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Michael Session

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3
Album Review

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: Gyedu-Blay Ambolley & Hi-life Jazz

Read "Gyedu-Blay Ambolley & Hi-life Jazz" reviewed by Peter Jones


This is reportedly the 35th album from Ghanaian singer/rapper/tenor saxophonist Gyedu-Blay Ambolley. But although he has toured Europe and the US extensively, he remains relatively unknown in what we call “the West." It is a situation that ought to change, and if there was any justice in the world, this is the album that would do it. Ambolley is a leading modern exponent of high-life (or hi-life) jazz, a genre that grew out of the so-called “palm wine" ...

9
Album Review

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: Gyedu-Blay Ambolley And Hi-Life Jazz

Read "Gyedu-Blay Ambolley And Hi-Life Jazz" reviewed by Chris May


In the beginning, that is to say the 1950s and 1960s, there were two main strands of highlife, Ghana's national dance music. One was rural based, played by ensembles using acoustic guitars and traditional percussion instruments. The other was urban based, played by bands using kit drums as well as traditional percussion, and with large horn sections modelled on American swing orchestras; the style was dubbed “dance band highlife." In the 1970s, as electric guitars became commonplace in ...

21
Album Review

Horace Tapscott Quintet: Legacies for Our Grandchildren: Live in Hollywood 1995

Read "Legacies for Our Grandchildren: Live in Hollywood 1995" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Since its founding in 2011, the French record label Dark Tree has been issuing a “Roots Series" documenting previously unreleased performances of the Los Angeles jazz avant-garde from the 1970s through the '90s. Among the best of those releases have been several from Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra led by pianist/composer/conductor Horace Tapscott. Legacies for Our Grandchildren: Live in Hollywood 1995 is one of only two quintet albums led by the pianist. A community activist in South Central LA, Tapscott often ...

32
Album Review

Horace Tapscott with the Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra: Ancestral Echoes – The Covina Sessions, 1976

Read "Ancestral Echoes – The Covina Sessions, 1976" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


When pianist/composer/conductor Horace Tapscott founded the Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra (PAPA) in 1961, it was by design a support collective for all arts, bringing pride to the black community, specifically that of South-Central Los Angeles. PAPA signified social activism, teaching empowerment, and advocating Tapscott's belief that channeling African ancestral roots was a key to succeeding. Tapscott, who died in 1999, had forsaken wider recognition to bring music and teaching to his community, but his catalog has seen a revived interest ...

458
Live Review

Michael Session Sextet Rocks LAACMA

Read "Michael Session Sextet Rocks LAACMA" reviewed by Rex  Butters


An enthusiastic crowd filled the Los Angeles Times Central Court at LACMA to cheer on hometown heroes, The Michael Session Sextet. After more than a dozen years with the event it could be renamed Michael Session Court, and no one attending the Friday night weekend kickoff would have voted against a re-christening.

Session remains a dominant soloist, blessed with vivid musical imagination, A- Line technique, and an apparent passion to construct heart stopping thrill rides on the saxophone. Firmly rooted ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Legacies for Our...

Dark Tree Records
2022

buy

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley...

Agogo Records
2022

buy

Ancestral Echoes –...

Dark Tree Records
2020

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