Honest Jon's Spring Sampler

Holy crap, this is good, and it's free if you buy anything at all from the Honest Jon's label (online and on the Portobello Road in London). It's a ten-song mix, spanning jazz, world, electronic and folk and, more than that, bridging the difference between them. I'm posting Youtube of as much of it as I can find, but just buy something and get this.

Tracks
1. "Cuban Nightingale," Buddy Pipp's Highlifers

2. "Lolo," Rocket Juice and the Moon: Damon Albarn, Flea and Tony Allen's afro-funk project.



3. "Yangissa," Moritz von Oswald Trio


4. "Apocalíptica," Las Malas Amistades. "Picture if you will a group of intoxicated folk musicians let loose in a studio filled with antiquated synthesisers and random percussion instruments and you may muster some idea of what Las Malas Amistades sound like. The fact that the group, hailing as they do from Colombia, sing entirely in Spanish makes the whole exercise even more impenetrable to the monolingual Anglo-Saxon ear," says Chris White of the BBC.

5. "Marble Plexus," Actress



6. "In the Water Where the City Ends," Simone White



7. "Cuernavaca," Kelan Philip Cohran & The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble -- maybe my favorite thing on the whole comp


Says Honest Jon's, "Phil Cohran was a star of the classic, early-sixties Arkestra lineup — masterpieces like Angels And Demons. He was co-founder of the AACM and taught Maurice White to play thumb piano. In the early seventies he released a deadly mix of the New Thing and street funk on his own Zulu imprint; and over the decades he has put out some of the most spiritual jazz there is. Eight of the HBE are his sons. 'This is my music and their band', says Phil, 'we don’t have to rattle on more than that.'"


8. "Tincture of Tears," Trembling Bells featuring Bonnie Prince Billy

9. "Ominira," West African Rhythm Brothers




10. "Mark Ernestus Meets Shangaan Electric," Mark Ernestus