If you receive BBC2 make sure to watch the Soul Deep series which starts today 7 May, 8.25pm. More infos can be found on bbc.co.uk.
[via music from my loft]

This referrer sounds more like the title of a dissertation to me:
advantages and disadvantages of remix of songs and musical works to the society in india
Well, er, the society in India is certainly affected massively by remixes of songs in other parts of the world…if you think of the chaos theory and the butterfly effect then it will certainly have an effect on the conditions in India if someone does a mediocre remix of a cheap euro-trash-dance-ditty in, um, Europe. If you consider Haeckel and his postulate that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny it’s quite obvious that it’s just too late on a Friday night or too early on a Saturday morning and I should go to bed before the society in India will suffer once more from my writing.
And here’s a lullaby you can sing to yourself:

[On A Wing And A Prayer from the album Hummingbirds by Emma Hutchionson, listen to it here or on cdbaby.com]

If you like the raw funky experience of Shayna Steele’s debut album but missed some additional info on her website, then here’s your chance to learn more about Shayna with this interview with jazz-not-jazz.

Q: Please tell me something about yourself and your musical background. Which musicians were and are influential for you?

Shayna Steele: I was born into an Air Force family and lived in several places, Ramstein being my favorite. I lived there for 7 years and it was the time of my life. I then moved to Biloxi, Mississippi with 2 sisters and parents. As far as musical influences, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson were probably my favorites.

Q: How would you describe your music to someone who haven’t heard of Shayna Steele before?

Shayna Steele: Chaka Khan meets Jill Scott meets Stevie Wonder meets Aretha Franklin.

>>>continue

Watch jazz-not-jazz for a review of Release The Day, a jazz album by Barney McAll, coming soon. Meanwhile you can hear sound snippets on cdbaby (and order the album there as well) and you will find more info on barneymcall.com.

Down To The Bone will soon release their new album Spread Love Like Wildfire, on June 21st to be exact. More infos can be found on the band’s website. Stuart Wade also talks about his inspiration behind DTTB’s sixth album here. Fans of N’Dambi will be glad to hear that she’s featured on the song Angel Baby.
Watch jazz-not-jazz for a review and an interview with Stuart Wade coming soon.

Also released these days together with the other goodies from Defected (Danny Krivit In The House triple CD, Blaze feat. Barbara Tucker and Bobby Blanco And Miki Moto) is the third volume of Africanism mixed by Bob Sinclair with sixteen songs giving us the summer afro-zouk-house feeling. Please find more infos at defected.com

This has a catalogue number as Defected’s 103th release. Actually not the same musical class like the 100th release with Blaze’s Most Precious Love. But if you look at this record what it’s supposed to be and that is just plain feel good uptempo house, then you can say mission accomplished. Black Sugar is a driving four-to-the-floor instrumental house track with a very nice saxophone performance. For me this works best in its original version. Warren Clarke adds a filtered vibe to his remix, while Fuzzy Hair unfortunatly drop the saxophone and deliver some quirky beats with disco elements.

Tracklisting of Black Sugar: 1. Original Mix/ 2. Warren Clarke Remix/ 3. Fuzzy Hair’s 3am Mix | released 2005 by Defected Records

For more infos visit defected.com.

[If you want to discuss Bobby Blanco’s & Miki Moto’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

Which record could be better suited to celebrate a label’s 100th release than a song by Blaze? After six years in the business Most Precious Love is Defected’s 100th release. Licensed from King Street Record the original version can be found on the Underground Dance Artists United For Life album. Here we get the full remix treatment by Dennis Ferrer, Sam Holt and Gavin Face Mills (Copyright), Franck Roger and Martin Solveig. While the DF Future 3000 Mix, the Copyright Spiritual Club Mix and Martin Solveig’s Re-Edit spice up the groove to widen its dancefloor appeal and you’ll certainly hear these versions most often the next months, it’s Franck Roger’s version that stands out for me. Franck creates a great late night kind of groove that for me is more suitable for Barbara Tucker’s vocal performance. Regardless which version you prefer this release is a very good record to celebrate your 100th release. “I wanted, no craved for the 100th release to be something special, a landmark record that encapsulated the labels musical ethos.“, says Simon Dunmore (founder and A & R director of Defected Records) “The fact that the record is produced by Blaze, the song sung by Barbara Tucker and remixed by Dennis Ferrer perfectly highlights old and new school talents coming together. It defines what we do perfectly.”

Tracklisting of Most Precious Love: 1. Radio Edit/ 2. DF Future 3000 Mix/ 3. Copyright Spiritual Club Mix/ 4. Franck Roger Remix/ 5. Martin Solveig Re-Edit | released 2005 by Defected Records

For more infos visit defected.com.

[If you want to discuss Blaze’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

Looking at the retro-influenced covershot of Shayna Steele’s debut album you get a first impression that the 70s may play a crucial part in her music. It’s mainly the funk from yesterday that has influenced Shayna’s music. But Shayna has also listened to what’s dominating the music scene today to create her very own musical blend of funk with a beneficial injection of urban/R&B influences.
You Are My Soul is a good example of Shayna’s sound. Listening to the first bars of the song you might think this is just another urban/R&B song but let the song evolve and you’re soon listening to a great uptempo funk fusion monster with a real horn section.
In my opinion it’s the inclusion of this brass section that gives Shayna’s music a fresh vivid sound (of course besides the quality of her voice and the songs). The horns also spice up the uptempo driving Dying, the rock-funk of High Yella and Moving On, which sounds like a live performance of a classic uptempo Rhythm & Blues song. Great!
Whatever You Do shows that Shayna does not only feel at home with uptempo stuff but also can handle a soulful ballad to good effect.
There are only two points of criticism here. Compared to the other five songs So In 2 U sounds a little bit lacklustre missing the raw energy of the other uptempo tracks. And with only six songs and just over twenty-five minutes this album is much too short.
Overall it’s a great introduction of Shayna Steele to a wider audience and makes me curious about things to come.

Tracklisting of Shayna Steele: 1. You Are My Soul/ 2. So In 2 U/ 3. Dying/ 4. Whatever You Do/ 5. High Yella/ 6. Moving On | released 2004 by Shayna Steele

For more infos visit shaynasteele.com and cdbaby.com.

[If you want to discuss Shayna Steele’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

We have an old proverb in Germany “alles neu macht der Mai” which literally means that the month of May makes everything new. Well, I hope you have noticed it…at least the design of the jazz not jazz picture is new.

Just in case you’ve missed something last month, here are some highlights that were featured on jazz-not-jazz in April 2005:

Gabriel Rich writes about Black Rock: A Forgotten Legacy?
To some extent Gabriel and the artists he mentions are right about pigeonholing music or respectively not pigeonholing it. In the end there’s only good and bad music whether you label it soul, jazz, house, broken beats, garage, pop, rock, urban, world music or whatever. But on the other hand putting a label on one’s music helps me as listener to decide if I want to listen to a record in the first place. As you may have noticed I like nearly anything from soul, funk, jazz to deep house. That’s not to say that I don’t like an album that explores more musical genres than one and mixes genres to present an own blend of music. You certainly will find me listening to a soul-jazz-funk album that also uses some rock influences but you hardly will find me listening to a pure rock album. Maybe because I’m usually not very fond of endless electric guitar solos or maybe because I listen to music consciously for over twenty years and I have cultivated my preferences over the years. Just like you develop your preferences for the food you eat. Being a music junkie I would rate music almost as important as food for me.
In the overcrowded marketplace of the music world it would be a little too simple to speak about music only, even if you label it “good music” and “bad music”. I’m sure no artist want to be filed under “bad music” then.
We certainly don’t need numerous subgenres but like it or not, there is a difference between a heavy metal and a soul record. So in my opinion it makes sense to say record A is a jazz records while record B is a rock record and if it’s just for marketing purposes. For example you find also music labeled on this site, just look at the categories on the left. Though often enough you may find a record filed under soul and jazz.
We certainly don’t need the adjective Black in Black Rock, because the colour doesn’t matter. It’s the talent of the musicians and the quality of their music that’s important.
Just let your ears and heart decide what kind of music you like and don’t let multimillion dollars advertising campaigns fool you.