Tony Allen and Adrian Younge - Tony Allen JID018

With each subsequent release, Jazz Is Dead continues to exalt the legacies of iconic musicians who have shaped the fabric of Jazz across generations, genres, and continents. For their latest installment, the label connected with the late great Tony Allen, best known for his foundational work as the drummer for Fela Kuti's Africa 70, and later Egypt 80. Over the course of Allen's recording career, he defined the Afrobeat sound, meshing Funk & Jazz influences with Nigerian Highlife to create a cross-cultural dialogue that has gone global. It was no small honor to welcome Mr. Allen for a very special recording session at Linear Labs Studio, and we could not be more thrilled to share these crucial and downright funky cuts with you.

On album opener "Ebun", guitars and horns build off of Allen's instantly recognizable drum patterns, stretching and warping time signatures as they cross paths. It instantly recalls the seminal Africa 70 recordings which Allen was a driving force on. Psychedelic keyboards and percussion clash on "Steady Tremble", a heavy stomper tailor-made for dancefloors in every corner of the world. Just as funky is the kinetic and expressive "Oladipo". Built between a tense call and response between the horns, the track is filled with drama, and Allen steadily keeps each element in balance. As soon as the flute struts in alongside fiery horns and guitar on "Don't Believe the Dancers", the groove plunges further, propelled by an acerbic saxophone solo that animates Allen's percussion. "Makoko" is a moody, mid-tempo jam that evokes classic Fela Kuti recordings such as "Open & Close" and "Gentleman", slowly constructing an elaborate orchestra of polyrhythm, all keeping step with Allen's rhythm. "Lagos" points towards the spiritual and literal home of Allen and Afrobeat, the capital of Nigeria, and homes in on a yearning keyboard.

Similar to on his excellent Art Blakey tribute record, Tony Allen is a revelatory jazz drummer, as heard on "No Beginning", a mid-tempo tune that sits at the nexus of Spiritual Jazz and Afrobeat, which perfectly transitions into album closer, the aptly titled "No End", a poignant number that combines all of the passion and precision of the previous tracks, and let's Allen guide listeners yet again as only he so effortlessly could.

Despite the finite time that Allen had on this planet, as do all of us, his contributions to music are timeless and untouchable, and will continue to inform and inspire generations to come. Jazz Is Dead is honored to have played a part in the legacy of Tony Allen and invites you to discover the unparalleled genius that shifted the entire world's conception of time, a magician who alchemized the past with the future and influenced countless listeners, currently and to come. 

Tracklist:
1. Ebun
2. Steady Tremble
3. Oladipo
4. Don’t Believe The Dancers
5. Makoko
6. Lagos
7. No Beginning
8. No End

*Bonus (Tony Allen illadvised.)

VA - Perú Selvático - Sonic Expedition Into The Peruvian Amazon 1972-1986

Less than a hundred miles inland from the capital city of Lima lies the great Peruvian jungle, an untamed land of impenetrable forests and endless winding rivers. In its isolated cities, cut off from the fashions of the capital, a unique style of music began to develop, inspired equally by the sounds of the surrounding forests, the roll of the mighty Amazon and Ucayali Rivers, and the rhythms of cumbia picked up from distant stations on transistor radios. With the arrival of electricity, a new generation of young musicians started plugging in their guitars and trading in their accordions for synthesizers: Amazonian cumbia was born.

Powered by fast-paced timbale rhythms, driven by spidery, treble-damaged guitar lines, and drenched in bright splashes of organ, Amazonian cumbia was like a hyperactive distant cousin of surf music crossed with an all-night dance party in the heart of the forest. While many of the genre’s greatest tracks were instrumental, and others were simple celebrations of life in the jungle, the goal of every song was to keep the party going.

Radio stations in Lima remained unaware of the new electric sounds emanating from the jungle, but a handful of pioneering record producers ventured over the mountain passes to the cities of Tarapoto, Moyobamba, Pucallpa – even Iquitos, a city reachable only by boat or plane – and lured dozens of bands to the recording studios of the capital to lay down their best tracks. Although many became local hits, few were ever heard outside the Amazonian region... until now.

With eighteen tracks from some of the greatest names in Amazonian cumbia, Perú Selvatico is both the improbable soundtrack to a beach party on a banks of the Amazon and a psychedelic safari into the sylvan mysteries of the Peruvian jungle. 

Tracklist:
1. Los Royal's de Pucallpa – Descarga Royal
2. Sonido Verde de Moyobamba – La Cervecita
3. Los Zheros – Selva Virgen
4. Grupo Siglo XX de Rioja – Moyobambina
5. Los Invasores de Progreso – Humo En La Selva
6. Los Cisnes – La Hamaca
7. Fresa Juvenil de Tarapoto – Cumbion Universal
8. Los Rangers de Tingo Maria – La Trochita
9. Los Invasores de Progreso – La Bola Buche
10. Ranil y Su Conjunto Tropical – Bailando En El Infinito
11. Los Cisnes – Safari En La Selva
12. Ranil y Su Conjunto Tropical – Baila Bonito
13. Los Zheros – Alibaba
14. Fresa Juvenil de Tarapoto – La Palmerita
15. Sonido Verde de Moyobamba – Recordando A Aguaytia
16. Grupo Siglo XX de Rioja – El Pasito De Miriam
17. Los Cisnes – Rio Mar
18. Los Zheros – La Uñita

Sonido Verde de Moyobamba - Sonido Verde De Moyobamba

Formed in 1980 by guitar prodigy Leonardo Vela Rodriguez, Sonido Verde de Moyobamba created some of the hardest, craziest Cumbia to emerge from the Peruvian jungle. With distorted, surf-addled guitar facing off against lysergic organ and hyperactive tropical rhythms, Sonido Verde conjured the organic sound of the dense forests surrounding their hometown while riding their dance-party grooves to dizzying psychedelic peaks.

Compiled by Analog Africa, Sonido Verde de Moyobamba presents eight ultra-rare tracks of guitar and organ madness drawn from the band's five albums recorded for Discos Universal between 1981 and 1987. Pressed on Sun Yellow colored vinyl, housed in a screen-printed jacket and strictly limited to 2000 copies, Sonido Verde is a definitive trip into the heart of the jungle.

Tracklist:
1. Melancolia
2. El Limoncito
3. La Longuita
4. La Danza Del Vampiro
5. Zarzamora
6. Alegria Verde
7. Maria Esther
8. El Borracho

T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Singles & Eps

Tracklist:
1. Noude Ma Gnin Tche De Me
2. Gendamou Na Wili We Gnannin
3. Azon De Ma Gnin Kpevi
4. Mi Si Ba To
5. Houwe Towe Houn
6. Koutome
7. Agnon Depke
8. Zizi
9. Kou Nawo
10. Ahouli Vou Yeli