ADRIAN YOUNGE Vinilo y CD

Review: Arriving sometime after the passing of legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen, and utilising some of the final recordings he made during his lifetime, the latest edition of Adrian Younge's Jazz Is Dead series is naturally tinged with melancholy. Yet Younge refuses to succumb to emotion, and instead uses Allen's impeccable grooves and polyrhythmic patterns as the basis of tracks that blend jazz, Afrobeat, Afro-funk and soul. There's a classic Fela Kuti feel to opener 'Ebun', where sax lines reminiscent of the Nigerian musical icon rise above a typically crunchy Allen groove, pots and pans percussion and ear-catching bass, while the flute-sporting 'Don't Believe The Dancers' adds a little more jazziness into its righteous blend of heavy Afrobeat horns, meandering solos and loose-limbed grooves. In other words, it's a spot-on tribute to a genuine musical legend.

Review: LA's Jazz Is Dead series has established itself as a go-to place for the best in new jazz. Its mission is to put younger and older jazz artists in the same studio and get them to collarbone on new music that rings out the best of both perspectives. This 14th instalment brings Andrian Younge together with Henry Franklin and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. The eight resulting tracks are busy arrangements with big horns and freeform drum patterns that all sound utterly alive and improvised in the spur of the moment. This is a great volume in a series full of them.

Review: The much loved and always essential Jazz Is Dead series hits instalment number eight here. The project was only conceived in 2020 by musicians and producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad and aims to work with jazz legends on new material. This time it is Gil-Scott Heron's famous partner Brain Jackson in the spotlight. There are plenty of languid grooves that float on airy drumming with acoustic piano and electric bass also weaved in. Afro-Cuban flavours colour closeR 'Ethiopian Sunshower,' which is the most sedate of the lot.

Review: The Jazz Is Dead series finds Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad calling on a cast of collaborators to go deep on an album's worth of contemporary jazz. Past projects have featured Jean Carn, Brian Jackson and Gary Bartz, and now it's the turn of breakout LA collective Katalyst. Katalyst operate as a communal endeavour in the tradition of Horace Tapscott's Pan-Afrikan People's Arkestra, with all members pooling their compositions and ideas and helping each other grow as artists. Between them, the various players have been linked to MNDSGN, Anderson .Paak and Kendrick Lamar to name but a few, so you should have some idea of the quality at work on this latest entry in the crucial series.

Review: On the latest instalment in their essential Jazz is Dead series, musical polymaths Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have joined forces with Katalyst, a Los Angeles-based collective of musicians whose work is inspired by their 1960s Californian predecessors Afrikan People's Arkestra and Union of God Musicians Ascension Association. What's an offer is undeniably impressive and, at genuinely life-affirming, with the assembled cast doing a superb job of joining the dots between spiritual jazz, soul-jazz, horizontal jazz-funk and deeper, more sun-kissed flavours. Highlights are plentiful and include, though are no way limited to, the breezy 'Juneteenth', the languid dancefloor shuffle and sustained electric piano motifs of 'The Avenues' and the morning-fresh wonder that is 'Daybreak'.

Review: A remarkable feat in the world of jazz 're-collaboration', LA's Jazz Is Dead series focuses on putting younger and older jazz artists in the same studio, producing compilation albums of new and original music made between these fresh faces and old golds. For the 11th instalment of the series, former A Tribe Called Quest member and label founder Ali Shaheed Muhammad links up with composer Adrian Younge for an executively-produced slew of collaborations, with the likes of Lonnie Liston Smith, Tony Allen, Jean Carne and Katalyst in tow. And judging from the album's slick and knife-edge musicianship, we'll happily assert that Muhammad and Younge are the DJ Khaleds of jazz, fostering collabs we never could have dreamt of.

Review: Adrian Younge's new album is undoubtedly his most powerful yet. He says it "dissects the chemistry behind blind racism, using music as the medium to restore dignity and self-worth to my people." It is an unapologetic critique of the current systems that suppress people of colour and the malevolent psychology that taps into that. Musically, this is a deeply soulful record with elaborate orchestration and some top level guests. Next to the album, Younge has also made a short film (TAN) and 4-part podcast (invisible Blackness) on the same subject that make for vital listening.