ADRIAN YOUNGE レコード& 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: This is a posthumous album by the Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, one of the pioneers of Afrobeat music and a longtime collaborator with the genre's founder, and activist, Fela Kuti. The album features Allen's last recordings before his death in 2020 - which were in turn produced by the American composer, lawyer and producer Adrian Younge, otherwise known for his most prominent work with rappers Ghostface Killah, Kendrick Lamar and Jay Z. Guided by Younge's chops on production, the album hears Allen's trademark stark, cacophonous funky-drummed rapture, amid a heavenly collision of keyboard janks and offbeat shoulder-raising shrugs.

Review: This is a posthumous tribute album to the late Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, who was one of the pioneers of Afrobeat music and a longtime collaborator of Fela Kuti. The album features Allen's drumming mixed with new compositions by the American producer Adrian Younge, who is known for his work with artists like Ghostface Killah, Kendrick Lamar and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. The pronouncement that "jazz is dead" is certainly a controversial one, but Younge's aim there is to equate Allen with the spirit of jazz as a whole. The jubilant warpery and tremolo-ing flutes of lead tracks like 'Ebun' should be enough to know: like the impenetrable durability of jazz, Allen will live on through his work.

Review: LA's Jazz Is Dead series is brilliant and always has been. The aim is to put younger and older jazz artists in the same studio and get them to work on music that tapes into both respective backgrounds, talents and perspectives. Adrian Younge is at the heart of it all and this 17th installment brings together cosmic jazz specialists Lonnie Liston Smith with Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Magic happens across a bunch of stylish new cuts that bring traditional and contemporary sounds together in innovative new ways. This is yet another crucial installment.

Review: LA's Jazz Is Dead series is a treasure trove of gold for lovers of jazz and hip-hop and all the many things that connect those two special genres. It brings totters the old and the new, the established and the emerging on music that never fail to make its mark whether paying tribute the likes of legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen or cult 70s Detroit labels like Tribe, as it has done in the past. For this one we get Instrumentals that seek to capture the musical alchemy produced at the Linear Labs Studio by producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.

Review: oli review