Khan Jamal's Creative Arts Ensemble
Drum Dance To The Motherland

Shapes of Rhythm is thrilled to present a brand new signing with a 50-minute debut LP from young, exciting Jazz quartet sneaky jesus, based in Poland. For Joseph Riddle merges concepts of contemporary Polish Jazz and breakbeat oriented styles of UK and US Jazz with ideas derived from punk and funk.Matylda Gerber on Tenor and Baritone Sax and Maciej Forreiter on Guitar flow seamlessly between melancholic lines and free jazz expression. Beniamin Łasiewicki on Bass with Filip Baczyński on Drums anchor the improvisations and take unexpected dynamic turns. The quartet was joined in the studio by wonderful musicians and friends Michał Szczepaniec on Percussion, Wiktor Maternik on Trumpet and Mariano De Ona Martinez, who supports the harmony on Electric Piano and Synths and helped with the final arrangements.The sound spectrum is vast. The opener Bugs relies heavily on steady breakbeat rhythms and hard bop-ish horn lines and features a Spanish-sounding Trumpet solo from guest Wiktor Maternik. Józek Zagadka is spacious, melancholic and minor despite frenetic and mutating drumming from Baczyński and Forreiter’s vamping distorted guitar textures. Battledance is confrontational and features Gerber’s primal Baritone rallying cries, whilst Łasiewicki’s bassline works nimbly around the elements. You can just picture the stand-off.Minneapolis - Police Game highlights the group’s musical standpoint on widespread police brutality and is For Joseph Riddle’s standout. At around 25 minutes long, it’s so long it had to be split across the LP vinyl edition. A story in three parts and featuring by Baczyński’s frenetic drum solo, the composition started as a reaction to protests happening in USA after the murder of George Floyd, but in time gained new meaning to became a reflection of women’s marches still happening in Poland.With today’s young Jazz landscape dominated by spiritual, soul and fusion, sneaky jesus don’t take the obvious turn or jump on the bandwagon. They bring the skronk and go for themselves. For Joseph Riddle is raw, discordant in parts and the group aren’t afraid to hit a wrong note every once in a while. A brave LP for such a young group.Michał Szczepaniec who guests on the LP and is one half of electronic group Gaijin Blues remarks ‘sneaky jesus are the next EABS.’

Strut is proud to announce the new album by UK jazz pianist, Greg Foat, ‘Symphonie Pacifique’, released on 3rd July 2020.Foat has become a versatile mainstay in UK jazz through an acclaimed series of albums on Jazzman and Athens Of The North, moving from soul-jazz workouts to library music to cinematic, haunting compositions and pastoral acid folk. ‘Symphonie Pacifique’ goes expansive and widescreen, building a lush soundscape using choral textures, harp and tubular bells. “It has been a hallmark of my previous albums to use choral voices and tubular bells to sound more like chordal instruments,” explains Foat. “I used pedal steel for the first time on these tracks.” All are showcased on the atmospheric ‘After The Storm’. “This piece was completely improvised during our last day of studio time,” continues Foat. “The assistant engineer had set up an arpeggio on the synthesizer as a metronome; the harp and guitar created an ostinato, myself and others soloed over it and we later added choir and strings. Eventually, we took the arpeggio off to leave a calm, serene piece of music.”Upping the tempo, Foat brings in sensual groove-based tracks like the undulating ‘Anticipation’, the album title track and Groove Merchant-channelling ‘Nikinakinu’. “This was one for my stepson Nicky,” explains Foat. “I worked up this idea with him and my Zimbabwean drummer friend Sam Chagumachinyi so it has a slightly African feel to it and uses pentatonic scales.”Other tracks include the languid, simmering ‘Island Life’ and a moving tribute to KPM library legend Duncan Lamont on the reflective ‘Lament For Lamont’. “Duncan was one of the unsung heroes of British jazz. He played with Sinatra, composed some incredible library music and his 1970 album ‘Best Of The Bossa Novas’ was one of the biggest selling UK jazz albums of all time. I recorded with him for my album ‘The Mage’ a few years ago and he was genuinely the nicest guy I have ever played with. He was looking forward to working on this album but sadly passed away a couple of months before the sessions, so we really wanted to record this tribute to him.”The album is a truly international collaboration, recorded analogue and produced by Greg Foat at London’s Fish Factory studios with strings recorded in Edinburgh and choir in Gothenburg. The album was mixed by Mattias Glava at Kungsten Studios in Gothenburg. Cover artwork is based on a painting by early 20th Century Algerian / Parisian artist Henry Valensi.