In conjunction with Jon Freer from mosoul.co.uk jazz-not-jazz proudly presents a review of Southport Weekender Volume III.

The last instalment from Blaze and Joaquin Claussell may have delved a little deeper than many Southport fans like to swim, but this chapter should satisfy many more of the hordes that descend on Pontins twice yearly for a weekend of life-affirming soul-kissed dancing. Parisian style God Dimitri serves up mix one, a veritable banquet of good-natured disco and lovely house gems. Highlights of his set include the optimistically keyed club mix of The Sunburst Band’s “He Is”, and an exhilarating piano led epic from Jihad Muhammed called “Movement Blues”. Jazzie B rolls out the relaxed soul and groovesome funked out flavours on the second disc, where choice moments include the Young Disciples’ disenchanted “Apparently Nothing” and Wookie’s miraculous “Battle”. New York House man-of-the-moment Quentin Harris round off this impressive comp in style, with an energetic soulful selection. Key tracks on Quentin’s disc are Laid’s educational “Punch Up” and Quentin’s own glorious “You Can’t Have New York”, where Monique Bingham paints a negative picture of the big apple, over shape making strings and a liquidous bass. Outstanding.

Tracklisting of Southport Weekender Volume 3: not available | released 2005 by SuSu Records

(for more infos visit susumusic.com)

If you search the internet for Koren Washington you’ll find only a few links that point to the singer. But judging from her six track EP The Experiment this will hopefully change soon. Koren wrote, arranged and performed all songs on offer with the help of Tymm Oblique.
I suppose that Koren and Tymm had the same trouble like Olu with his recent album Beautiful Place and that is that you only have a limited low budget and have to stick with synthesizers/computers for the musical background. While real instruments can offer a rich musical vibe if used the right way it doesn’t mean that a simpler orchestration sounds per se worse. Olu and Koren prove that even “artifical” instruments can work extremly well.
The Experiment shows that Koren feels comfortable with various musical styles like the fast house track (Fallen)Star or the urban/R&B influenced After This. But for my ears she hits home with the slower songs where she can really show the beauty of her voice. The great jazz soul tune Fish Out Of Water is a good example. Imagine N’Dambi, Charisse or Cherokee (especially her Blue Bottle Aftashave) thrown together to get a notion of this heartfelt, timeless song.
Sway If You Can is another soulful highlight with its reduced rhythm and jazzy feeling. And it’s the sparse musical background and Koren’s voice that gives the songs a rather sad and bluesy feeling (the album’s opener Maybe is even dedicated to the lonely hearts).
This six track EP is a very fine introduction for Koren Washington and makes me curious about the new material Koren is currently working on.

Tracklisting of The Experiment: 1. Maybe/ 2. Fish Out of Water/ 3. Fallen Star/ 4. Sway If You Can/ 5. Silence/ 6. After This | released 2003 Koren Washington

For more infos visit cdbaby.com.

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

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

Luther Vandross has died at the age of 54, two years after suffering a major stroke.
[edit: on David Nathan’s site you find a lengthy tribute article]