World/Global Sounds

This is the second collection of music from Venezuela in the 1970s and beyond to be released on Soul Jazz Records. The album once again features innovative figures in the history of underground Venezuelan music, mostly unknown outside of their home country – their music a blending of progressive rock, jazz, experimental electronics and disco –created mainly in the 1970s – during a time when the country was both a cultural and economic powerhouse in Latin America.

While much of 1960s Venezuelan rock music emulated British and USA styles, and salsa dominated the dancefloors of Latin America, the 1970s saw the evolution of a new generation of creative local artists such as Vytas Brenner, Daniel Grau, Aldemaro Romero, Un Dos Tres Y Fuera who all explored the possibilities of mixing together rock with elements of electronica, funk, jazz, latin rhythms simultaneously exploring their links with Venezuelan roots music, creating a new sound which blended a multitude of new and old world influences, uniquely Venezuelan.

Most of these artists featured on Venezuela 70 remain practically unknown outside of Venezuela’s borders and yet their progressive forward-thinking music is some of the most sophisticated in the world – a stunning ‘melting pot’ mix of sounds from the cosmic and psychedelic rock of Vytas Brenner to the Moroder-esque disco experimentation of Daniel Grau, and the tropical funk of Un Dos Tres Y Fuera and beyond.

Aside from the relatively known Vytas Brenner and Daniel Grau, most of the music on this album is incredibly rare (even in Venezuela)! The album is released as heavy double gatefold vinyl with full colour inners, exclusive text on artwork, CD with slipcase and large booklet, and digital album.

Soul Jazz Records’ new Venezuela 70 is the first-ever album of its kind to take a look at the groundbreaking experimental rock music made in Venezuela and created in the 1970s – during a time when the country was both a modern cultural and economic powerhouse in Latin America on account of wealth from its vast oil supplies. 

Venezuela lies at the northern part of South America, with neighbouring Colombia to its west and Brazil to its south. The north coast borders the Caribbean.

Whilst much of 1960s Venezuelan rock music emulated British and USA styles, the 1970s saw the evolution of a new generation of creative artists such as Vytas Brenner, Angel Rada, Pablo Schneider and Miguel Angel Fuster, who all explored the possibilities of mixing together rock with elements of electronica, funk, jazz, latin rhythms simultaneously exploring their links with Venezuelan roots music, creating a new sound which blended a multitude of new and old world influences, uniquely Venezuelan.

These Venezuelan artists looked to the future while exploring their country’s own musical heritage to create a new cultural identity. Similarities can be drawn with then contemporary movements around the world such as the Trópicalia and post-Trópicalia 1970s scene in Brazil of Os Mutantes, Novos Baianos, Secos e Molhados (all of which feature on Soul Jazz Records’ earlier Brazil 70).

A similar parallel can be made in Europe with the experimental German groups of the 1970s (Can, Amon Duul, Harmonia, Neu all featured on Soul Jazz Records’ Deutsche Electronische Musik) who deconstructed and reconstructed the links between rock music and electronics to define a new German cultural identity.

Most of these artists featured on Venezuela 70 remain practically unknown outside of Venezuela’s borders and yet their progressive forward-thinking music is some of the most sophisticated in the world – a stunning ‘melting pot’ mix of underground rock, synthetic electronics, funk, jazz and Latin American rhythms all of which explored new sounds and broke down musical boundaries to create a distinct and unique Venezuelan music and cultural identity.

Soul Jazz Records’ new album features the truly intense, hypnotic and fascinating Vodou drums of Haiti, a stunning collection of trance-like rhythms and beats traditionally used to induce spirit possession in the Vodou religion.

Soul Jazz Records first journeyed to Haiti in 1996 to record a series of three albums about Haitian Vodou music and culture. One of these, ‘Voodoo Drums’, featuring the drum rhythms used to bring about spirit possession struck a striking chord with listeners, and amazingly went on to become one of their best-selling albums.

"I haven't heard anything quite like this; the rhythms are very deeply orchestrated yet it also sounds like improvisation. There are tonalities and textures coming from this album like I've never heard. A great album by Soul Jazz, very well recorded. Some of the sounds I have no idea how they are getting them! This album is bending my ear and setting off the dancing devils in my soul!! Unreal!" Guardian

In 2016 Soul Jazz Records returned to Haiti once more to record a new second volume of the same intense Vodou drumming. Recorded in the capital of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, some 20 years after their first visit, this album also features the very same musicians, the Drummers of the Société Absolument Guinin.

"This record, which consists entirely of recordings of vodou drumming made in Port-Au-Prince, is one of a series of Soul Jazz releases exploring Haitian music, all of which are worth your attention. Nonetheless there's something about the intensity and virtuosity of this particular drums-based album that's particularly transportive. It captures the extraordinary complexity and sophistication of these ceremonial rhythms, which shift, interlock and switch angle of attack with a logic that's near-indecipherable as a listener unable to see visually how they unfold.

These drum rituals are central to Haitian vodou, their power to awe and mesmerise isn't dimmed through being relatively unfamiliar with the traditions that underlie them; these recordings are dynamic and riveting in their intricacy and power." Quietus

Like the first album, these new recordings somehow manage to walk the line between serious ethnological authenticity and a connection with the energy and intensity of the dance rhythms of techno and house music that make them quite unique:

"Soul Jazz yet again come correct with the roots and culture. This amazing set of ritual breakbeats Haitian style has to be the most phenomenal, left field battle breaks album you could imagine. The rhythms used cause spirits to manifest themselves in the physical world, all powerful, some benevolent, others less so. Enjoyable and really quite mind expanding, this is recommended to anyone who thinks traditional music is not for them. Really unparallelled, both in terms of quality and the competition." Boomkat

This album is released worldwide on heavyweight double LP + download code, deluxe CD and digital album.

Oh yes! 50 x 70cm KILLER poster!!

Choose "Poster Freepost" if you want this poster sent with any other vinyl order item (LP/12" vinyl only) at NO extra postage charge (poster will be folded into six parts)

Choose "Poster+Tube" if you want the poster rolled up and sent in a customised, protective tube (more expensive to cover postage)

THIS ALSO means if you want more than one poster then you should only put 'Poster+Tube' for one of the posters and select 'Poster freepost' for any others as the rest will be free shipping.

Insane percussive heavy 60s party Mambo recorded in the Bahamas + Hypnotic 60s calypso recorded in Port-au-Prince. 

Caribbean party vibes on this Soul Jazz Records 45 only available EXCLUSIVELY to customers of Soul Jazz Records/Sounds of the Universe! Very limited 300 copies!

Soul Jazz Records’ new album 90 Degrees of Shade features the music of the Caribbean – Mambo, Calypso, Mento, Merengue, Latin Jazz and much more. The music of Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and more all feature in this lightning journey through the many island sounds.

This is the sound of independence, righteous and hot jump-up sounds from the 1950s and 60s, an exciting period of endless new musical styles that would travel across the world – Mento, the Jamaican precursor to reggae; mambos and descargas from Cuba, Dominican merengue, Haitian compas – and more.

This album coincides with the release of Soul Jazz Records’ massive new deluxe large format hardback book 90 Degrees of Shade: 100 Years of Photography In The Caribbean (with foreward by Paul Gilroy) featuring hundreds of fascinating and unique photographs spanning one hundred years of Caribbean history.

The new album comes as a deluxe two-CD pack complete with large outsize booklet, packed full of info and original artwork. There are also two limited edition separate heavyweight double LP vinyl editions, each one housed in gatefold sleeves complete with insert, full text and free download code. Also comes as a worldwide digital release.

Deluxe CD, 2xLP (+ free download) and worldwide digital 

Available in all good retail and internet stores  from 2 June 2014 or direct from Soul Jazz Records right now!

    This new album features the music of Calypso in its many styles. Included is music from its birthplace - the island of Trinidad - as well as a number of other Caribbean islands (including Jamaica and the Bahamas) and its subsequent onwards journey (Britain, Panama and the United States), recorded during the years 1955-69.

Calypso is one of the most exciting and enduring forms of musical expression to emerge from the beginning of the 20th century - swinging, persuasive rhythm, brilliantly expressive melodies and lyrics of great humour and wisdom.

Calypsonians songs play out a role in society similar to the storytelling Griots of West Africa (and the corresponding music of Kaiso); with their own tales about popular and incredible news items, modern life, local politics all mixed up with sexual innuendo, one-upmanship, comedy and more.

At its source, Calypso is intricately and inextricably bound to the social history of Trinidad and its myriad of traditions, beliefs, folklore and fables. As the music spread around the world, both from the diaspora of many of its performers, as well as its commercial success, the subjects of songs similarly took on local topics.

The most notable singer of Calypso in England was the Trinidadian Lord Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts), who came to Britain in 1948 on HMS Empire Windrush  (along with fellow Calypsonians Lord Beginner and Lord Woodbine).

Here on this album you will also find other members of Calypso’s aristocracy & royalty – including Lord Cobra, Lord Hummingbird, Lord Growler, King Fighter, Lord Byron, The Mighty Viper, Lord Ivanhoe & more.

The songs vividly capture the popular news stories and fashions of the era - the first Man on the Moon, James Bond’s Pussy Galore, bed bugs, Voodoo, love in cemeteries, West Indians in England, Bossa Nova, the Iron Curtain, and a story of a white man who had a black heart transplant operation.

This album celebrates a criminally unsung and under-documented art form in the modern age and comes with extensive sleevenotes on the history, social context and geography of Calypso, as well as exclusive and stunning photography, original artwork and notes on all the artists and songs featured.

CD with 50 pages of notes, labels and exclusive photos in slipcase. 2xLP gatefold heavy vinyl + full notes, insert, free download code. Worldwide Digital release.

REVIEW;

"Decades before hip-hop became black America's most visible news source, Caribbean and British calypso stars were singing about current events in lilting tunes so seemingly carefree you barely noticed how sharply they were sticking it to the man. With chatty and conversational voices front and center, carnival stars like Viper, Lord Hummingbird and Lord Flea delivered their sass amid suave, jaunty horns and percolating Afro-Caribbean percussion. This collection focuses more on pop culture than on politics: Lord Cobra's enthusiastic account of the 1969 moon landing, for example, is followed by Young Growler's bawdy celebration of James Bond consort "Pussy Galore." Calypso's predominant voice, Lord Kitchener, is represented by the hilarious "Love in the Cemetery," wherein a resident warns him, "Mister, you be brave / To be bringin' your girlfriend atop me grave."

Top 50 best reissues of 2014 - Rolling Stone magazine

Anarchic carnival street music from Haiti. Traces of New Orleans' Second Line jazz meets Cuban carnival Comparsas and Brazilian afro blocs and the ancient to modern spirit of Kinshasa's Konono no.1 meets the Art Ensemble of Chicago!

To coincide with the release of the new Kanaval book on Soul Jazz Publishing, Soul Jazz Records are releasing this new CD, "Rara in Haiti: Street music of Haiti".

Rara is the music played throughout Kanaval, an anarchic folk-meets-punk collision of drums, voices and bamboo sticks which all creates an exciting, energising soundtrack to Kanaval in Haiti. Rara bands tour the countryside for days at a time accosting people, car drivers and anyone in their way, demanding payment before they move on and the crowd of musicians and singers gets bigger all the time.

This music was recorded by Soul Jazz Records in Port-au-Prince. CD comes with sleenotes by Richard Fleming (author of 'Walking to Guantanamo"), and stunning photography on the cover by Leah Gordon.

Guardian Review:

"Recorded in Port-au-Prince, featuring musicians who literally stop traffic in Haiti with their edgy, rousing and hypnotic dance music. Rara is both a distinctive style, with its roots in Africa's slavery days, and the name give to parades in which crowds dance through the streets following bands, in events that can be political or religious.

This is DIY music at its best, with percussion instruments made from bottles, sticks or old car parts; konet horns, made from the flattened tin of food cans, and vaksins, constructed from lengths of bamboo or even plastic water pipes.

The result is a furious noise that sounds at times as if football fans were attempting psychedelic marching tunes on vuvuzelas, with lengthy passages of repeated riffs against drumming and chanting vocals. There are similarities with bands in present-day Kinshasa that use homemade instruments to create trance music." (Robin Denslow)

CONGA DE LOS HOYOS, founded in 1902, is one of the oldest and best-known carnival groups in Santiago, Cuba today. Group members are exclusively from the Los Hoyos neighbourhood of Santiago and feature over 50 percussionists and singers who play everything from car brake drums, hubcaps and frying pans to the distinctive Chinese trumpet – a sound unique to eastern Cuba’s carnival groups. This CD comes with accompanying text, booklet and exclusive photography.

Tumba Francesa la Caridad de Oriente is a 140-year old institution in Cuba.

The music of Tumba Francesa is a unique combination of African drums and French patois vocals alive in Cuba today.

This is the first in a series of albums reflecting Afro-Cuban culture newly recorded by Soul Jazz Records in Cuba. The Tumba Francesa La Caridad de Oriente won Cuba’s National Award for Community Culture and, in 2003, the title of UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, the first such award to be bestowed on Cuba. This music was recorded in EGREM studios, the state owned studio in Santiago, eastern Cuba.

Tumba Francesa la Caridad de Oriente is situated in the economically poor Los Hoyos district of the city, a vibrant epi-centre of Afro-Cuban culture. In the 19th century there were hundreds of Tumba Francesa throughout Cuba. Now only two remain; Tumba Francesa of Santiago de Oriente and nearby Tumba Francesa de Guantanamo.

Originally mutual aid societies for the ex-slaves who fled the neighbouring Haitian Revolution, Tumba Francesas would put on elaborate shows during carnival dressed in ballroom costumes of 18th century France playing purely African music. Tumba Francesa La Caridad de Oriente continue this tradition today. The music of Tumba Francesa la Caridad de Oriente is at once both modern and traditional, both an important aspect of contemporary Cuba and coming with a vast cultural legacy.

The CD / LP comes complete with extensive sleevenotes and spoken introduction by the Afro-Cuban poet and writer Pedro Perez-Sarduy and photography by the New York writer, musician and broadcaster Ned Sublette (author of Cuba and It's Music).