Jenny Mccoy

Louis Hayes, one of the chief architects of modern jazz drumming, was the rhythmic drive for historic recordings by Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, Oscar Peterson, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon and McCoy Tyner. When he reformed the Jazz Communicators, the band that he co-founded in the late 1960s with Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson, Hayes purposefully deviated from a conventional quintet lineup by featuring vibraphone and tenor saxophone out front. It’s the esteemed pair of Steve Nelson and Abraham Burton respectively, and their chemistry with Hayes, pianist David Bryant and bassist Dezron Douglas makes "Return of the Jazz Communicators" an inspired and rewarding set.

Walt Disney Record is set to release the soundtrack to the live-action version of “Mulan”, on September 4th, which is the same day as the film is coming to Disney+. The album features original music composed by Harry Gregson-Williams who has previously worked on “The Chronicles of Narnia”, “Shrek” and “The Martian”. It also includes two songs by Christina Aguilera, a new version of “Reflection”, which was originally made for the animated movie and a brand new song, “Loyal Brave True”.

No one can deny that the Mississippi River has produced the single most important root source of modern popular music- from it’s source to the delta it has flowed with the Blues. The whole region is known for it’s rich soil and the many plantations where the black population toiled in extreme poverty, the music that was born of this environment could only be called ‘the Blues’. With the emergence of new recording technology in the late 1920’s, many upcoming record labels sent their talent scouts south on field trips to make recordings or invite these artists to travel to Northern cities to make ‘race records’ that illustrated forever the endurance and artistry of a subjugated people……Once again the Viper label has unearthed many rare hidden gems that speak as loudly today as back when they were recorded .