Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru
Jerusalem

ELECTRIC JALABAEl Hal The FeelingStrutElectric Jalaba comprises six accomplished musicians with an empathy that feels telepathic and a groove that immerses. In Arabic, the mother tongue of Moroccan-born singer and guimbri player Simo Lagnawi, a leading practitioner of Gnawa music in Britain, they call this indefinable quality, “El Hal” – “The feeling”. “It’s the feeling that comes when we’re playing and totally forgetting where we are,” says producer and bassist Olly Keen. “The feeling of being grabbed by the music and lost in the groove.”El Hal is the new third album from Electric Jalaba and their first release in five years. It’s a multi-faceted work that finds the band tighter than ever, deploying a vast cache of influences across nine tracks improvised and developed in their south London studio then deftly produced by Keen. Some tracks pay homage to the origins of Gnawa music, whose repertoire of Arabic-language praise songs contains remnants of West African dialects – Bambara from Mali, Fulani and Hausa from the Sahel region – that point to a centuries-old migration.

Modern jazz from Greece ! Leandros Pasias - PianoVangelis Vrachnos - Double BassGeorge Klountzos Chrysidis - DrumsJames Wylie - Alto SaxophoneNicolas Masson - Tenor Saxophone

CLASSIC LP, featuring the Brazil boogie slammer, Estrelar, here in a wonderful repress. TIP!

Shawn Lee's country-soul solo album Rides Again in 2019 was a fascinating one that picked up, rightly, plenty of plaudits. Now he returns with follow up long player Rides Yet again on Germany's Legere Recordings. He is in a more personal and reflective mode than before with an intriguing set of songs. US born but London based he is a prolific singer, songwriter, musician, producer, arranger, filmmaker and author so this album has a strong narrative arc running all throughout it. Soulful but with hints of Americana, it's a unique proposition.

The trio hail from Modena, the Northern Italian motor city. As with the Ferrari and Maserati cars that are designed and manufactured in Modena, Strata-Gemma produce a music of beautiful symmetry.Strata-Gemma create jazz for the head, the heart and the body. Their sound is shaped by the ambient adventures Miles Davis and Ron Carter engaged in alongside the electronic pulse Mo' Wax and Ninja Tune carved out of clubland. Add to this a touch of Nino Rota's Fellini film scores, employ a pinch of Balkan and klezmer brass arrangements, and you have an instrumental trio who create music so fresh it stimulates the senses.Strata-Gemma are a collaboration between Billy Bogus, Luca Cacciatore and Andrea Moretti. The trio first took shape as a club jam between DJs and musicians. Their ability to create atmospheric music, pulsing with rhythm but never solely reliant on beats, music that breaks free and explores sonic possibilities, quickly won notice and lead to the trio playing their freeform music in clubs, music venues and festivals across Italy.