The renaissance in British jazz comes as a new young and diverse generation of players began fusing jazz music with a wide-array of cultural influences to be found uniquely in London and around the UK—including Afrobeat, hip-hop, reggae, dubstep, grime, future soul and electronic music. Artists such as Ezra Collective, Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia, Sons of Kemet, Moses Boyd and Yussef Dayes are blending technical skills with a new-found cultural energy to give 21st century British jazz a fresh identity that nonetheless draws upon the pantheon of the great modern American jazz artists including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders, . . . .go to book page >>

The Folkways Records and Service Corporation was founded in 1948 by Moses Asch, who was encouraged by Albert Einstein to document the sounds of the world.” Between 1949 and 1987, before its acquisition by Smithsonian, the label released more than 2,000 records of jazz, folk, avant-garde, nature sounds, spoken word poetry, speeches and more. The company stood (and still stands) head and shoulders above all other world music” record labels in its depth of representation and its understanding of the nature of sound itself.
Much of the success of Folkways’ unique yet cohesive identity is owed to Ronald Clyne, the primary . . . .go to book page >>