD | 713746807924

The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra was founded in December 2002 by artistic director Irvin Mayfield, an award-winning trumpeter and composer officially appointed Cultural Ambassador for the City of New Orleans. Drawing from the rich musical and cultural traditions of ‘the birthplace of jazz’, where the group is based, New Orleans Jazz Orchestra moves effortlessly between blues, parade shuffles, gospel and ragtime. Old-school jazz at its best, for fans of The Dukes of Dixieland, Kid Ory and the Count Basie Orchestra. Watch the mini-documentary about Irvin Mayfield's spectacular 'Elysian' trumpet.

The Dark Tree
Horace Tapscott (piano), John Carter (clarinet), Cecil McBee (double bass), Andrew Cyrill (drums)
HATOLOGY | HATOLOGY2630 | CD2 | 752156063025

This was an important, revealing release when first issued in 1991. Now, with both Tapscott and John Carter having passed on, it takes on even more significance. On The Dark Tree they created music of power and drama, beauty and spirit. It's a shame we had to wait so long to hear it, and now we should treasure it.

The Long March
Max Roach (drums), Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone)
HATOLOGY | HATOLOGY2640 | CD2 | 752156064022

Two significant jazz artists of different generations share a creative impetus of social and political concern, find a common ground of sound, and improvise a music of conscience and consequence that transcends time and place and comments on the human condition - an eternal struggle between intolerance and love. The song (and its message) remains the same.

Demon Chaser
Gerry Hemingway Quintet
HATOLOGY | HATOLOGY673 | CD | 752156067320

With Demon Chaser, percussionist Gerry Hemingway has written himself into the history of this great music with a script that fulfils both the requirements of complete contemporaneousness and absolute legibility. He has signed his name in the Big Book -Brian Morton, October 1993.

Star Eyes 1983
Lee Konitz (alto saxophone), Martial Solal (piano)
HATOLOGY | HATOLOGY668 | CD | 752156066828

In their duo, Solal's gift to Konitz is a liberation from inherent restrictions. This in turn inspires Konitz to follow his own lyrical impulses to the extreme - listen to how often he stretches his line to the breaking point. This is improvisation that goes far beyond merely altered chords or variations on a theme. Each performance walks an invisible tightrope of harmonic and rhythmic agreement - all the more treacherous for being completely spontaneous.

Ain't Necessarily So
Andy Bey (vocals, piano), Peter Washington (bass), Kenny Washington (drums), Vito Lesczak (drums)
PLUS LOIN | PL4509 | CD | 826596045092

This live album was recorded a decade ago at Birdland, in what was effectively Andy Bey’s first significant New York residency as a leader. Bey’s set draws from familiar standards, but in a cunningly subversive way he manages to tinker with even the most familiar material, literally unstitching it until it slides down from the bandstand, where it will then wrap its tender tendrils around both the audience or the armchair listener. Choices that include “All The Things You Are," “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” and the title track don’t end up sounding tiresomely routine, but take on a freshness that is now increasingly difficult to maintain. Bey is blessed with a commanding voice that can easily swoop from a falsetto down to a vibrato-ed thundering, taking his phrasing from gospel, blues and soul, then projecting it as if from a theatrical stage, or even a pulpit. The piano is used as an extension of this technique, underlining, answering or repeating his vocal lines. -All About Jazz

Bruno Coulais - Retrospective
Feat. Nick Cave, Isaac Hayes, A Filetta, Various Artists
NAÏVE | K1643 | CD2 | 3298490016435

Bruno Coulais is best known internationally for his sensational score to Tim Burton’s latest blockbuster Coraline, and music for the touching, Oscarnominated fi lm Les Choristes (‘The Choir’). Since the mid-1980s, Coulais has been one of the most innovative and distinctive voices in French cinema. He sees his art as a way of embracing the world, his own classical style blended with different cultures as diverse as Tibetan choirs, Egyptian percussionists and Corsican chant. His soft, dreamlike gestures are based on distorted lullabies, children’s voices and music boxes, making for a richly textured cinematic sound.

R.A.F.I
Asian Dub Foundation
NAÏVE | NV816911 | CD | 3298498169119

Asian Dub Foundation’s distinctive sound is a combination of raga-jungle rhythms, indo-dub bass lines, and searing sitar, inspired by the record collections of the group members’ parents and shot through with fast-chat conscious lyrics. Considered one of Britain’s most exciting and eclectic live bands, these political dub rockers sound like Massive Attack meets Rage Against The Machine. R.A.F.I and other titles have been re-issued at a special price to celebrate the release of Asian Dub Foundation's new album, Punkara,featuring Iggy Pop. Watch ADF's new video clip here.