Philadelphia to name a street after Mtume

This spring Miles Davis percussion legend Mtume - he's on Columbia 1970s era albums such as On the Corner, In Concert: Live at Philharmonic Hall, Big Fun, Get Up with It, Dark Magus, Agharta and Pangaea - who died last year is receiving an honour …

Published: 29 Mar 2023. Updated: 13 months.

This spring Miles Davis percussion legend Mtume - he's on Columbia 1970s era albums such as On the Corner, In Concert: Live at Philharmonic Hall, Big Fun, Get Up with It, Dark Magus, Agharta and Pangaea - who died last year is receiving an honour from his home town of Philadelphia as the city names a street after the deepy revered percussionist also known for his hit 'Juicy Fruit' and for producing Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway and Stephanie Mills - co-writing and playing keyboards on the 1980s Grammy winning top 10 hit in both the UK and the US, 'Never Knew Love Like This Before.'

The street naming - the 1500 block of Wharton Street in South Philadelphia - will take place on 12 May. Mtume's son Faulu says: “Wharton Street is where his journey into music, social activism and politics had begun. The roots for all three are there.” James Mtume, top Photo press

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London Brew, London Brew, Concord Jazz *****

In our best of the year so far - see full list - it is significant because the Concord Jazz release marks a new chapter for post electronica post colonialist era jazz-rock. Whether London Brew will tour as a band or not is unclear. The album takes …

Published: 28 Mar 2023. Updated: 13 months.

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In our best of the year so far - see full list - it is significant because the Concord Jazz release marks a new chapter for post electronica post colonialist era jazz-rock. Whether London Brew will tour as a band or not is unclear. The album takes the Miles Davis jazz rock epic Bitches Bew as part of its creed and belief system as well as its nominative manifesto. But apart from Dave Okumu's role - the John McLaughlin of the project - there isn't any obvious or even any connection at all to the obvious style of Bitches Brew or more to the point any exact idiom. What you have here instead is a band of players in a state of the art studio with highly creative producers and engineers on hand telling their own truth, living their best lives in a post-post-post electronica alt-rock universe fed by jazz language when sadly much of the essential language out there has been mothballed to the museum or lives on only in the tribute band circuit. Rather like a book that has a dedication to a great one at the beginning the pages that follow are the interesting bit and completely London Brew's own narrative. Nubya Garcia, Shabaka Hutchings, Okumu, Theon Cross, Benji B, Tom Skinner and more are involved most of whom are significant leaders in their own right and actually tear up the book only keeping a torn reference to Miles out of respect. Think of the project less as a thesis about the strength of the dynamic UK jazz scene because it is that but more quite simply a work of art because it certainly is. Dave Okumu, photo: stock publicity shot. Out on Friday

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