Imagined Villages

The title's prose speaks of trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire's poetic leanings. A rising jazz star who's received a lion's share of awards and accolades yet is not resting on past laurels, he continues to search for artistic expression with in-demand chops and inventive writing that has illuminated the recordings of other artists and his own band since 2008's debut Prelude: to Cora (Fresh Sound New Talent).

Matt Bianco is a UK group formed in 1982 by Mark Reilly (vocals), Danny White (keyboards) and the late Kito Poncioni (bass), all originally members of the band Blue Rondo A La Turk. For their first album "Whose Side Are You On?" they hired unknown polish vocalist Basia Trzetrzelewska. Her vocal arrangements gave the album a jazzy dimension that Reilly and White couldn't anticipate and hits like "Get Out of Your Lazy Bed" and "Half a Minute" turned Matt Bianco into one of the biggest acts of the 1980s. Forty years later the group is releasing this new double album: "The Essential Matt Bianco", including thirty tracks from throughout their career, lovingly re-imagined and re-loved. Meaning these favourite tracks from the Matt Bianco catalogue are either re-recorded or remixed and have been interpreted for where we are now in 2022. This album will be extensively toured with concerts around the world.

This album documents the music I was writing and recording during 2022 when my following on Instagram really exploded. I started really focusing on the Fender Rhodes and the different effects pedals I could use with it. Some personal references include Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters to Richard Tee’s Stuff, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Weather Report, Earth, Wind & Fire, Hall and Oates & Michael McDonald. I would get inspired by a sound and create a groove or a little mini-soundscape to showcase it, purposefully not writing anything too complex in order to keep to my self-imposed schedule of posting 3x a week, every week.

Chet Baker Re:Imagined, a collection of songs recorded by a varied selection of international talent to celebrate the legacy of one of the most unique, charismatic and influential figures in the history of jazz. Released to mark the 70th anniversary of seminal album Chet Baker Sings, the 15-track compilation presents modern reworkings of the trumpeter and singer’s repertoire and underscores the enduring influence of one of 20th century music’s most creative artists. Featuring an array of international artists spanning R&B, pop, soul and jazz.

Largely neglected following her death, the music of Poldowski – alias of Irène Régine Wieniawska – is brought back to life in this re-imagining by David Jackson, director of the Paris-based chamber group Ensemble 1904. Featuring twenty-two settings of poems by the nineteenth-century French poet Paul Verlaine, the ensemble makes its recording debut with this alluring and compelling programme of song. Poldowski’s complete Verlaine settings are united for the first time in vivid arrangements by David Jackson inspired by the composer herself, known to have made chamber versions of her own songs. Included is the world premiere of the recently rediscovered Nous Deux.

On the second part of the successful predecessor album released in 2020, another guard of young British musicians gets to the heart of the famous Blue Note catalog with modern means. The project sees itself as a bridge between the tradition and the future of jazz. Internationally renowned artists and not-yet-so-well-known newcomers from London's thriving jazz, R'n'B, Afrobeat, hip-hop, grime and trap scenes have once again gone into the sound archives of the legendary label in search of gems that they could either give a contemporary interpretation or even a complete makeover.

2023 release. Track-by-track reimagining of Existential Reckoning (2020) features mixes by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Tool's Justin Chancellor, Queens Of The Stone Age's Troy Van Leeuwen and Phantogram.