Night Dreamer Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Isaiah Collier, a Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist and composer, channels ancestral spirits on the transcendent Parallel Universe. Known for pushing jazz boundaries, Collier's saxophone mastery and compositional depth redefine the genre here as Parallel Universe marks a pivotal moment in his career as he embraces the live recording's risk and vulnerability. Reflecting on the improvisational essence of classic jazz, Collier honours musical predecessors in style here. The album features gospel soul singer Jimetta Rose, AACM's Corey Wilkes, blues-rooted guitarist Michael Damani, and collaborators Julian Davis Reid, James Russell Sims, and Micah Collier. Across eight tracks, a great understanding between them all really shines through.

Review: Multi-instrumentalist and composer Isaiah Collier connects with divine ancestors on a transcendent Direct-To-Disc session, Parallel Universe. The Chicago-based innovator and educator is heard to open up new dimensions in the jazzwise continuum on this LP; a saxophonist by trade, his multi-instrumental talents and compositional prowess have thus far stretched the limits of the form, and Parallel Universe once again embraces the risk and vulnerability that is oh-so-native to the live process he knows all too well. Featuring gospel soul singer Jimetta Rose, AACM and former Art Ensemble of Chicago trumpet player Corey Wilkes, blues-rooted guitarist Michael Damani, regular collaborators Julian Davis Reid, James Russell Sims and Micah Collier, the eight-track album bristles with a sense of love and understanding between players at the top of their game.

Review: Seun Kuti has hailed Etuk Ubong as one of the best things to come out of Lagos. He's developed an original style called 'Earth Music' which is hugely popular in his hometown, where he has launched his own venue The Truth - the most prolific in the Nigerian capital since Fela Kuti's Shrine. Ubong was invited by Night Dreamer to record at Haarlem's Artone Studio, where he assembled an international ensemble of skilled musicians to record his compositions direct-to-disc, capturing his enigmatic live performance in its raw and unadulterated form. Ubong is joined by homeboy Michael Awosogo (also on trumpet) and a selection of UK and Netherlands-based musicians who recorded the whole album in one take, on the last day of a five-day session.

Review: The latest addition to Night Dreamer's series, Direct To Disk Sessions, sees Turkish downtempo specialist, Islandman, iconic percussionist and Don Cherry collaborator, Okay Temiz and contemporary saz player Muhlis Berbero?lu joining forces for the very first time. Recorded in just one take, the session captures a one-off melding of the trio's distinct styles. Islandman's signature balearic sound gives new force to Temiz's fiery percussion, reframing Berbero?lu's Anadolu folk influences into a distinctly dance-ready sound. Stand out track 'Fidayda' eases us into the trio's expertly improvised soundworld with an alluring, oscillating saz riff. When Temiz's percussion enters the mix, it arrives with a controlled unpredictability capable of leaving listeners in a trance. While Islandman's production subtly centres the piece, mapping out a pathway from which the organic instrumentation can unfurl. Future-folktronica at its very best

Review: If you're looking for some exotic, spiritually minded jazz to kick-start 2021, look no further than this inspired collection as "direct-to-disc" improvisation from drummer Sarathy Korwar and his regular studio partners, the UPAJ Collective. In keeping with the feel of their previous work, the five showcased improvised recordings brilliant fuse familiar spiritual jazz tropes (snaking saxophone solos, loose-limbed drums and quality keys-work) with the traditions and sounds of Indian classical music (think tablas, violins, Hindi musical motifs played on acoustic guitar etc). Throw in some real-time recording trickery, and you've got an unusual but extremely entertaining set that we firmly believe is the first great jazz album of 2021.

Review: Brazilian rapper Marcelo D2 shares the release of new direct-to-disc album via Night Dreamer. Recorded alongside electrifying live band Sambadrive, the album revisits some of Marcelo D2's most important tracks, mining 25 years of groundbreaking music from the Brazilian legend, and capturing his now timeless 'samba hip-hop' sound in full flow. The aforementioned is an unusual yet compelling sound, marking the voice and style of a torchbearer and innovator, and not the last to be marked by the motto "looking for the perfect beat". Now, in 2024, D2 retells his story from a new perspective. Inspired by the iconic jazz-samba trios of the 60s and 70s, Sambadrive emerged from the improvised and often spontaneous jams that would preface Marcelo D2's live shows. Touring the world and reuniting with producer Mario Caldato Jr., the group dropped in on Haarlem's Artone Studio in October 2022 to record an album of 10 tracks, drawn from four of Marcelo D2's most loved albums.

Review: That the musical backlog of Hopeton Overton Brown took on a clinical name in the popular imaginary was not an accident. Before becoming known as Scientist, he was also known as the "Dub Chemist", owing to his technicality, incisiveness and exactingness in the studio. This is not, however, licence for us to prescribe, daresay dub, a too-rigid image of or name for the sound-doctor-as-artist; and it's releases like 'Direct To Dub' that prove this intractability, this willingness to break from the main. In sharp contrast to Scientist's albums - which are more or less studio opuses, and bear the marks of grand concept and perfectionism - 'Direct To Dub' is a much rawer direct-to-dubplate - and thus direct-to-dome - set of tracks. In the release's preceding sessions, Brown was joined by Amsterdam-based trombonist Salvoandrea Lucifora and backing vocalists Alyssa Harrigan and Peace Oluwatobi; prior to their arrival, he went about taking the studio apart and reassembling it to his specifications. The result was a liver take on Brown's talents; playing less the cold trepidation of a pharmacist, and more the carpal quickness of a spin-doctor. Brown, of course, knew that even the apparently 'cold' attitude of removal connoted with mixing and engineering was in itself a performance: "In dub mixing, the engineer now becomes the artist and it's a performance that the engineer do," he himself said in the run-up to this Night Dreamer reissue.

Review: Dutch-Surinamese multi-instrumentalist Ronald Snijders flaunts both a light touch and larynx on his latest LP for Night Dreamer. Always having drawn on jazz, Latin, Brazilian and Surinamese international musics, and bringing them together to form one confluent dialogue, Snijders is known for his pioneering, never-heard-before fusions. This stunning set of direct-to-disc single takes adds yet another cameo to his ever increasing vault of reliefs. This time we hear the musician take up his signature instrument, the flute, over several other instrumental contributions, by a swath of players including Yoran Vroom, Jeroen Vierdag, Mike Del Ferro and Efraim Trujillo. With the classy edge of a classic jazz funk record, Snijders is sure to once again impress even the most seasoned of jazz heads here, with high hopes for an expanded scope of recognition outside his native Netherlands.

Review: British pianist Charlie Stacey's first solo project comes in the form of a one-take direct-to-disc live recording of his improvisational genre-bending sound. The Charlie Stacey regulars are present on drums, bass and trumpet, though this time vocals are courtesy of Vula Malinga of Basement Jaxx fame. The opener 'Dawn Chorus' is a 'Legend of Zelda'-esque gentle key ballad, that blends into the mellow jazz 'Music is Healing' where the brass of Jay Phelps is on full display before giving way to a free for all acid jazz race to the finish on the tail end. A sure favourite for many will be the 10-minute epic 'Rivers of Gondor' - based on the worlds of Tolkien of course - and its twisting, experimental composition.