Spirituals on Vinyl
The darkest chapters of a people’s history sometimes evince the size of their spirit. More so when the chapters are recorded not in prose but in verse and song. The spirituals accrued by slaves in bondage acquire this deep significance and have become an essential cultural artefact in American musical history. Considered one of the...
Hugh Masekela – Masekela
South African musician Hugh Masekela has been releasing albums of conscientious music since 1962. Of the many socio-political albums he’s released it is his 1968 album simply entitled Masekela that is the most powerful. It is a timeless proclamation about the constant struggles that face most resistance movements. iCrates took a closer look at the messages...
Sing It Loud: Jazz and Protest in the Music of Nina Simone & Billie Holiday
Nina Simone and Billie Holiday are two of the greats. Matriarchs in a long line of enlightened performers. They are remembered for the fire in their bellies as much as the warmth in their hearts, and embody the ability female jazz singers’ have to deliver clarity on the social issues peculiar to the black female...
John & Alice Coltrane – Cosmic Music
John Coltrane (1926-1967) needs little introduction, a revolutionary figure of the avant-garde jazz scene and a damn good saxophonist. The man has been heralded far and wide but the titles of two of his records, Cosmic Music and Interstellar Space, suggest he already had his head above the clouds. In the 1950s, John Coltrane fell...
Thundercat – The Golden Age of the Apocalypse
Just when you thought the Brainfeeder camp was becoming the benchmark for what many a blogger likes to refer to as “Glitch Hop” and “Wonky”, the label headed by Steven Ellison (better known as Flying Lotus) took a couple of unforeseen left turns and released a string of albums that presented the powerhouse label in...
Grover Washington, Jr. – Live At The Bijou
I still remember when I heard this totally great Grover Washington, Jr. record for the first time. And even with many years behind me, these fantastic early Kudu sessions still strike me like a natural force! Live At The Bijou was recorded in May 1977 at the Bijou Cafe in Philadelphia with such giants like...
Duke Ellington – Ellington at Newport 1956 (Complete)
There is one performance from the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956 that overshadows the rest, making the cream of the bop crop sound, literally, overblown. New England’s annual sit down affair has produced many recordings that have secured their shelf space, but the reissue of Duke’s is a compulsory purchase. Towards midnight on the last...
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Festive Floorshakers: On the Search for the Finest Christmas Cuts
As far as music is concerned, christmas knows no boundaries. But, scratch beneath the surface and you begin find a festive sub-culture that may just get you through December in one piece. So, cast your skepticism aside, grab yourself an eggnog, and enjoy a tasty serving of the finest, funniest and most obscure christmas cuts...
Mary Lou Williams – Black Christ Of The Andes
One of the most overlooked pianists and composers of the modern jazz era, Mary Lou Williams recorded Black Christ of the Andes an astonishing forty years after taking her first tentative steps on the jazz scene aged fifteen with Duke Ellington’s Washingtonians. Hers was a career which spanned the history of modern jazz, touching base...
Billie Holiday – The Commodore Recordings
There are two remedies for days that feel achy and devoid of color or for moments spent fantasizing about different time zones, distant continents, and paid vacations. One, walk into your room, shut the door, dim the lights and pour a drink. Two, put on an LP by Lady Day. The First Lady of Jazz...
Django Reinhardt and The Quintet Of The Hot Club Of France – Swing From Paris
It is not often that one man comes to define an entire musical genre, let alone one as significant, influential and toe-tappingly buoyant as to cement itself into the musical consciousness of future generations. Known as Hot Jazz, Gypsy Swing, Gypsy Jazz or Jazz Manouche, Jean-Baptiste ‘Django’ Reinhardt brought together chromatic Romani rhythms with a...
MC Serch Return of the product
Imagine storytelling long before the term storytelling was even born; imagine the first white rapper (along the Beastie boys) who shook his ass and spoke his mouth when Hip Hop was in its prime and mainly the channel of the black Ghetto voice. Welcome to the world of MC Serch, the most respected white...
