New, Newer, Newest: A Tale Of Two Cities

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It would be foolish to think that Kendrick Lamar & Friends’ free jazz album To Pimp A Butterfly (2015), as brilliant as it is, was the sole ingredient that reinvigorated the growing buzz around contemporary jazz.

It’s been buzzing for a long time, particularly in Chicago and London where the transatlantic ties are strong. So here are three recent additions to New Sounds Radio that tell a musical tale of two cities.  

Black Skin, Black Masks — Shabaka Hutchings

Our friend Shabaka Hutchings is a reed-playing chameleon (with nimble fingers instead of clamps), who wears multiple hats and is involved in an endless array of creative projects. I once saw him described as a “true metamusician of the new millennium”.

I prefer the mental image of a chameleon playing the saxophone tbh.

Earlier this year a compilation album called We Out Here was released for which Shabaka was the musical director. The point of the album was to feature the best talent from the London contemporary jazz scene, not that genre means much to these musicians, it’s more about capturing the movement’s raw, focused energy.

On Shabaka’s own contribution to the album, 'Black Skin, Black Masks', you’ll hear him double up on clarinet and bass clarinet and deliver a harmonic conversation that shifts between dissonance and unison over the muddy piano and bass line and the signature driving, tricksy drumming that seems to accompany him wherever he goes.

Suite Haus (feat. Nubya Garcia) — Makaya McCraven

The Chicago x London vibe is so juicy at the moment, festivals are taking place and records are being released that feature some of the most prominent and seminal artists to emerge from the thriving jazz scenes in Chicago and London.

Chicago-based Drummer Makaya McCraven and Londoner and saxophonist Nubya Garcia are two of those musicians and they come together on 'Suite Haus', a new track from McCraven’s soon-to-be-released album Universal Beings.

McCraven is both experimental and scientific in developing his ‘organic beat music’, which focuses on the formulaic sampling of free jazz and hip hop rhythms, sections, and riffs. In contrast, Nubya isn't about special effects or whizzing up and down the instrument, she is all about being one with the beat and the flow, to almost quote my yoga instructor.

“The intro section was just Nubya playing a melody. We were setting up a groove, an African kind of vibe with this triple kind of feel and rim-shots, which give it a woody, organic sound,” McCraven told AFROPUNK.

May this beautiful transatlantic relationship live on <3

The Lost Pearl (Hector Plimmer remix) — Yazz Ahmed

Like a lot of the vibrant jazz coming out of London, there’s a lot of sugar and spice and all things nice being thrown into the recipe. In the case of Bahrain-born trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, the influence of Middle Eastern rhythms and Arabic music have found their way into the spice mix.

Ahmed has been passionate about exploring her Bahraini roots and has brought back musical fragments from the island nation such as songs of Bahraini pearl divers and women drumming groups to apply to the British jazz traditions of the 1950s and 60s. The result is a beautiful cross-pollination of global sounds.

But this particular version 'The Lost Pearl' has had another treatment. It comes from a remix EP of Ahmed’s 2017 album La Saboteuse and has been reworked by London DJ Hector Plummer. He’s broken it up and put it back together with the trumpet in the background and focuses on the beat, which seems to constantly shift between acoustic and electronic textures.