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LP
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FRB 015LP
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In July 1983, the Hebrew Israelite vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Margeeah Aharon recorded her debut album Looking For Love with the Kingdom Sounds community band at P.C. Studios in Tel Aviv, Israel. Fittingly -- given the meaning of her Hebrew name, soothing, calm and tranquil -- it's a questing melange of devotional jazz, soul, funk and reggae. More than just that, Looking For Love is an album full of yearning and reflective songs of spirit, heart and inner solace. Margeeah was born and raised in the American capital of Washington D.C. She grew up in a Baptist family with Hebrew cultural underpinnings. She was accepted into the Howard University School of Fine Arts as a music major in classical voice and a minor in English. During her Howard years, Margeeah's musical and spiritual horizons began to evolve, by way of a love of Doug and Jean Carn, Keith Jarrett, Roberta Flack, and Donny Hathaway and stretch out towards the infinite. "Throughout my upbringing and training in classical music, my soul and spirit were on a journey," she explains. "I began to become aware of social dynamics, racism, injustice, homelessness, poverty and disparity. I started to study the isms -- Socialism, Communism, Buddhism. I was searching." Forty years after it was released as a private press LP, Looking For Love's central themes and music remain timeless and eternal.
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LP
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FRB 017LP
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The music of Green Cosmos makes listeners realize that their never-ending quest for love can find fulfillment. You take a long, slow breath and feel the magic of transcendent wisdom. It's like looking up from your room to the brightly lit windows of the home of your neighbors. Might someone be standing there, watching? Listen to Abendmusiken and imagine what life would be like if you were one again with God's original ideas. Green Cosmos enchant listeners with their blend of jazz, the sound of heartbeats, emotional outburst, and folk-music. There is not one note too many, and everything gets to the heart of the matter. A saxophone that sails ahead on a world-map of sound, driven by the beat of Kalimba and drums, sometimes fraternizing with a bass that's now insistent and then shy, and closely listens to a reassuringly omniscient piano until the music merges into a unit that's greater than its parts. It's no exaggeration to say that this band has created something new and unique, and that the excellence of the moment got captured in this recording. This, quite simply, is beautiful and exciting music that steers us through the night. And if you are standing by a window seeing someone looking at you from their window -- give them a wave!
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LP
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FRB 020LP
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Søren Skov Orbit's debut album, Adrift, is at once subtle and profound. The saxophonist and his collaborators have created something quite special and consistently deep. This record may not easily be classifiable, but the most interesting music creeps between the lines. Danish tenor and soprano saxophonist Søren Skov (Debre Damo Dining Orchestra) and keyboardist Peder Vind co-founded the trippy quintet Søren Skov Orbit in 2016 to explore "more jazzy ideas," as the saxophonist puts it. Joined by a rhythm section steeped in contemporary improvisation and psychedelia, bassist Casper Nyvang Rask, drummer Rune Lohse and percussionist Ayi Solomon of the legendary '80s Ghanaian roots/highlife band Classique Vibes, the Orbit belts out a richly focused helping of broadly African-inspired modern jazz with a hazy sheen. As a tenor player, Skov has done his homework and has a kinship with Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, J.R. Monterose, and the Dutchman Hans Dulfer, but he clearly has got his own robust phraseology and expressiveness. He also cites multi-reedists John Gilmore, Yusef Lateef, and Bilal Abdurahman as, "some of the players I've been listening to the most for the last 10-15 years." A healthy dose of reverb is present throughout the album, echoing Alton Abraham's studio wizardry with the Sun Ra Arkestra or the trance-inducing and compressed fidelity of certain Ethio-jazz and Mystic Revelations of Rastafari sessions. Skov notes that, "everything is recorded live at the same time in the same room. I wanted to do it that way in order to catch the dynamics and authenticity of the music." There is, in fact, a complex teetertotter between crisp and hazy execution, achieved by a delicately balanced mix that keeps the group's sound simultaneously advancing and receding. Vind's phrasing is terse and introspective, a vibrating echo that nudges and reflects on Skov's brusque tenor in a dance of sonic displacement. The coupling of Solomon and Lohse is a big part of the group's detailed energy; as the leader puts it, "Ayi knows everything about regional differences in drum patterns. He is always listening and super responsive, and his and Rune's dynamics are amazing." The music both presents a "vibe" and keeps the door open for engaging well under the surface as repeated listens will be extremely rewarding. RIYL: Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Fela Kuti, Nat Birchall, Nubya Garcia.
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