Jazz Is Dead welcomes its eleventh edition with Tony Allen, Lonnie Linston Smith, and Jean Carne under the direction of Californian multi-instrumentalist producer Adrian Younge and founding member of A Tribe Called Quest, Ali Shaheed Muhammad.
For this new season, Jazz Is Dead has gathered a cast to bring together the different eras of jazz. We find legends such as jazz and R&B singer Jean Carne (the 5-octave diva who was part of the Motown, Atlantic and Philadelphia International Records stables); the pianist/keyboardist who shaped jazz-funk, Lonnie Liston Smith, or the late Tony Allen. On this record, the afrobeat drummer has offered one of the last testimonies of his immense talent.
Alongside these luminaries, we find equally talented musicians who marked the history of underground jazz in the 1970’s in the United States: bassist Henry Franklin, trombonist Phil Ranelin or Garett Saracho, a forgotten vibraphonist and keyboardist from Los Angeles who released a single album in 1973. Adrian Younge (who has collaborated with Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z, the Wu-Tang…) and Ali Shaheed Muhammad also showcase the generation that represents today’s jazz with the group Katalyst. Hailing from Los Angeles, the nine members of Katalyst showcase their instruments, including David Otis (saxophonist for Kendrick Lamar and Usher), Jonah Levine (Grammy Award-winning trombonist and pianist) and Corbin Jones (bassist and guitarist who has also worked with Jay-Z and Beyoncé).
Inaugurated in 2020, on the label of the same name, the Jazz Is Dead series is dedicated to shedding light on jazz greats such as Americans Roy Avers, Gary Bartz or Brazilians Marcos Valle and João Donato. Each of them is invited to record, live and on analog tapes, some pieces composed or improvised the day of the studio session. With this new opus, it is a multitude of paths that cross and form a work with an elusive groove. Jazz is dead? Long live Jazz!
Jazz Is Dead 011, available on April 29th.
