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Stand With Each Other – 19 yr old saxophonist and composer Nubiya Garcia released her debut album this past August. She’s been bubbling up on the London jazz scene for the past few years, winning awards and landing an opening slot on Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Music Festival in Southern France in 2017. This new record is really something. Super eclectic and lush and seamlessly blending a solid Jazz foundation with Reggae and R&B and even Cumbia. Don’t sleep.

90 Degrees – Nottingham singer Yazmin Lacey makes dope-ass, Jazzy R&B bangers with real live musicians that let her sublime Badu meets Ndegeocello voice shine through. No doubt yet another discovery I owe to Gilles Peterson, as she came up through his Brownswood Future Bubblers program. This came out in 2018 but all of her records are dope and you would be dope too if you bought them.

Uncomfortable – A perpetual buzz during the shutdown about this mysterious group called Sault compelled me to grab all of their records and see what all the hype was about. They released 4 albums in a span of 18 months, with no press, no interviews, no photos and no shows. The music is eclectic, often stripped-down, escaping any one specific gene pigeon hole, and nicely under-produced. To my ears, much of it almost sounds like we are hearing demos for some grand studio project. The lyrics are poignant, powerful, and vulnerable – addressing the current worldwide racial strife head-on, in a way pop music rarely dares to, these days. All of that said, not all of their tracks moves me to listen on repeat. Not a ton of bangers, tbh. But this joint grabbed me, and collectively, this crew, whoever they are, are really doing something unique that we should all be paying attention to.

Maybe you’re uncomfortable with the fact we’re waking up
How do you turn hate to love, how do you turn hate to love
Maybe you’re uncomfortable with the fact we’re waking up
Why do you keep shooting us, why do you keep shooting us
Oh the way that you judge me, this is madness
Oh, I’m praying, I’m hoping, believing, in God’s magic
Oh everyday is dangerous for me, internal sadness
Oh I’m praying, I’m hoping, believing in God’s magic

Last June – This is the opening track of Austin producer Jaron Marshall‘s 2020 EP “The Black Power Tape”, which you can check out HERE. Vocalist James Robinson, out of Memphis, doesn’t mince words about the reality of killing Black folks.

Now Ahmaud is gone
George is gone
Breonna is gone
They never coming back home
Let’s address the elephant in the room
How long should it take to prosecute?
You pick and choose clicks and views
But when you turn on the news they only singing the blues
And you wonder why we tearing all the monuments down?

When Jaron Marshall isn’t making next level Dilla type grooves, he’s playing keys in the Black Pumas, who are an incredible soul band that are equal parts Al Green and The Alabama Shakes, which this live video should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt.

How We Be – Born in London and raised in Ohio to Sudanese parents, Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab aka Sinkane creates seems to pull inspiration from every corner of the diaspora. This came out in 2014 and has been floating around own various hard drives looking for a home ever since. This is a prime example of how his music is refreshingly hard to nail down, drifting between rock and weird electronica and then switching into a bouncy verse that evokes Curtis Mayfield’s “Freddy’s Dead”.

Whatsaname – LA-based jazz collective Katalyst has been gigging in Englewood and beyond since 2014. They’re a group of producers, composers, musicians, and writers that have joined the ever-rising tide of Jazz futurists that has been swelling on the west coast for years. If I was a teenager and played an actual instrument I would run away from home and get my ass to LA as soon as possible because it’s like NYC in the 50s Be Bop era out there right now. This is a live recording of the same tune and it’s quite nice, wouldn’t you agree?

Light – This latest album from British singer/composer Michael Kiwanuka has gotten a ton of well-deserved hype, winning him the coveted UK Mercury Prize in 2019. Comparisons to Terry Callier and Bill Withers are inevitable, because he can really command a presence with just his voice and a guitar, and his talent for a very throwback analog sound doesn’t hurt either. This song gets deeper and deeper into your soul every time you listen.

Stratus (Reflex Revision) – Alongside Jeff Beck’s “Blow By Blow”, for my money, Billy Cobham’s “Spectrum” LP from 1973 is about as good as Jazz Fusion ever got. This song was always the standout, and I played it relentlessly at lounge and restaurant gigs in lower Manhattan when I was working that circuit for tequila money in the early 90s. The band includes Jan Hammer on synths, the James Gang’s Tommy Bolin on guitar, and Joe Farrell, who was a CTI records artist who played with erry damn body including Chick Corea’s Return To Forever. Sample spotters might know this tune from Massive Attack’s “Safe From Harm”  from their groundbreaking 1991 Blue Lines LP.

People of the Light – Chicago jazz drummer Makaya McCraven is to dope-ass drummers what Robert Grasper is to dope-ass pianists – that is to say, you can feel and hear their Hip Hop roots in every note. A quality that bonds me to them with each passing listen. When I discovered OMG he had also reworked the last album of one of my all-time heroes Gil Scot Heron. I was over the moon! If you’re a fan of either, get this record, and don’t miss his latest record, “Universal Beings E&F Sides”, a companion to his 2018 LP.

That Old Alarm – If the video for this Amerigo Gazaway & Xiomara track doesn’t sell you, the Black Moon sample damn sure should.

Reality – OK maybe it wasn’t a straight lift from Black Moon, but it was close enough. If you can karaoke this song, then you and I are fam.

10,000 Days – LA producer Kiefer studied jazz at UCLA under musician Kenny Burrell . Now he makes beats for Anderson Paak and released his second album “Superbloom” in Sept of 2019. If you need some instrumental joints to bounce to I recommend this LP .

Trouble Gonna Bring Me Down (Tall Black Guy remix) – My current  favorite producer/remixer Tall Black Guy put his signature stamp on this 2015 track from Essex UK 4-piece The Milk. He knows how to make a clap slap, you feel me?

Happy – this D’angelo meets Gospel number is the product of Richmond VA singer songwriter Rob Milton and DJ Harrison aka Son of the James. Came out in June of this year.

Property of Spitkicker.com – Somebody on Francois K’s World of Echoes page reminded me about this sleeper from De La Soul’s 2016 “And The Anonymous Nobody” LP. I recently heard ?uestlove do an entire show of De La and it’s easy to forget just how many joints they have produced and continue to produce over the last 32 years. Yes, 32. We old.

The Orbital – Baltimore beat junkie JSOUL released a 7-song EP in August and it’s full of dreamy moody beats that you should play during your commute from the bed to the couch and elsewhere.

Zane, The Scribe – Georgia Anne Muldrow aka Jyoti delivered a sweeping Astral Jazz / Afro Futurist LP this past August and it’s really a masterpiece. She plays every damn instrument except for sax and the whole thing is so next level and I cannot even figure out how to describe it. If you’re curious what the young folk are doing with all that Sun Ra magic, look no further than THIS SHIT.

Feel Like I Do – A groovy almost-but-not-quite throwaway track from Disclosure that samples and filters and chops Al Green in a surprisingly respectful way that I remain un-mad at.

Westchester Lady (EDIT) – I think I first heard this Bob James track sampled in Jazzy Jeff’s epic “Touch of Jazz” track in 1987 and it’s been stuck in my head ever since.

Kulun Mankwaleshi – New music from The Godfather of Ethiopian Jazz Mulatu Astatke & his Black Jesus Experience band. Wonderful. At 77 he is unstoppable. I only hope he can tour again so I can finally catch one of his sets.

Read Him – Some bouncy, broken, jump-up London bass from Turbojazz & EVM128. Came out last year. Bristol DJ EVM128 makes dope, forward-thinking beats and has how own label, Dance Regular. Check out more of his joints HERE

Sum Ol’ Nex’ Ish – A soft and thoroughly pleasant Jazzy house thing from Sheffield DJ & Producer Thatmanmonkz. A bit too dreamy for the club but absolutely perfect for a mix such as this.

Open The Gates – I finish this off with a lengthy 17 min Jazz workout by London sextet Maisha, who have been making noise across the pond for the last 4 o 5 years. They released an album with sax OG Gary Bartz in 2020, and this song is from a 2-song EP that came out last month.

That’s it for now. Hang tight for the DJ Julian Bevan Twitch stream coming to a twitch near you before Xmas. Bet.