Islanders

Jeff Lorber : Lorber’s music reaches a new level by crystallizing jazz, funk, and Latin rhythms with some killer melodies that will certainly translate to live performance. The first track, “Live Wire,” blends a blistering house beat with extended solos by Lorber and Koonse and some amazing drum fills from Colaiuta. “Big Brother” moves into hip hop territory, similar to Jeff’s grooving “Rain Dance,” which became a huge hit for Notorious Big and Lil’ Kim as “Crush on You.” “Montserrat” sounds like a mixture of Sly Stone and Tower of Power, with super funky horn arrangements by Dave Mann. Obviously, a year spent touring together has made Lorber, Haslip and Marienthal into a tight unit, which is evident from this recording.

Lounge Lizards @Wikipedia : Lounge Lizards were founded on June 4, 1979 with John Lurie, his brother Evan (piano and organ), Arto Lindsay (guitar), Steve Piccolo (bass guitar), and Anton Fier (drums). They were initially a punk or fake jazz group but soon evolved into something quite special. Taking music from all corners of the globe and synthesizing it into something truly organic and unique. The New York Times’ Robert Palmer wrote (October 7, 1986): “The present-day Lounge Lizards are not faking anything. They have staked their claim to a musical territory that lies somewhere west of Charles Mingus and east of Bernard Hermann and made it their own.”

Tatsuro Yamashita @Wikipedia : As a solo artist, Yamashita has released 17 studio albums, 2 live albums, multiple compilations and over 40 singles. He has been one of the most commercially successful Japanese male solo recording artists in the history of the Japanese album chart, selling approximately 9 million copies albums in total. He also composed for films or television commercials, and worked on the records by other artists. Particularly, he is successful as a musical collaborator for Mariya Takeuchi, who married him in 1982 and had a daughter.

Hugh Masekela @Doug Payne : After Huddleston asked the leader of the then Johannesburg “Native“ Municipal Brass Band, Uncle Sauda, to teach Hugh the rudiments of trumpet playing, the young boy quickly proceeded to master the instrument. Soon, some of Hugh’s music-loving schoolmates also became interested in playing instruments, leading to the formation of the Huddleston Jazz Band, South Africa’s very first youth orchestra. Hugh went on to play in other dance bands led by the great Zakes Nkosi, Ntemi Piliso, Elijah Nkwanyana and Kippie Moeketsi. By 1956, Hugh joined Alfred Herbert’s African Jazz Revue.

Speedy West @allmusic : Adept at boogie, blues, and Hawaiian ballads, West played with an infectious joy and daring improvisation that, at its most adventurous, could be downright experimental. It’s doubtful whether anyone could collect all of Speedy’s solos under one roof, but it was his sessions of the 1950s and early ’60s — especially those with Jimmy Bryant — that found his genius at its most freewheeling and dazzling.

Luis Bonfa @Folkways : Around the time Bonfá released his first record as a band leader in 1946, he met a second guitarist who would change the direction of his musical thinking. Though only seven or so years older, Anibal Augusto Sardinha, or “Garoto,” as he was known, was a musician with undeniable passion and a knack for fusing diverse genres into a uniquely Brazilian style. Garoto, whom Bonfá described as “a musical genius far ahead of his time,” had an apartment in Rio where the two would play together for hours on end, often jamming with a number of influential musicians. As Bonfá’s style continued to develop, he absorbed and restated the bossa nova, or “new thing” that was rapidly altering the sound of Brazilian music. He brought a more idiosyncratic technique to his playing, utilizing the rhythmic potential of the guitar to create a sound that echoed the drums of the samba and the leisurely march of the bolero. Meanwhile his compositions became more harmonically complex, yet they maintained deep ties to their roots in the rhythms of Brazil’s vibrant culture.

Eden Ahbez @S p a c e A g e P o p M u s i c : Ahbez was a legend in Hollywood for his unusual life style. Even after he and Jacobsen had a son, they kept on living out under the stars, with not much more than a bicycle, their sleeping bags, and a juicer to their name. The story may be apochryphal, but it’s said that once, when Ahbez was being hassled by a cop who assumed from his wild appearance that he deserved to be hauled off to a mental institution, he remarked calmly, “I look crazy, but I’m not. And the funny thing is, that other people don’t look crazy, but they are.” The cop thought it over and responded, “You know bud, you’re right. If anybody gives you any trouble, let me know.”

Leroy Sibbles of the Heptones : Sibbles and Heptones’ co-founders Barry Llewellyn and Earl Morgan met in the mid 1960s, around the time Sibbles’ first group auditioned for Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle studio. Reid declined the opportunity to record that group. Llewllyn and Morgan recruited Sibbles and formed the Heptones, and Ken Lack of Caltone accepted the trio was accepted for a session. Sibbles describes the initial chemistry of the three singers.

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