• Various Artists – Quare Groove Vol. 1

    February 2, 2018 - By 

    In the late 70s and early 80s the Irish charts were rife with blokes brandishing electric guitars, the likes of Queen, Dire Straits and The Police all consistently taking the top spot in singles charts. It was clear that rock music ruled the roost. Meanwhile over in the states, Americans were by and large still enjoying funk and R&B laced pop from the likes of The Bee Gees and Stevie Wonder.  Although this groove based music didn’t make half as much of a dent in the Irish charts, a new collection of underground Irish groove tracks from the Dublin based record label All City shows that Irish music in the late 70s and early 80s…

  • Kamasi Washington – Harmony of Difference

    October 3, 2017 - By 

    Hip hop was born from jazz. Powerful drum beats from 70s jazz and jazz funk gave early pioneers Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash an abundance of ingredients to create an entirely new style of music composed of their predecessors’ songs. It’s an influence that stuck through the 80s and 90s, and whether it’s J Dilla ’s sophisticated sampling or Notorious B.I.G’s Cannonball Adderly influenced flow, the fingerprints of jazz are all over hip hop. So what happens when jazz is relegated to “music for goatee scratching elitists”, and hip hop takes up the mantle as the art form for black…