Words by Justin Turford

He may have a penchant for check shirts and comfy cardigans these days but Paul Murphy, legendary DJ, record man and curator of this second volume of global jazz hybrids for BBE Records ALWAYS finds and delivers unfailingly hip, voodoo-infused dancefloor murderers that straddle the Jazz, Afro, Latin and Caribbean worlds.

You don’t need to be garbed in Johnny Pacheco’s silk suits to appreciate a fierce rhythm and Paul has been one of the key pioneering forces of the jazz dance scene since the 1970s, his acclaimed club nights at the Electric Ballroom, 100 Club and The Blue Note the beating heart of what was initially a purely UK phenomenon. After several years out of the game, Paul returned with the brilliant reissue imprint Jazz Room Records as well as hitting the decks again with his trusty reel to reels and vinyl collection, a brand new generation catching his mojo at venues such as Spiritland, Brilliant Corners or Shiftless Shuffle.

Mr. Murphy is also going to be OUR special guest at Houghton Festival this August with a Q&A with me (he has stories for days) and an extended DJ set!

“The original messenger of jazz who found almost every dancefloor classic” - Gilles Peterson

For this second volume of dancefloor jazz cuts, he has kept the curatorial mission on the same track as the first. Rhythmic obscurities sit alongside contemporary tracks that perhaps didn’t get the deserved exposure the first time round or were only released on a limited vinyl run. From what I can gauge, most of the tracks are under 20 years old and many are pretty recent with selections from Japan, Mali, Venezuela, the US and Europe, and like the first compilation, he has included a smattering of cheeky cover versions including his own Jazz Room ‘smash hit’ - Take Vibe’s chart-bothering version of The Strangler’s ‘Golden Brown’.

The album kicks off proceedings with Eternal Buzz Brass Band’s ‘Sounds Good’, a cheeky slice of tuba and percussion led grooviness from the band’s (led by Geoff Mann) 2020 release ‘Live at Zebulon’. Loose and funky like all great brass bands, a strain of wildness permeates the song - a psychedelic tinge for the scruffier Mods.

The Dizzy Gillespie penned ‘Manteca’ by César's Salad is a straight up conga led salsa-boogaloo joint with raw vocals and frantic piano action - originally on the ace German label Jazz & Milk this is guaranteed Latin-jazz dancefloor mayhem!

The Madrid-based British flute and sax maestro Chip Wickham is next with the 7” edit of the swashbuckling 60s spy caper ‘Rebel No. 23’ from his excellent ‘Shamal Wind’ LP from 2018. Chip really knows how to make a tune swing for the dancers.

The Stance Brothers ‘Roll Call’ is a fierce funky drummer led beast from the Finnish musician Teppo Mäkynen with relentless drums and a voiced roll call of the drumming greats of the jazz, soul and funk worlds. A B-Boy baiting tune from 2007 that through its inclusion here should make it a classic of its kind.

Next up is Yukinari Iwata’s Cruisic outfit and their intergalactic version of the Azymuth classic ‘Jazz Carnival’. Previously released on Japanese label Flower Records this version is aimed at and hits a dancefloor audience acclimatised to contemporary dance music production; slick and shiny without losing any life force, you may well have already got your dance on to this somewhere in the last couple of years.

Daniel Crawford’s soul jazz version of the Fela Kuti masterpiece ‘Water No Get Enemy’ from the Los Angeles artist’s ‘The Awakening’ album is just delicious. With a band that contains Amp Fiddler and Vikter Duplaix, he has added a lush sensuality to the original’s hypnotic groove and power.

The New Orleans Latin soul of Willie Bobo’s ‘Fried Neckbones and Some Home Fries’ by the NOLA outfit Los Po-Boy-Citos’ is just sublime. 1970s East Harlem meeting New Orleans funk right in the middle, the beautifully clear production the only signal that this isn’t a 40 years plus original cut.

The Venezuelan percussion maestro Raúl Monsalve (see also Insolito Universo) hits us with the simmering psychedelic cha-cha of ‘Black & Decker’. Written by Los Forajidos co-founder Gustavo Guerrero, I personally caned this at all my gigs when it came out on Olindo Records in 2017!

The oldest song on the record is the wonderful ‘African Flutes’ from Clare Fischer’s 1980 fusion album ‘Machaca’ on the great German label MPS. A swaggering eight minutes of (obviously) flute and percussion fuelled Latin-jazz with killer solos from guitarist Rick Zunigar and Clare’s own masterly keyboard work: the percussionists are a who’s who of the best of the period’s Latino stick masters and includes Weather Report’s Alex Acuña.

From Malian veteran Cheick Tidiane Seck’s ‘Timbuktu - The Music of Randy Weston’ on French label Komos Jazz we get the abstracted Afro thunder of ‘Niger Mambo’. Extraordinary percussion and soulful but boisterous piano make this a joint for the proper jazz-dancers - step back and watch them sweat!

The Parisian composer and keyboardist Florian Pellissier and his quintet reimagine 60s New York but with a touch of South African jazz flavouring. ‘The Hipster’ has that Dave Brubeck / Horace Silver swing down to a tee leading appropriately into Take Vibe’s Brubeck-influenced take on the opiated ‘Golden Brown’. A single on its umpteenth reprint since taking the internet by storm during lockdown, the track is a harking back to when popular hits of the day were included in many jazz musicians repertoires, a habit now returning now that artists have noticed they sell records!

And on that note, volume 2 concludes with the retro Hammond-heavy version of The Human League’s synth-pop mega-hit ‘Don't You Want Me’ by the Anglo-Italian trio FAST 3. A 7” released in 2004 on Barcelona based Butterfly Records, this is as tasteful and Mod-groovy a cover as you can get.

A magnificent collection once again from Paul Murphy - as perfect for soundtracking domestic chores or providing sonic fuel for the hottest of dancefloors, wherever you may be while this is playing is now The Jazz Room. 10/10.

Released on BBE on May 5 2023

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