JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 87th anniversary of the birth of McCoy Tyner.
Category: instrumental
New Audio: The New Mastersounds Share Swaggering Live Version of “Dusty Groove”
The New Mastersounds — currently, Eddie Roberts (guitar, production), Simon Allen (drums), Pete Stand (bass) and Joe Tatton (keys) — can trace their origins back to the late 1990s: Roberts was promoting a club night in his native Leeds called The Cooker. When The Cooker moved into a new venue with a second floor in 1999, there was both the space and opportunity to put a live band together to compliment the night’s DJ sets.
Coincidentally, Roberts and Allen had previously played together in the similarly named The Mastersounds, an act with a completely different bassist and without a keyboardist. Because of the intimate nature of the local scene, Roberts and Allen met and recruited Pete Hand and Bob Birch (Hammond) to join what would become The New Mastersounds.
Since the release of two limited edition, boogaloo-leaning 7-inch single back in 2000, the quartet has released 24, 7 inch singles, 13 studio albums, four live albums, a remix album and three compilations released in the UK, Japan and the US. And the band has managed to do that while going through a major lineup change with Leeds scene veteran Joe Tatton replacing Bob Birch on keys and organ.
Over their 25 year run together, the band and its individual members have collaborated with an eclectic and diverse array of musicians, DJs and producers, including Lou Donaldson, Corinne Bailey Rae, Quantic, Carleen Anderson, Keb Darge, Kenny Dope, Mr. Scruff, LSK, Lack of Afro, Page McConnell, Grace Potter,Karl Denson, Melvin Sparks, Idris Muhammad, Fred Wesley, Pee-Wee Ellis, Maceo Parker, Bernard Purdie, George Porter, Jr., Zigaboo Modeliste, Art Neville and Ernest Ranglin.
The New Mastersounds are at the tail-end of their final live Stateside dates, which will culminate with the full live album release of Live At Cervantes, Vol 2., which will be available on 12″ vinyl LP, exclusively through the Color Red Vinyl Club. The band share another track from last year’s live sets at Denver‘s Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, “Dusty Groove.” First heard on the band’s Ten Years On, the live version is a strutting bit of organ-driven soul jazz that seemingly channels Booker T and the MG‘s paired with swaggering “Funky Drummer”-styled breakbeats. The single captures the unmistakable live chemistry and energy that made a New Mastersounds set, a must-see event.
Throwback: Happy 81st Birthday, Booker T!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Booker T’s 81st birthday.
New Audio: BMA Shares Broodingly Cinematic “The Unwritten Winter”
Through the release of 2020’s self-produced debut EP 2020’s Asynchronous and 2023’s full-length debut, Ephemeral, the French-born, Canadian composer, multi-instrumentalist and BMA creative mastermind Bruno Margiotta quickly established a broodingly cinematic sound that draws from post-punk, classical music and electronic music.
The French-born, Canadian-based artist’s recently released sophomore album, Born From The Last Rain features album single “The Unwritten Winter,” a broodingly cinematic composition anchored around a woozily looping guitar figure, twinkling keys and glistening retro-futuristic synths that further cements Margiotta’s sound — a sound that seemingly channels Mogwai, Collapse Under The Empire and others.
New Audio: JOVM Mainstay SHOLTO Returns with Dreamy “Tied to the Mast”
Initially known as being one-half of indie outfit Sunglasses for Jaws, the rising London-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Oscar “Sholto” Robertson grew up with with a deep and abiding love of jazz, soul, krautrock and soundtracks from the 60s and 70s. As a producer, Robertson honed his production skills under the guidance and tutelage of Allah-Las‘ Nick Waterhouse and Inflo.
A handful of years ago, Roberston stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with his recording project, SHOLTO. And with SHOLTO, the rising London-based multi-instrumentalist has firmly cemented a cinematic take on instrumental, psychedelic soul.
Robertson’s highly-anticipated sophomore SHOLTO album, The Sirens is slated for a November 21, 2025 release through DeepMatter Records. Recorded at the London-based composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist’s Hackney-based SJF Studio, the 12-song album sees Robertson continuing an ongoing collaboration with a familiar cast of musicians, who have helped flesh out the gorgeous, string section accentuated, groove-driven soundscapes he’s developed, including Syd Kemp (bass), Clementine Brown (strings) and Rachel Horton Kitchlew (harp).
The album will see Roberson and his collaborators crafting an album of material that’s emotionally unflinching and explores themes of duality, temptation and emotional dislocation, in Robertson’s words “blurring grief wit groove, seduction and surrender.” Sonically, the album’s material sees Robertson building upon the groove-driven, strings-soaked soundscapes and ethereal textures that has won him attention in the UK and elsewhere but inverting that beauty into a haunting fever dream.
Using the world of myth and the carnivalesque as a vehicle for exploring the intricacies of the human condition, The Sirens emerged from a period of uncertainty and spiritual fatigue. Drawing from ancient allegory to navigate through the inner turbulence he experienced, the album’s material is rooted in quiet defiance and tension that sometimes never quite resolves. While being deeply cinematic, the album’s material is anchored by Robertson’s rhythmic sensibility and dramatic vocal cues that drift in and out, evoking the ancient tale of the Sirens calling out to sailors while evoking dream sequences seemingly caught mid-thought. “The Sirens trades the ethereal shimmer of my earlier records with something a little more nuanced and emotionally unflinching, slightly darker. It doesn’t really resolve, just resonates – a love letter to the parts of ourselves we usually avoid.”
The Sirens‘ third and last pre-release single “Tied to the Mast” opens with a bursts of glitchy vocals being swallowed by breathtakingly gorgeous, twinkling strings before morphing into a swaggering, Motown/Daptone/Big Crown-like soul groove with an ethereal cacophony of vocals calling out from the swelling storm of sound. The song evokes a small boat out at sea that gets caught and pulled into — and then under — a swelling storm, before breaking apart and tossing its sailors into the sea.
“’Tied to the Mast’ is a stormy, myth-soaked odyssey. It opens with distant, glitchy siren-esque vocals – spectral and seductive, like ancient voices cutting through static,” Robertson says. “Then comes the drop – Odysseus lashed to the mast, as the storm climaxes the track unravels into a slow more haunting coda, melodies scattered like the wreckage. You’re left drifting and floating in the aftermath, unsure if you have survived or where always meant to crash.”
Throwback: R.I.P. Jack DeJohnette!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the life and work of the legendary Jack DeJohnette.
New Audio: Play Paul Reimagines the Work of Beloved French film Music Composer Francis Lai
Over the course of an incredibly lengthy seven-plus decade long career, acclaimed and pioneering French film score composer Francis Lai (1932-2018)’s work spanned across and meshed several different styles and genres, including orchestral music, jazz, electronic music and avant-garde experimentation.
Throughout his career, Lai displayed an uncanny ability to anticipate technological advancements and developments in music — and to quickly adopt or adapt to them. He was among the first to embrace and incorporate electronic instruments in his compositions and arrangements as soon as they emerged, boldly pushing the boundaries of what film scores sound like. Unsurprisingly, that readiness to boldly push sonic boundaries in his work attracted filmmakers, musicians, the cognoscenti and others interested in forward-thinking work.
Among his dozens of film scores and soundtracks, his compositions for Claude Lelouch‘s films, Un homme et une femme (1966), L’Aventure c’est l’Aventure (1972) and Les Uns et les Autres (1981), as well as David Hamilton’s 1977 film Bilitis and his Golden Globe-winning and Oscar Award-winning score for Arthur Hiller‘s 1970 film Love Story are known globally — with the Love Story score being one of the more popular scores written and recorded. Unsurprisingly, Lai is one of the world’s best-selling film music composers, selling over 130 million records globally.
And although he died back in 2018, the acclaimed French film score composer’s work still remains incredibly popular. After a Paris tribute concert, the Francis Lai Orchestra embarked on a fall 2023 tour across Japan, playing shows in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya — with filmmaker Claude Lelouch attending the Nagoya show.
He has over 3 million followers on Spotify, proving that his work has managed to transcend generations while inspiring a global audience. Recently, his score for Michel Boisrond‘s 1968 film La Leçon Particulière went viral, becoming one of TikTok’s top tracks while amassing over 200 million streams on Spotify and Deezer. And adding to his reach across multiple generations, contemporary artists have remixed and reinterpreted his work.
Play Paul is French touch pioneer, making his debut in the disco house scene in the electronic production duo The Buffalo Bunch, alongside Raw Man back in the 90s. The duo quickly made a name for themselves and the attention of the acclaimed and internationally renowned duo Daft Punk with each member signing them to their respective labels — Thomas Bangalter’s Scratché and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo’s Crydamoure. Play Paul began to stand out on his own with an attention grabbing remix of Phoenix‘s “If I Ever Feel Better.”
By 2003, Play Paul stepped into the spotlight as a solo artist. And as a solo artist, the French tour pioneer moved towards a more underground and electronic dance music-leaning sound. He released material through prestigious labels like Gigolo Records and Kitsuné while working on remixes and reworkings, furthering establishing himself as a key figure in the global electronic music scene.
Play Paul recently contributed to a remix compilation, paying tribute to Francis Lai and his work Play It Like Francis, which was released earlier this month. His contribution to the compilation saw him tackling a Lai deep cut, Lai’s theme for Claude Lelouch’s 1978 film, Robert et Robert, “Concerto pour la fin d’un amour.”
Anchored around a looping, brooding yet breathtakingly gorgeous piano figure and a swelling string section, Lai’s “Concerto pour la fin d’un amour,” slowly builds up in intensity, evoking classic film scores — and a swooning romanticism. The Play Paul remix, manages to retain the original melody while completely reimagining it, giving it a decidedly 70s disco/glam feel, seemingly inspired by Station to Station-era Bowie. The result is a reworking that sounds as though it could have been released around the time of the original that inspired it, and subtly contemporary.
New Audio: Jerk Shares Slinky, Chilled-Out “stealthy, she moves!”
Prolific Brooklyn-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Joshua Kinney is the creative mastermind behind Jerk. And with Jerk, Kinney has released five albums and several EPs that has seen him craft a sound that draws from J. Dilla, Madlib, Patrice Rushen, Earth, Wind & Fire, Louis Cole, Knower, and Roller Trio. Never content with just music as a creative output, Kinney is also an avid writer and video essayist.
Kinney will be releasing the first part of a two EP narrative cycle, continuing the rollout of as night falls. Slated for a November 14, 2025 release through DeepMatter Records, the two EP cycle reportedly sees Kinney pushing his solo project’s sound into new territories, taking listeners on a journey through a single night while exploring the darker side of human nature through a fusion of electronic influences, midnight funk and forward-thinking jazz.
Created with long-time friend and collaborator Martine Wade (drums), the EP is the follow-up to last year’s Mood Swings, which received airplay from BBC 6 Music’s Huey Morgan and Jazz FM’s Tony Minvielle.
The EP’s latest single, the Wyatt Rydleweski (bass) co-written “stealthy, she moves!,” is a slinky bit of chilled-out and groovy, 70s jazz-fusion-inspired funk jazz that — to my ears, at least — manages to recall JOVM mainstays Mildlife and Confusions-era L’Eclair, but with an earthier, grittier quality. “In our journey through the night, this is the soundtrack to those that must move without trace,” Kinney says of the new single.
Throwback: Happy 56th Birthday, Roy Hargrove!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 56th anniversary of the birth of Roy Hargrove.
Throwback: Happy 116th Birthday, Art Tatum!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates the 116th anniversary of Art Tatum’s birth.
Throwback: Happy 106th Birthday, Art Blakey!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 106th anniversary of Art Blakey’s birth.
Throwback: Happy 108th Birthday, Thelonious Monk!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 108th anniversary of the birth of Thelonious Monk.
Throwback: Happy 99th Birthday, John Coltrane!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 99th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birth.
New Audio: Charles Mingus’ Tribute to Duke Ellington at Monterey Jazz Festival 1964
Charles Mingus was a towering giant of American music, known for his powerhouse sound and authoritative technique, irascible personality and most importantly, his original compositions, which featured a blend of jazz, European classic music, bebop, avant-garde, blues, gospel and more, a sound that he famously dubbed “Mingus Music.”
The legendary bassist and composer’s Sunday afternoon set at the seventh annual Monterey Jazz Festival in 1964 was met with breathless praise from the likes of the New York Herald, where legendary critic and Monterey Jazz Festival co-founder Ralph J. Gleason wrote, “Mingus erased the memory of any bass player in jazz” while the San Francisco Chronicle opened its review, “Monterey beyond to Charles Mingus this year. All the way.” Considering that year’s festival also featured sets from Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis that wasn’t an easy feat, y’all.
Initially released on Mingus’ own short-lived mail order Jazz Workshop label and out of print for more than 40 years, Mingus at Monterey captures the legend at the height of his creativity and musical prowess. Perhaps the most consistently requested reissue by Mingus fans across the world, Mingus at Monterey proved to be a sensation upon its sold-out limited edition run for Record Store Day 2025 earlier this year, ranking as Redeye Distribution’s top-selling Record Store Day release while reaching the Top 20 on Billboard‘s Traditional Jazz Albums and Jazz Albums charts, #82 on the overall Top Catalog Albums chart and #102 on the Independent Albums Chart.
Candid Records, in conjunction with Mingus’ Jazz Workshop, Inc. will celebrate the legend’s genius with the long-overdue and highly-anticipated reissue of Mingus at Monterey, which is slated for an October 10, 2025 release on CD, 2 LP vinyl and for the first time ever on all DSPs and streaming services.
The live album has been remastered by five-time Grammy Award-winning engineer Micheal Graves with vinyl mastering by renowned engineer Jeff Powell. The two LP vinyl set includes the album’s original gatefold jacket artwork, meticulously restored and reproduced.
The forthcoming wide release of Mingus at Monterey is heralded by a hard swinging, hard-charging rendition of the Billy Strayhorn-penned, Duke Ellington-performed jazz standard “Take the A Train,” that features some incredible solos from Charles McPherson (alto sax), Jaki Byard (piano), Lonnie Hilyer (trumpet), John Handy (tenor sax) and Dannie Richmond (drums) that’s performed as a medley dedicated to the legend’s musical hero, the equally legendary Duke Ellington.
Ellington was Mingus’ lodestar, the early influence, who showed the bassist and composer how music could simultaneously hold majesty, complexity and popular appeal. Mingus’ take on the classic, standard tune is deeply loving but in no means, straightforward. It seems to swing harder than the original, evoking the A train’s length run from 207th Street in Inwood to its final stop at Mott Avenue in Rockaway Beach — from its assorted characters and neighborhoods it passes through, to the pace of the train as it races between 125th Street and 59th Street. And while retaining the familiar melody, Mingus’ tribute to his hero is roomy enough to allow each member of the band to solo in a way that highlights their talents and sensibilities.
As Mingus said of the album at the time, “It’s taken me a long time to get to where I want musically. I just wish that I could give you that picture, that moment at Monterey along with this music. This is the sound that people heard at Monterey and the life of the music is there. That’s why I bring this record to the people. I give you the Monterey music as a token of love, as a memory.”
New Audio: Swedish Instrumental Outfit Automatism Shares Languorous Cover of Kraftwerk’s “Neon Lights”
Swedish instrumental psych rock outfit Automatism — Hans Hjelm (guitar), Gustav Nygren (guitar), Mikael Tuominen (bass) and Jonas Yrlid (drums) — will be releasing their long-awaited fourth album Sörmland Friday through German-based label Tonzonen Records.
Five years have passed since the release of 2020’s Immersion. The hiatus wasn’t completely voluntary, so when the band reconvened in September 2023 to begin the creative process for their fourth album, it felt like a special occasion for the band — much like a family reunion. Recorded in a former chapel in the Swedish rural county of Sörmland, the building’s high ceilings and open atmosphere helped set the overall tone of the soon-to-be-released album. As they were recording, they could see the verdant landscape from the building’s tall windows, which inspired them to name the album after the province.
Sörmland‘s latest single “Neon Lights” is an instrumental take on Kraftwerk‘s “Neon Lights.” Clocking in a roughly the same time as the original, which appeared on 1978’s The Man-Machine, the Automatism rendition slows both the tempo and melody down, giving the song a languorous and dreamy, psilocybin-fueled buzz.
“Another one of those occasions when the best stuff comes out when you stop trying,” the band’s Mikael Tuominen says. “We had been working on a version of ‘Neon Lights’ for a while, even played it live, that was much closer to the original in feel and tempo. We did a couple of recordings of that version and they were okay. Then, without deciding anything, we just fell into playing the theme really slowly and softly, and again, luckily enough I hit the red button. First it was almost as if we didn’t take it seriously, but soon we entered the zone, and listening to the versions back to back there was no question of which one to choose.”