''London Brew'' is the debut album by London Brew, a band consisting of a dozen

British jazz British jazz is a form of music derived from American jazz. It reached Britain through recordings and performers who visited the country while it was a relatively new genre, soon after the end of World War I. Jazz began to be played by British ...

musicians including Nubya Garcia,

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

presenter

Benji B Benjamin Benstead, known professionally as Benji B, is a British DJ, radio presenter, and record producer. A longtime BBC Radio producer and presenter, he has presented a weekly show on BBC Radio 1 since 2010 that highlights an eclectic mix of h ...

, and multiple members of

Sons of Kemet Sons of Kemet are a British jazz group formed by Shabaka Hutchings, Oren Marshall, Seb Rochford, and Tom Skinner. Theon Cross replaced Marshall on tuba after the first album, and Eddie Hick replaced Rochford on drums after the third. Career T ...

and the Invisible. The album was released on 31 March 2023.

Background and recording

The band was assembled by producer and guitarist

Martin Terefe Martin Terefe (born 1969, Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish record producer and songwriter, now living and working in London, who has produced Grammy, Brit and Juno award -winning albums with artists like Jason Mraz, James Morrison and KT Tunstal ...

and executive producer Bruce Lampcov for a series of concerts in major cities across Europe, starting with one at the

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhi ...

celebrating the 50th anniversary of

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...

' ''

Bitches Brew ''Bitches Brew'' is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was recorded from August 19 to 21, 1969, at Columbia's Studio B in New York City and released on March 30, 1970 by Columbia Records. It marke ...

'' which was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In place of the concert, the group assembled at

the Church Studios The Church Studios is a recording studio located in a former church in Crouch End, North London, England. It was rented and then owned by Dave Stewart in the 1980s and 1990s, and was used to record Eurythmics' second album '' Sweet Dreams''. ...

in North London in December 2020, starting five days after the end of the UK's second COVID-19 lockdown, to record the album, an improvised set inspired by ''Bitches Brew''. The recording took place over three days. The process started with pre-production work by Terefe and the Invisible's

Dave Okumu David Jairus Ochieng Okumu (born 12 October 1976 in Vienna, Austria) is a singer, songwriter, producer and guitarist, best known for fronting the band The Invisible. Their debut album, released in March 2009, was nominated for a Mercury Prize ...

, which Okumu described as Terefe sharing "a vision rooted in inspiration and celebration rather than faithful recreation". Benji B was brought in to feed Terefe's and Okumu's initial sketches to the ensemble. Okumu said the recording process was full of "so many special moments" such as "Shabaka and Nubya speaking to each other through their horns or Theon Cross dropping the heaviest bass line this side of lockdown." Terefe, left with over 12 hours of material from the sessions, said he mixed them "like a non-jazz record" with "no editing at all, except deciding where to start and end a song", a decision he considered "the least conventional thing to do". Terefe called the results a "new piece of music that taps into Miles's mindset at the time and our emotion of having been through the pandemic", and said "calling the album 'Inspired by ''Bitches Brew'' comes the closest" to explaining it.

Release

The album was announced 19 January 2023 along with the release of lead single "Miles Chases New Voodoo in the Church", an interpretation of Davis'

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

-inspired " Miles Runs the Voodoo Down", and was released by

Concord Jazz Concord Jazz is a record company and label founded in 1973 by Carl Jefferson, the former owner of Jefferson Motors Lincoln Mercury dealership in Concord, California. The label was named after the city in the East San Francisco Bay area, and the j ...

on 31 March. The second single, "Raven Flies Low", was released 9 March. It is said to match "rugged funk aspects in the beat to glorious melodies wrought from the effects-laden violin of Raven Bush." Terefe said that in mixing the track, he "fell into focusing on the continuous flow fRaven's violin melodies and electronic pedal orchestrations. His mini compositions moved so brilliantly under the radar and this one blew my mind. I chose the title inspired by the track 'John McLaughlin' on ''Bitches Brew''. Simply a hats off to a maestro at work."

Reception

Track listing

Personnel

Sourced from ''

JamBase ''JamBase'' is an online database and news portal of live music and festivals A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. ...

''. *

– producer, mixing engineer, guitarist * Bruce Lampcov – executive producer * Dilip Harris - recording engineer * Nubya Garcia – saxophone, flute *

Shabaka Hutchings Shabaka Hutchings is a British jazz musician, composer and bandleader. He leads the bands Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors. He is also a member of The Comet Is Coming, performing under the stage name King Shabaka. Hutchings has p ...

– saxophone,

woodwinds Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and reed ...

Tom Skinner Sir Thomas Edward Skinner (18 April 1909 – 11 November 1991) was a New Zealand politician and Trades Union leader. Sir Tom served as President of the Auckland Trades Council from 1954 to 1976, and President of the New Zealand Federation of ...

– drums, percussion *

– decks, sonic recycling *

Theon Cross Theon Cross is a British tuba player and composer. Background Born and raised in London to a Jamaican father and Saint Lucian mother, he began taking tenor horn lessons at the age of 8, then switched to tuba when he was in his mid-teens. He stu ...

– tuba * Raven Bush – violin,

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

* Tom Herbert –

electric bass The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck The ...

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

Nikolaj Torp Larsen Nikolaj Torp Larsen (born 1973) is a Danish musician (also credited as Nikolaj Torp, Nick Torp, Nik Torp). He is also a producer, film composer and writer, who has played keyboards, piano and Hammond with numerous artists on tour and on many succe ...

– synthesisers,

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usual ...

* Nick Ramm – piano, synthesizers * Dan See – drums, percussion *

– guitar *

Glen Scott Glen Scott (born Glenvin Anthony Scott on 29 August 1973) is a British producer, arranger, mixing engineer, singer-songwriter, and session musician. Glen Scott is currently living and working in London. He has worked with artists such as Jame ...

* Lucinda Chao

Charts

References

{{The Invisible (band) 2023 debut albums Albums produced by Martin Terefe Albums recorded at The Church Studios Concord Music Group albums Jazz albums by British artists