I played the single, Smile, prior the release of the debut album, NOT TIGHT, which finally dropped – on Blue Note, no less – this month. Whether or not DOMi & JD BECK turn out to be “the future of Jazz”, at 22 and 19 respectively this will surely be the first of many exceptional releases, and with a guest appearance from undisputed Jazz legend, Herbie Hancock (plus vocoder!) they appear to be on the right track. At the other end of the spectrum I’m loving Noori & His Dorpa Band’s “electric soul and brass from Sudan’s Red Sea coast”, as raw and roots as D&JD are contemporary and slick.

Soothsayers always deliver, Tedeschi Trucks are currently my favourite live band and will be playing the Palladium in November, I played Somehow from the 3rd of their 4 recently released albums. Chief Ebenezer Obey started the show with his superlative, incessantly funky Nigerian Juju grooves from 1989, new releases/reissues from Ceu, Bruno Berle, The Movers, Karamanduka Y Melcochita, Alfredo Linares, Binker Golding … A big up to the 60th anniversary of Jamaican Independence with Earl Zero, Koffee and Toots, lo fi gems from Charles Stepney, Thomas Frempong and so much more …