Now's the Time II
The Best in Contemporary Jazz
(compiled by Kevin LeGendre)
BDV 2880


**** 4-star Guardian review (see below)

Photos of the launch gig on 21 August here

Full tracklisting:

1/ William Parker Quartet - The Watermelon Song
(originally featured on 'Raining on the Moon', 2002)

2/ Lafayette Gilchrist - Unsolved, Unresolved
(originally featured on 'Towards the Shining Path', 2005)

3/ Leon Parker - Every Day
(Originally featured on ('The Simple Life', 2001)

4/ Loz Speyer's Time Zone Cuba - Katakusi
(Previously unavailable, 2005)

5/ Ron Blake - Sonic Tonic
(Originally featured on Sonic Tonic, 2005)

6/ The Bloomdaddies - Captain E
(Originally featured on Mosh for Lovers, 2002)

7/ Lost Brother - Departure
(Originally featured on Lost Brother, 2005)

8/ Steve Lehman - Vapors
(Originally featured on Demian as Posthuman, 2005)

9/ David Gilmore - Music Revolutions
(Originally featured on Ritualism, 2000)

10/ Lan Xang - Day of Fear, Night of Truth
(Originally featured on Lan Xang, 1997)

11/ Robert Glasper - Maiden Voyage
(Originally featured on Mood, 2003)

12/ Julie Sassoon - 44
(Recored at the Vortex club, 2008)

13/ Jason Yarde - Where Will it Take You
(Originally featured on www.soundjunction.org)

Compiled by broadcaster, jazz journalist and DJ Kevin Le Gendre from the best of his sadly missed 'Now's The Time' BBC London contemporary jazz radio show.

"Anyone familiar with the taste, breadth, seriousness and good-humour of the critic and broadcaster Kevin LeGendre will anticipate a rich contemporary mix with strong dancefloor underpinnings on his second Now's the Time compilation. This one pulls together pianist Lafayette Gilchrist (known for working with free-jazzer David Murray), playing probing, rhythmically multilayered but playful funk; UK trumpeter Loz Speyer's edgily free-flowing reshufflings of Cuban dance beats; the two-sax lineups of the Bloomdaddies and David Binney's and Donny McCaslin's Lan Xang (rocky and free-jazzy respectively); young Blue Note piano star Robert Glasper' and Britain's Jason Yarde in a typical piece of time-stretching and startling harmony. Added to that are Seb Rochford's drumming and the majestic soul- jazz voice of Eska Mtungwazi. M-base guitarist turned session player David Gilmore is caught here in lyrical acoustic mood with Sharif Simmons's atmospheric spoken text on Music Revolutions, and saxophonist Steve Lehman can be heard on the tautly twisting avant-funk track Vapors. As LeGendre writes: "Improvisation, the overwhelming desire to pass comment on a given musical statement, to subtitle the title, has its place in any jazz school of thought - be it bebop, avant-garde, third stream or fusion." Now's the Time II says amen to that." John Fordham (The Guardian)

"All just lovely – this is music that pushes at the boundaries while still being very radio-friendly, and putting a smile on your face and a spring in your step. I think they call it jazz." Peter Bacon Jazzbreakfast . Read full review here

Julie Sassoon, Lothar Ohlmeier, Milo Fell

To order at £5 special offer
click on sleeve