UK

Manchester based trumpeter, composer, arranger and producer Matthew Halsall has carved out a unique niche for himself as both a band-leader and producer delving deeply into the worlds of spiritual jazz and string-laden soul.His latest project finds him playing with and producing the legendary LA jazz singer Dwight Trible, who first came to international renown with his 2005 Ninja Tune release Love Is the Answer. Trible, whose deeply soulful voice has seen him compared to Leon Thomas and Andy Bey, has worked with the likes of Pharoah Sanders, Horace Tapscott and Kamasi Washington (he sings lead vocals on the Epic) and brings a deep-rooted soulfulness to everything that he sings.Inspirations features some of Dwight Trible and Matthew Halsall's favourite songs including brilliant versions of the timeless Bacharach classic What The World Needs Now Is Love featuring harpist Rachael Gladwin and the Nina Simone smash Feeling Good. A soulful reading of Donny Hathaway and Leroy Hutson's classic Tryin' Times and a heartfelt version of Coltrane's beautiful ballad, Dear Lord, with lyrics by Trible. Other highlights include a vibrant, soulful version of and a beautiful take on They also laid down two spiritual jazz masterpieces, a powerful re-working of Dorothy Ashby's Heaven and Hell (from the legendary The Rubiyat of Dorothy Ashby album) and a spine-tingling reading of the old folk song Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Hair. Finally the album is rounded out with and the traditional spiritual Deep River and the beautiful standard I Love Paris.

It's just over 3 years since we launched the Africa Seven label in Paris and London. Our first release back then (Airways One) is still our best seller and had to be repressed 4 times so far. Forty or so releases later it is time to take to the clouds again. Being the unimaginative bunch we are, the fourth installment of our African sky filled musical cornucopia is called African Airways Four (Disco Funk Touchdown - 1976 - 1983). This time around all tunes have the Disco flavour. As ever it's all about the music... the skies are wide and funky and the air is filled with musical goodness. Your flight is about to leave.Your flight opens with a punchy disco funk assault from Paris based Cameroonian Tala AM. Here with his drive bass and guitar funk riff 1981 stomper "Get Up Tchmassi". Next up and staying with the Cameroonian connection is Eko with "Bowaa Mba Ngebe". The lyrics talk of accomplishing the things in life for your family and yourself. The sweeping strings and gloriously uplifting music matching the sentiments of the words perfectly. Uta Bella began singing in the 60's and by the time disco hit in the 70's she was already established a singer in her native Cameroon, here the locked on groove of "Nassa Nassa" is a perfect snapshot of the sound and the African disco times.Charly Kingson (cousin of Manu Dibango) is next with his "Nimele Bolo". Recorded in Germany with the cream of Munich's session musicians the bass synth is out in force on this one. Punchy brass, rock solid grooves and jazzy Rhodes add all the right ingredients for a fine disco synth excursion. Next is the musical heavyweight from Cameroon cousin Manu with his 1978 Disco, jazz funk masterpiece "Sun Explosion".Side two opens with a blast of Elvis Kemayo and his piano and guitar funk bomb "Biram". Next Momo Joseph gives us "Africain". Best known in France as an actor, this disco funk groover was released on his self pressed LP "War For Ground" in 1983. A true gem indeed. Nigerian, ex Funkees member Jake Sollo is next with "Tinni Yanana". Recorded in the UK in 83 its slick and smooth with a hint of "at the car wash" groove. Pierre Didy Tchakounte follows on with his soul funk 'golden years' style groover "Soul Magabe". Produced by one of our favourite Parisian producers Slim Pezin. We close off our journey with the tribal chant disco-funk special from the Monstars "Funny Saga".Ladies and Gentleman, we have landed at your destination, please remain seated until the aircraft has reached the terminal. We look forward to welcoming you aboard Africa Airways again soon.

Ahmad Jamal is a jazz giant and The Awakening is his iconic masterpiece. The landmark deep trio session - recorded in NYC and released on Impulse! in 1970 - is an essential album and perennially sought-after on vinyl, so Be With Records are delighted to make it available again.As a "Zen master of jazz piano" and one of its greatest innovators, Jamal evolved his elegant sound with this adventurous record. The Awakening showcased his fast, richly melodic chops in remarkable variation. A consummate orchestrator of his own complex arrangements, Jamal was emboldened here by his potent sidemen. Backed by the exquisite timing of bassist Jamil Nasser and the precision of Frank Gant's drumming, he was liberated by the reliability of the trio setup. Free to juggle rhythmic dexterity with harmonic intricacy, Jamal brilliantly performed groove-oriented compositions written by himself, alongside wonderful renditions of tracks by Herbie Hancock, Oliver Nelson and Antonio Carlos Jobim.It is impossible to discuss The Awakening without acknowledging its indelible mark on golden age rap. A defining album of hip-hop culture, producers of the highest calibre have famously sampled elements of this timeless record to lace all-timers with a foundation for their most legendary tracks. Indeed, both the experimental "DJ Premier In Deep Concentration" and Shadez Of Brooklyn's seminal "Change" utilised Jamal's sparse title-track to stunning effect.A melancholy motif from "I Love Music" was employed by Pete Rock for Nas's crucial "The World Is Yours" whilst, over a more abstract refrain from the same track, Jeru memorably delivered his "Me Or The Papes" ultimatum. Over in Chicago, No I.D. elevated Common's peerless "Resurrection" by lifting a precise riff from Jamal's plaintive rendition of "Dolphin Dance" whilst the head-nod quality of All Natural's hypnotic "Renaissance" owes it all to the looped keys of Jamal's take on "You're My Everything".With bold beauty and unhurried grace, Ahmad Jamal plays piano differently from everyone else. He was a huge inspiration to Miles Davis and influential to how Wynton Kelly performed across Kind of Blue. In his autobiography, Miles describes being blown away by Jamal's dynamic "concept of space, his lightness of touch [and] his understatement". It's why The Awakening will always be so revered.In line with the quality of all Be With reissues, the record is presented in a luxurious gatefold sleeve and comes adorned with the original eye-catching artwork throughout, along with the original sleeve notes. Simon Francis' sensitive mastering ensures the sonics are majestic throughout and, for the first time, it has been pressed at a reassuringly weighty 180g.

Keyboardist Eddie Russ hailed from Pittsburg and played with many of the greats including Sarah Vaughn, Benny Golson, Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie. Eddie is somewhat of an enigma, but he has always been held in high regard in the UK, and he finally was able to perform here in London at the Jazz café in the early 90's a few years before his untimely demise.His debut album ‘Fresh Out’ was recorded for the Jazz Masters label and includes the jazz dance classic ‘The Lope Song’, he also contributed heavily to Sonny Stitt’s ‘Tornado’ album on that label. His band The Mixed Bag also made an album for the Detroit Tribe label. In 1976 he signed to John Richbourg’s Sound Stage 7 label and made two great jazz funk albums which were released on the Nashville’s Monument label and like his debut were produced by Bob Crawford.From this first album ‘See The Light’ the title track is a great take on the Earth Wind And Fire song, ‘Poko Nose’ is a great funky groove oriented track, but it is the magical ‘Zaius’ that has become an all time jazz funk classic, a track that has maintained its popularity over the past 40 years.The Monument albums include some great musicians including Marcus Belgrave and Larry Nozero, and on the “Take A Look At Yourself” album Motown’s Eddie Willis, a very young Kenny Garrett and the funk group Quazar.

Keyboardist Eddie Russ hailed from Pittsburg and played with many of the greats including Sarah Vaughn, Benny Golson, Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie. Eddie is somewhat of an enigma, but he has always been held in high regard in the UK, and he finally was able to perform here in London at the Jazz café in the early 90’s a few years before his untimely demise.His debut album ‘Fresh Out’ was recorded for the Jazz Masters label and includes the jazz dance classic ‘The Lope Song’, he also contributed heavily to Sonny Stitt’s ‘Tornado’ album on that label. His band The Mixed Bag also made an album for the Detroit Tribe label. In 1976 he signed to John Richbourg’s Sound Stage 7 label and made two great jazz funk albums which were released on the Nashville’s Monument label and like his debut were produced by Bob Crawford.From the 1978 album ‘Take A Look At Yourself’ the title track is a monster percussive jazz funker on which Eddie’s keyboards really shine through and Jackie Holiday’s soulful vocals really top it off. She also does a great job of the Emotions ‘Don’t Ask My Neighbours’, and Renee Coles adds her vocals to the infectious rare groove version of Quincy Jones ‘I Heard That’ .The Monument albums include some great musicians including on this album Motown’s Eddie Willis, a very young Kenny Garrett and the funk group Quazar.

Singer, songwriter and guitarist hails from Los Angeles, California and has recorded since 1973. Songs he has written/co-written include "Get It Up For Love", "What Cha' Gonna Do For Me" and "A Love Of Your Own", all recently performed live with collaborator Hamish Stuart at London's Jazz Café this year. "To Prove My Love" became a dancefloor hit after its first release in 1978, original 7” and 12” versions now extremely rare. This release combines the best of both with the 12” version on 7” for the first time. It’s produced by Steve Cropper of the Stax Records house band Booker T & The MGs.

18 years on from the release of the very first ‘Disco Spectrum’ LP, Joey Negro and Sean P revisit the project, selecting the finest cuts from this much-loved album series. Three volumes of Disco Spectrum were released on BBE between 1999 and 2002, heralding a disco revival that, almost two decades later, just keeps gaining momentum.Known by a plethora of aliases including Jakatta and Akabu as well as Joey Negro, Isle of White native Dave Lee has been at the epicenter of UK dance music since the late 1980s. One of the first British producers to incorporate disco samples into dance music, he took his favourite genre all the way to the top of the charts in the early 90s when he masterminded Take That’s cover version of ‘Relight My Fire’ by Dan Hartman. Never an artist to rest on his laurels, Dave has remained at the top of his game ever since, producing chart hits and underground club tracks alike, touring the world with live disco act The Sunburst Band and running his own label Z Records.The Best Of Disco Spectrum features a wide-ranging collection of floor-fillers including: Rare Pleasure – ‘Let Me Down Easy’ (infamously sampled by David Morales for 90s club smash ‘Needin U’), Ramona Brooks – ‘IDon’t Want You Back’ (revived by Patrick Forge and Sean P on pirate radio in the late 80s), Bunny Mack - 'Let Me Love You' (an early forerunner of today’s popular afro/house sound) and Syreeta - 'Can't Shake Your Love' (snappy, bass-led funk from the former Mrs Stevie Wonder, mixed by Larry Levan).“Who would have expected the disco revival to be even stronger now than it was then, though looking down the track-listings of the 3 instalments of Disco Spectrum, most of the songs included on those compilations have since been remixed, sampled, bootlegged, covered, reedited, re-compiled and re-issued - often on multiple occasions. Since disco supposedly “died”, dance music has taken many twists and turns through a myriad of styles, moods and tempos - but disco still remains the foundation and lynchpin.” – Dave Lee, 2017

The Kalita crew step up with another finely chosen reissue gem from the history of African dance music, this time welcoming Ghanaian disco maestro Okyerema Asante to the fold with two utterly infectious party starters laced with ample feel good vibes. "Sabi (Get Down)" is a slinky groover with a killer bassline and sweet guitar licks for the heads down crew to bust out some serious moves. "That's My Girl" is a more sizzling affair with a brighter outlook, riding high on soaring brass and woodwind and packing a heartfelt message of love that everyone can vibe with.