In my childhood I used to listen to tapes of Dave Brubeck and Ella Fitzgerald, ever since those days I have a strong connection with jazz music, recently I made an extensive research of contemporary artists that, given their creativity and innovation, I think you should listen, I‘d wish to have a whole lot of time to include every single one of them and to deepen the information on each one, nevertheless, here they are:

Mario Biondi and the High Five Quintent present their debut album Handful of Soul which is an extrodinary and sublime jazz recording, in my opinion this is one of the most refreshing and dynamic jazz albums, they recreate the complete jazz experience, Mario’s voice is an angular piece to this band, because he sings with so much swing and deepness that you will think he’s a black singer.

From Canada, Elizabeth Shepherd, which is a great singer/songwriter, she and her trio offer us a fascinating option of new vocal jazz, according to my evaluation she could only be compared with the playful vibe of Jamie Cullum, the songs are full of energy and soul, I love the bass arrangements and the groove that she builts on her music, She has also appeared on numerous ‘Live in Session’ including Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide show on BBC Radio 1 UK.

Nostalgia 77 is the studio project of Ben Lamdin his creations range from heavy-funk to dusty-old jazz, recently he reunited a bunch of extraordinary musicians conforming an octect, including the fantastic voice of Alice Russell. Their last effort, Everything Under the Sun won the “Jazz Album of the Year 2006″ award from the BBC, highly recommended, one of the finest contemporary jazz albums.

Hajime Yoshizawa is an extraodinary musician, producer and pianist from Japan, the way that he perceives and plays music is very different compared with western jazz, in fact I believe that he has a unique ability to connect his left side of the brain directly to the piano keys, he had also worked for Kyoto Jazz Massive, Cosmic Village, Sleep Walker, Dalata, Jazzanova, Monday Michiru and Isabelle Antena.

Nils Krogh is a 22 year old producer/artist from Sweden who has a lot potential to make a great contribution to jazz music, apparently he started his blooming career with the record label Dealers of Nordic Music, which is a huge beginning. Today with just an EP, Things We Do, he has done remixes from people like Nicola Conte and Inverse Cinematics.

Bruno E is a music producer from Brazil, he started his carrer working with hip-hop artists and soon he became a respected figure of the electronic scene, soon he founded the record label SambaLoco, which lauched some artists from the stature of DJ Patife, Marky, XRD, and Mad Zoo, among others. Recently he started a new record label named Urubu Jazz, that leads a new wave of jazz musicians and electronic producers.

Non less important I also recommend that you check out these artists, which, as I said before, for the insufficience of time to cover them all, I just list them:
Kaidi Tatham, Eliza Lumley, Ryota Nozaki (Jazztronic), Natural Self, Dj Mitsu, Sunaga T Experience, and finally you can also download this extrodinary DJ set from DJ Chikashi Nishiwaki as an additional “gift”.

Sociedad Subterranea whom describe themselves as a “Mexican contemporary arts and music record label… that also works as a music net-label, netzine, TV/video production, booking agency, music promotion, journalism and a live radio program” published a series of compilation albums named Antojitos Mexicanos (roughly translated as Mexican Treats) that are free for download. The basic idea is simple (and extremely similar to an idea here at Suite 303, called Mexhibit A): contemporary music from Mexico, embracing several genres and styles.

If you are into meeting new music from an specific region, this is for you. Along the three volumes some tracks are superb, some others are great and, fortunately, the minority are just plain… but, admit it, the best thing is that they are free and ready for being listened.

Their web site contains a good description of the artists, bands and music, so I won’t get deep in that area. A note: download in Volume 3 is really slooooow, they should improve their transfer rate.

One of the most expected albums of this year might be Björk’s sixth studio album Volta, so we forced ourselves to make an objective and impartial review, although as a Björk fan I think that it would be a difficult task.

When Björk announced the release of an album that will pick up again the beats issue, a lot of us were impatient to finally know how she could sound like, because she is always in the innovation terrain with almost everything that she puts her mind on.

So, let’s start talking about Volta with the list of the professional musicians who Björk invited this time:
Antony Hegarty (from Antony And The Johnsons), unfortunately he is on two tracks, in my opinion he’s the worst collaborator that she has ever chosen. Is not that Hegarty’s music is bad is just that both tracks on Volta are insipid and flat, the usual innovation level here is simply in a hidden place. I don’t really think his voice makes a match with the vocalization of the Icelandic lady.
Timbaland, the famous producer who materialized the percussion section for three songs, brings back those fantastic Isobel’s tribal beats.
Mark Bell, which is an extraordinary electronic producer and member of LFO, he’s guilty for the bass lines, low frequencies and strange sounds on Volta.
Chris Corsano and Brian Chippendale, both outstanding drummers they complement the Volta recipe by adding a unique flavor to the beats.
Toumani Diabate, which is a talented kora player from Congo who won the BBC World Music Award last year, his collaboration is one the best here.
10 piece female brass section from iceland, who helped Björk in creating the orchestration to obtain sweet and emotive chords.
Min Xiao-Fen, which is a chinese pipa player, her collaboration is extraordinary and emphasizes the fact that Björk was again experimenting and looking for new sounds.

Björk, describes Volta as techno voodoo, pagan, tribal and extroverted. For me, the most significant word is “extroverted” because Björk in her previous efforts sang with such a sweetness and tenderness, like someone in love, and some songs were almost children’s lullabies. For this album it was not only the return of strong beats, but also she was determined to be impulsive. I guess that is a better way to focus her energy, singing, instead of showing her bad temper, remember that she lives violently happy, after all. All this impulse and playfulness was reflected on three songs: Earth Intruders, Innocence and Declare Independence, the latter simply breaks her own recent rule of creating tender songs, resulting in a recording so extroverted and full of energy that she seems to be singing a revelation song or giving an alarm call, and it is something like that, because her message is “Start your own currency! Make your own stamp! Protect your language!”

Volta is entirely written and produced by Björk so that could be one of the reasons for not resulting in a homogenous album (or should I say homogenic?), Volta might be considered Björk’s most mirthful and risky experiment, she combined so many flavors, so many beat textures, so organic frequencies and samples, that she created a unique collage of electro-worldmusic. I hope for the next records this experimentation will be expanded towards other countries and collaborators, imagine a Björk album using latin beats, it could be marvelous, I hope one day that happens.

After listening scrupulously to the album more that 6 times with my headphones, I have to say that this album is magnificently well done, I especially love Hope, in my opinion is, by far, the best track… nevertheless it is not my favorite Björk album, possibly –maybe– I was expecting another kind of surprise. So go and get one copy for you, so you can built your own opinion, try to buy Volta on the original Special Edition CD, the artwork is extraordinary, and the audio is way much better than if you download it from rapidshare or elsewhere.