New Life

This double-disc set assembles Jon Anderson's own tapes from the New Life Band Song of Seven tour of 1980 on their Sheffield stop (December 3 for those who document such things). The nonet band includes Morris Pert, Ronnie Leahy, Lee Davidson, Jo Partridge, and Barry DeSouza…

Flying Machines feature some of the most innovative young musicians to have emerged from London's exploding jazz scene - Alex Munk on guitar & vocals, Matt Robinson on piano, Synths & Fender Rhodes, Conor Chaplin on electric bass and Dave Hamblett on drums. Having toured throughout the UK following the release of their critically acclaimed debut album in 2016, Flying Machines are now set to release their second album New Life (Ubuntu Music) this autumn and firmly establish themselves as one of the biggest breakthrough acts to have emerged from the UK jazz scene in recent years. New Life represents a significant milestone in the band's development.

Brandee Younger release her second album on Impulse! Records, Brand New Life. Younger is quite often noted for standing on the shoulders of the very women who ushered in the harp as a clear and distinct voice in jazz: Dorothy Ashby. This record is an amalgamation of original pieces from Brandee and select reinterpretations of Ashby’s work. Brandee Younger represents a generation of contemporary improvisational musicians who came of age in an era when hip hop commanded a strong presence in American popular culture and emerged as leaders of a new school. In Brand New Life, she brings progressive explorations of harmony, rhythm, and melody infused with styles from hip hop, rock and pop music.

After appearing on a quartet of very different BIS releases, ranging from early baroque arias to orchestral songs by Alban Berg and Mahler’s ‘Resurrection Symphony’, the British soprano Ruby Hughes has devised a song recital, together with her regular Lieder partner Joseph Middleton. The process began in 2018 when the two gave the world première of Helen Grime’s Bright Travellers, a set of five poems charting the interior and exterior worlds of pregnancy and motherhood. Ruby Hughes soon set about planning a programme which would converge with Grime’s music and the themes of new life and of love in all its aspects.