The very first jazz album was released 100 years ago: The Original Dixieland Jass Band with ‘Livery Stable Blues’. That’s why AB will be paying extra attention to jazz for a year. From contemporary classics to musical troublemakers who are inspired by jazz, to the latest incredibly headstrong jazz generation from local soil.

WHAT?
Avant-garde jazz was seen as an important form of protest for the first time after Max Roach’s song ‘All Africa’ that appeared on the album ‘We Insist!’ (1960). Zara McFarlane reworked the song and earlier this year it saw the light of day on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label, as run-up to her third album ‘Arise’.  The singer digs deeper into her Jamaican roots on this album: ‘It came out of the idea of black history and blackness and feeling like you’re trying to be yourself; trying to be proud of who you are. And never forgetting the things that brought you to where you are.’

For her third longplayer she was able to rely on top musicians in the London jazz scene: Binker Golding on tenor Sax, Peter Ewards on piano, Shirley Tetteh on guitar, Nathaniel Cross on trombone, an exclusive appearance by Shabaka Hutchings on clarinet, and the much-loved Moses Boyd on drums and as producer. The band radiates musical diversity, and you can hear it on ‘Arise’.

FOR FANS OF
Moses Boyd Exodus, Shabaka Hutchings, Abbey Lincoln,  Jill Scott, Nina Simone, … 

IN THE PRESS
‘The young British vocalist took to the stage with confidence in an imaginative set highlighting her skills from scat to folk.’ – **** The Guardian