Hello, so the world saw the biggest blast ever besides nukes and things could have been worse if that massive concrete block hadn't been there, i noticed too for being Lebanon's main port only victim a tourist boat, there were no other ships, testament to dire state Lebanon was in before the megablast. Well another chance to work together in this strongly divided country, sadly expectations are low.
Today's Artist is a musician and composer has never settled for the traditional role of a pop artist. He is known as a productive musician whose work lies beyond current trends, and also as a performer who combines the finest elements of afro-american music, spontaneous silliness and shameless glamour in an original way.........N Joy
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Jimi Tenor is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, and producer. Since 1994, the Finnish native's work had ranged across the modern music genre spectrum. Though he began recording with Jimi Tenor & His Shamans in the '80s, his solo career in electronic dance music with Sähkömies -- techno to be precise -- in 1994, put him on the international map. His sound has continued to evolve, embracing numerous strains of jazz (he's a world-class baritone and tenor saxophonist and flutist) and African music traditions. He has recorded and produced funk and neo soul with Nicole Willis, global jazz with Abdissa Assefa and Tony Allen, 21st century Afrobeat with Berlin's Kabu Kabu, and a dub/metal/funk fusion outing with Hjálmar, Iceland's premier reggae outfit. He credits influences such as Barry White, Isaac Hayes, and '70s B-movie and blaxploitation soundtracks for his musical career. With 1997's Intervision, he was already experimenting with jazz-funk. 2004's Beyond the Stars, recorded in collaboration with members of the Five Corners Quintet (including Timo Lassy and Jukka Escola) and pioneers the boundary-dissolving sound of post-bop jazz melded to soul and house music. He commenced a long collaborative relationship with Kabu Kabu on the jazz-funk outing Joystone in 2007. They have continued to collaborate on occasion. Two years later, he and Allen cut Inspiration Information for Strut, wedding Afrobeat and modern jazz. In 2013, Tenor collaborated with the avant-jazz big band UMO on Mysterium Magnum, issued a progressive rock offering with Tenors of Kalma for 2015's Electric Willow, and in 2020 made a full return to electronic music with Metamorpha.
Jimi Tenor was born in 1965 as Lassi O. T. Lehto in Lahti, Finland. The resemblance to the youngest member of The Osmonds, Little Jimmy Osmond, earned him his nickname of Jimi in the early '70s.Just like his older brother Marko, Jimi had a passion for music. He studied for many years at a music institute and can play flute, piano and saxophone; his skills were further implemented by his work experience as the saxophone player for various bands. At 16 he was the youngest member of Pallosalama (Thunderball), an orchestra which used to tour Finland with a sort of Saturday night dance shows for older people. This act was very popular then and also appeared on the Syksyn Sävel (Melody of Autumn), a song contest on Finnish Television. Later on he was part of the Pop-Rock group Himo (Lust) as a saxophone and keyboards player. In 1986 the band gained some success in the Finnish Rock Championships and released a self-titled album along with a few singles on the Amulet and Cityboy labels. Tenor was also responsible for the music and lyrics of a couple of the band's songs.
Other groups in which Jimi was involved in the mid-80s include The Cherry Pickers, Iloinen Poika Milloin (Happy Boy When) - a band founded by his brother - and... Shaman!
Jimi Tenor and His Shamans were founded during 1986; this new project was an experimental evolution of the more ordinary Rock band Shaman. At the time, Tenor had recently discovered the Industrial sound of Einstürzende Neubauten and Test Dept. The group consisted of Ilkka Mattila (guitar), Toni Kuusisto (bass) Niklas Häggblom (trumpet), and Enver Hoxha (real name Hannu Mäkelä, atonal alt bass), with Tero Kling playing drums as an added member. Jimi was the lead singer, played tenor saxophone and - just like all the other members of the band - banged on empty oil barrels, a trademark of their sound both in studio and live.
Matti Knaapi, a graphic designer and inventor, allowed the band to embrace a more experimental sound helping Jimi to create special equipment in the form of self-built musical instruments bearing names like Vera (an automatic trombone), Sirkka (a man-sized mechanical drum machine), Melukone (a noise machine) and The Liberace (a peculiar-looking stainless steel object which is hard to describe).
In the late '80s, Tenor moved to New York, where he worked as a tourist photographer at the Empire State Building. He finally hooked up with Sähkö after receiving a copy of a solo recording by Mika Vainio (of Pan Sonic and Ø). Impressed with the label's openness to experimentalism (Sähkö had previously been known as something of the muso's minimalist techno label), Tenor sent along some tapes and landed a recording contract, releasing his debut, Sahkomies, in 1994. While in New York he also recorded with Khan/4E's Can Oral (under the name Bizz O.D.), releasing the "Traffic" single on Ozon in 1995. Tenor returned to Finland in 1995 to film a documentary of Sähkö (funded, oddly enough, by a government grant) and has remained there since, Tenor gained the attention of influential Sheffield label Warp after releasing the full-length Europa in 1996, leading to a recording deal and reissue plans for some of Tenor's Sähkö releases. Warp featured the previously unavailable Tenor cut "Downtown" on their Blechsdottir label comp and released the 7"/CD single "Can't Stay with You Baby" a few months later, with two additional singles appearing in early 1997.releasing Europa in 1996 and securing licensing and recording arrangements with Warp. The full-length Intervision was released in 1997, followed two years later by Organism.
After the release of Out of Nowhere in 2000, Tenor and Sähkö parted ways with Warp. The saxophonist collaborated with his musical instrument-designing partner Matti Knaapi, drummer Edward Vesala, DJ/producer Jimi Sumen, and harpist Iro Haarla, on the experimental album City Of Women, cut at Vesala's home studio. Unfortunately, Vesala died before it was released. Tenor's sixth full-length, Utopian Dream, an overtly solo electronics record, still received import distribution. Tenor was performing with a large band for 2004's Beyond the Stars, distributed widely through Kitty-Yo, and 2007's Joystone with his backing unit Kabu Kabu. The combination also paired for 2009's 4th Dimension. In 2010, Tenor and Afro-beat drum legend Tony Allen collaborated on a volume in Strut's excellent Inspiration Information series. Ifetune, a collaboration with Ethiopian percussionist Abdissa "Mamba" Assefa, appeared in 2011. In February of 2012, the first exhibition of Tenor's photographs was shown at the Kingi Kongi Gallery in Helsinki, followed by his first feature film, Sähkö, which debuted in Berlin. He capped the eventful year by releasing The Mystery of Aether with Kabu Kabu for Kindred Spirits.
Tenor recorded the experimental Dub of Doom with Icelandic reggae band Hjálmar in 2013, as well as the experimental Exocosmos with Lassi Lehto's global Imposter Orchestra. He and Nicole Willis co-produced Finnish band Haunted by Hallucinations' self-titled debut album, and he played on Masterstone by Lehto's Flat Earth Society.
His long association with vanguard saxophonist Kalle Kalima and drummer Joonas Rippa in the Tenors of Kalma resulted in the album Electric Willow, which was issued by Enja's Yellowbird imprint in 2015, the same year as his collaboration with UMO Jazz Orchestra on the 12-track Mysterium Magnum from Herakles. The following year, the label released his full-length spiritual jazz- cum-Afrobeat set Saxentric. Two collaborative EPs were issued in 2017, first, Big Fantasy (For Me) with Nicole Willis and Jonathan Maron in March, followed by Sleepover with Freestyle Man in November. In 2018, Tenor issued Order of Nothingness an exercise in global soul-jazz and funk and played a classifiable gig with Tony Allen's band at the OTO Live Series, issued as an album by Moog Recordings. In 2019, City of Women, Vol. 2 with Vesala, Haarla, Sumen, and Knaapi was issued, consisting of material cut in 2000. In early 2020, Tenor issued Metamorpha on BubbleTease Communications. Written and recorded with bassist/ house music producer Maurice Fulton, the album marked a solid return to dance music with jazzy overtones; all instruments were performed by the duo. In March, Bureau B issued the double-length compilation Ny, Hel, Barca, that collected 20 tracks from Tenor's first six albums, between 1994 and 2001.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
With "Utopian Dream", Jimi Tenor had made our dream come true, a trippy, inspired album, without constraint type conquest of the electronic music market imposed by the signing at Warp Records (where he nevertheless released a few kills that age very very well) . The next one, "Higher Planes" still on the German label Kitty-Yo, was even more funk and jazz barred a la Sun Ra than the previous one, with soul-rock-psychedelic hybrid tendencies, so much so that we did not know which one. let it run on the plate.
Well Jimi Tenor this time went even further into space, "Beyond the Stars", as the title suggests. And he lets himself drift with his full orchestra and a few stars of German Afrobeat, beyond the stars for our infinite well-being ... If this new album may seem calm at first glance, it is actually tasted like a voluptuous fruit paste while waiting for the announced fury of the next. After the calm, the storm, and after the beyond of the stars, the big bang ?? Will Jimi Tenor ever explode?
On this album it feels like nothing has been lost yet. "Barcelona Sunrise", "Beyond the Stars", "Strawberry Place" and especially "Going for the Gold" are amongst Jimi's best songwriting. The jazzy "Moon Goddess" and the somehow Stevie Wonder-esque "Mr. French" are very stylish instrumental tracks. "Tsunami" feels confusing, as the famous Asian tsunami followed soon after this song. For me, the spring of 2004 feels like the last period of the original 00s or what was left of it, and though Beyond the Stars was released at its top end, it is still reminiscent of Utopian Dream or even Organism.
Jimi Tenor - Beyond The Stars (flac 371mb)
01 Barcelona Sunrise 4:50
02 Moon Goddess 4:03
03 Beyond the Stars 3:59
04 Asteroid Belt 2:32
05 Miracles 4:55
06 Take Off 3:30
07 Sirens of Salo 4:19
08 Gamelavad 4:18
09 Going for the Gold 3:36
10 Gimme Little Bit 5:23
11 Tsunami 3:21
12 Mr. French 3:06
13 Strawberry Place 3:54
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Jiimi Tenor's greatest gifts are curiosity, fearlessness, and his sense of humor. Now, he holds forth about contemporary classical music, remixing, re-focusing: 1. Steve Reich; 2. Esa-Pekka Salonen; 3. Pierre Boulez; 4. Erik Satie; 5. Edgard Varèse; 6. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Erik Satie; 8. Steve Reich; 9. Pierre Boulez; 10. Edgard Varèse; 11. Erik Satie; and 12. Georgi Sviridov.
Jimi tends to do things like put out electronic remakes, this works to his advantage here, though, because he's working with composers who are largely extremist and abrasive in their approach. The work of Salonen, Boulez, and Varese, in his hands, becomes music that is often actively pleasant to listen to. This is probably the most radical thing you can do with this music. He doesn't betray the music like Stokowski does with Stravinsky. Mostly he turns it into Herbie Hancock Mwandishi.
Jimi Tenor - Deutsche Grammophon Recomposed (flac 303mb)
01 Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ 6:29
02 Wing on Wing 5:32
03 Section 1 (Répons) 3:15
04 Vexations - Version 1 1:32
05 Déserts 5:45
06 1. Largo (Symphony No.2, Op.9 "Antar") 3:24
07 Vexations - Version 2 3:10
08 Six Pianos 5:38
09 Très rapide (Messagesquisse pour violoncelle solo et six violoncelles) 3:55
10 Ionisation 6:17
11 Vexations - Version 3 3:49
12 3. Choral (Choral Concerto without Words in Memory of Alexander Yurlov) 4:30
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Yes, that's a dashiki-clad Jimi Tenor on the cover of Joystone (and on the back cover, crouched in the grass, accompanied by a walking stick), although the earthy '70s avant-garde of Astral Traveling and Thembi is only a partial influence on this, his first record released with help from the new-groove merchants at Ubiquity. From the first track, it appears Tenor is using his "special instruments" (from the credit) to connect the dots from Lonnie Liston Smith to Fela Kuti to Stereolab. His co-credited partners are Kabu Kabu, a potent West African rhythm section including at least one of Kuti's former sidemen, Nicholas Addo Nettey. (Support also comes from nine of Tenor's Finnish compatriots, jazz musicians all.) Despite the heavy jazz quotient, Joystone is above all a party album, with Tenor once again playing the interstellar love man with features like "Hot Baby," "I Wanna Hook Up with You," "Bedroom Eyes," and "Love Is the Only God." His vocals are as quavery as ever but also quite endearing, and best of all, they're over soon enough as the fabulous musicians (Tenor among them) use his themes as launching pads to more great solos and rhythmic finesse.
Jimi Tenor & Kabu Kabu - Joystone (flac 398mb)
01 Anywhere, Anytime 7:06
02 Green Grass 1:49
03 I Wanna Hook Up With You 4:20
04 Hermetic Man 3:49
05 Hot Baby 5:26
06 Bedroom Eyes 5:21
07 Love Is The Only God 5:27
08 Ariane 4:25
09 Smoking 6:12
10 Horror Water 4:25
11 Sunrise 7:56
12 Dede 7:23
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The fourth installment in Strut's Inspiration Information series pairs two innovators, Afro-beat drummer Tony Allen, and the ever-mercurial Finnish musical chameleon Jimi Tenor -- with members of Tenor's large Kabu Kabu band and Daniel Givens. The set was recorded in Paris and in Finland, and includes a wide range of funk, Afro-beat, jazz, beat-conscious rock, and dub-wise reggae. It's all groove conscious, however. Check the opener "Against the Wall," with its Afro-beat grooves, funky breaks, horns and bassline pumping out a dark minor-key vamp as guitars snake their way inside the melody. Moody and swampy, it is turned around by a hilarious rap, and the mood turns decidedly funky. "Sinuwe" and "Got My Egusi Fix" offer two sides of Afro-beat funkiness. On the former, it begins on the bluesy tip with a kalimba, Allen's drums, a Wurlitzer piano, an electric guitar atop the bassline, and the male and female chorus line chanting in call and response. On the latter, a fat horn section -- heavy on the tenor and baritone saxes -- creates a vamp that is double-timed by Allen's drums and aided by hand percussion, as vibes, bass, and guitar slither underneath. The vocals appear in syncopated rhythmic lines in both English and Nigerian. Tenor appears to be the musical director of this wooly ensemble which effortlessly slides from tracks like the aforementioned to the stellar jazz of "Path to Wisdom." with a killer spiritual rap by Allonymous, and the ritualistic percussion jams in "Cella's Walk," where dub effects, Tenor's saxophone, an organ, and even a flute allow themselves to be spirits guided by Allen's astonishing kit work. "Selfish Gene" is pure reggae goodness, with its beautiful Wurlitzer organ and a purposely out-of-key but utterly soulful Tenor vocal. As always, Allen double-times, even in his breaks, but the bassline, guitars, and organ bubble along with a sweet minor-key melody line. Tenor's spindly vocal also graces "The Darker Side of Night," which is highlighted by one of the hippest, funkiest flute solos this side of '70s-era Hubert Laws. What Inspiration Information, Vol. 4 reveals is that Allen and Tenor are not only natural collaborators, but that they should work together again -- and soon. Each of its nine tracks is a wonder, one that takes some time to wrap your head around but no time at all to get up and start dancing to. I’d lean toward the slinky reggae of “Selfish Gene,” a wicked-cool ramblin’ song with a mean organ vamp, but I could just as easily point to the thirteen-minute closing epic, “Three Continents” a free-flowing suite that travels the globe without ever leaving the club. Come to think of it, that might be the best way to summarize this sensational recording – this is music that reaches high and far without losing its footing, an album of big ideas but even bigger grooves. It’s a knockout from top to bottom, and it’s almost as fascinating as it is fun.
Jimi Tenor & Tony Allen - Inspiration Information (flac 373mb)
01 Against The Wall 4:37
02 Sinuhe 6:11
03 Selfish Gene 3:47
04 Darker Side Of Night 6:54
05 Got My Egusi 7:58
06 Path To Wisdom 5:48
07 Cella's Walk 5:16
08 Mama England 5:09
09 Three Continents 13:51
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Today's Artist is a musician and composer has never settled for the traditional role of a pop artist. He is known as a productive musician whose work lies beyond current trends, and also as a performer who combines the finest elements of afro-american music, spontaneous silliness and shameless glamour in an original way.........N Joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Jimi Tenor is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, and producer. Since 1994, the Finnish native's work had ranged across the modern music genre spectrum. Though he began recording with Jimi Tenor & His Shamans in the '80s, his solo career in electronic dance music with Sähkömies -- techno to be precise -- in 1994, put him on the international map. His sound has continued to evolve, embracing numerous strains of jazz (he's a world-class baritone and tenor saxophonist and flutist) and African music traditions. He has recorded and produced funk and neo soul with Nicole Willis, global jazz with Abdissa Assefa and Tony Allen, 21st century Afrobeat with Berlin's Kabu Kabu, and a dub/metal/funk fusion outing with Hjálmar, Iceland's premier reggae outfit. He credits influences such as Barry White, Isaac Hayes, and '70s B-movie and blaxploitation soundtracks for his musical career. With 1997's Intervision, he was already experimenting with jazz-funk. 2004's Beyond the Stars, recorded in collaboration with members of the Five Corners Quintet (including Timo Lassy and Jukka Escola) and pioneers the boundary-dissolving sound of post-bop jazz melded to soul and house music. He commenced a long collaborative relationship with Kabu Kabu on the jazz-funk outing Joystone in 2007. They have continued to collaborate on occasion. Two years later, he and Allen cut Inspiration Information for Strut, wedding Afrobeat and modern jazz. In 2013, Tenor collaborated with the avant-jazz big band UMO on Mysterium Magnum, issued a progressive rock offering with Tenors of Kalma for 2015's Electric Willow, and in 2020 made a full return to electronic music with Metamorpha.
Jimi Tenor was born in 1965 as Lassi O. T. Lehto in Lahti, Finland. The resemblance to the youngest member of The Osmonds, Little Jimmy Osmond, earned him his nickname of Jimi in the early '70s.Just like his older brother Marko, Jimi had a passion for music. He studied for many years at a music institute and can play flute, piano and saxophone; his skills were further implemented by his work experience as the saxophone player for various bands. At 16 he was the youngest member of Pallosalama (Thunderball), an orchestra which used to tour Finland with a sort of Saturday night dance shows for older people. This act was very popular then and also appeared on the Syksyn Sävel (Melody of Autumn), a song contest on Finnish Television. Later on he was part of the Pop-Rock group Himo (Lust) as a saxophone and keyboards player. In 1986 the band gained some success in the Finnish Rock Championships and released a self-titled album along with a few singles on the Amulet and Cityboy labels. Tenor was also responsible for the music and lyrics of a couple of the band's songs.
Other groups in which Jimi was involved in the mid-80s include The Cherry Pickers, Iloinen Poika Milloin (Happy Boy When) - a band founded by his brother - and... Shaman!
Jimi Tenor and His Shamans were founded during 1986; this new project was an experimental evolution of the more ordinary Rock band Shaman. At the time, Tenor had recently discovered the Industrial sound of Einstürzende Neubauten and Test Dept. The group consisted of Ilkka Mattila (guitar), Toni Kuusisto (bass) Niklas Häggblom (trumpet), and Enver Hoxha (real name Hannu Mäkelä, atonal alt bass), with Tero Kling playing drums as an added member. Jimi was the lead singer, played tenor saxophone and - just like all the other members of the band - banged on empty oil barrels, a trademark of their sound both in studio and live.
Matti Knaapi, a graphic designer and inventor, allowed the band to embrace a more experimental sound helping Jimi to create special equipment in the form of self-built musical instruments bearing names like Vera (an automatic trombone), Sirkka (a man-sized mechanical drum machine), Melukone (a noise machine) and The Liberace (a peculiar-looking stainless steel object which is hard to describe).
In the late '80s, Tenor moved to New York, where he worked as a tourist photographer at the Empire State Building. He finally hooked up with Sähkö after receiving a copy of a solo recording by Mika Vainio (of Pan Sonic and Ø). Impressed with the label's openness to experimentalism (Sähkö had previously been known as something of the muso's minimalist techno label), Tenor sent along some tapes and landed a recording contract, releasing his debut, Sahkomies, in 1994. While in New York he also recorded with Khan/4E's Can Oral (under the name Bizz O.D.), releasing the "Traffic" single on Ozon in 1995. Tenor returned to Finland in 1995 to film a documentary of Sähkö (funded, oddly enough, by a government grant) and has remained there since, Tenor gained the attention of influential Sheffield label Warp after releasing the full-length Europa in 1996, leading to a recording deal and reissue plans for some of Tenor's Sähkö releases. Warp featured the previously unavailable Tenor cut "Downtown" on their Blechsdottir label comp and released the 7"/CD single "Can't Stay with You Baby" a few months later, with two additional singles appearing in early 1997.releasing Europa in 1996 and securing licensing and recording arrangements with Warp. The full-length Intervision was released in 1997, followed two years later by Organism.
After the release of Out of Nowhere in 2000, Tenor and Sähkö parted ways with Warp. The saxophonist collaborated with his musical instrument-designing partner Matti Knaapi, drummer Edward Vesala, DJ/producer Jimi Sumen, and harpist Iro Haarla, on the experimental album City Of Women, cut at Vesala's home studio. Unfortunately, Vesala died before it was released. Tenor's sixth full-length, Utopian Dream, an overtly solo electronics record, still received import distribution. Tenor was performing with a large band for 2004's Beyond the Stars, distributed widely through Kitty-Yo, and 2007's Joystone with his backing unit Kabu Kabu. The combination also paired for 2009's 4th Dimension. In 2010, Tenor and Afro-beat drum legend Tony Allen collaborated on a volume in Strut's excellent Inspiration Information series. Ifetune, a collaboration with Ethiopian percussionist Abdissa "Mamba" Assefa, appeared in 2011. In February of 2012, the first exhibition of Tenor's photographs was shown at the Kingi Kongi Gallery in Helsinki, followed by his first feature film, Sähkö, which debuted in Berlin. He capped the eventful year by releasing The Mystery of Aether with Kabu Kabu for Kindred Spirits.
Tenor recorded the experimental Dub of Doom with Icelandic reggae band Hjálmar in 2013, as well as the experimental Exocosmos with Lassi Lehto's global Imposter Orchestra. He and Nicole Willis co-produced Finnish band Haunted by Hallucinations' self-titled debut album, and he played on Masterstone by Lehto's Flat Earth Society.
His long association with vanguard saxophonist Kalle Kalima and drummer Joonas Rippa in the Tenors of Kalma resulted in the album Electric Willow, which was issued by Enja's Yellowbird imprint in 2015, the same year as his collaboration with UMO Jazz Orchestra on the 12-track Mysterium Magnum from Herakles. The following year, the label released his full-length spiritual jazz- cum-Afrobeat set Saxentric. Two collaborative EPs were issued in 2017, first, Big Fantasy (For Me) with Nicole Willis and Jonathan Maron in March, followed by Sleepover with Freestyle Man in November. In 2018, Tenor issued Order of Nothingness an exercise in global soul-jazz and funk and played a classifiable gig with Tony Allen's band at the OTO Live Series, issued as an album by Moog Recordings. In 2019, City of Women, Vol. 2 with Vesala, Haarla, Sumen, and Knaapi was issued, consisting of material cut in 2000. In early 2020, Tenor issued Metamorpha on BubbleTease Communications. Written and recorded with bassist/ house music producer Maurice Fulton, the album marked a solid return to dance music with jazzy overtones; all instruments were performed by the duo. In March, Bureau B issued the double-length compilation Ny, Hel, Barca, that collected 20 tracks from Tenor's first six albums, between 1994 and 2001.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
With "Utopian Dream", Jimi Tenor had made our dream come true, a trippy, inspired album, without constraint type conquest of the electronic music market imposed by the signing at Warp Records (where he nevertheless released a few kills that age very very well) . The next one, "Higher Planes" still on the German label Kitty-Yo, was even more funk and jazz barred a la Sun Ra than the previous one, with soul-rock-psychedelic hybrid tendencies, so much so that we did not know which one. let it run on the plate.
Well Jimi Tenor this time went even further into space, "Beyond the Stars", as the title suggests. And he lets himself drift with his full orchestra and a few stars of German Afrobeat, beyond the stars for our infinite well-being ... If this new album may seem calm at first glance, it is actually tasted like a voluptuous fruit paste while waiting for the announced fury of the next. After the calm, the storm, and after the beyond of the stars, the big bang ?? Will Jimi Tenor ever explode?
On this album it feels like nothing has been lost yet. "Barcelona Sunrise", "Beyond the Stars", "Strawberry Place" and especially "Going for the Gold" are amongst Jimi's best songwriting. The jazzy "Moon Goddess" and the somehow Stevie Wonder-esque "Mr. French" are very stylish instrumental tracks. "Tsunami" feels confusing, as the famous Asian tsunami followed soon after this song. For me, the spring of 2004 feels like the last period of the original 00s or what was left of it, and though Beyond the Stars was released at its top end, it is still reminiscent of Utopian Dream or even Organism.
Jimi Tenor - Beyond The Stars (flac 371mb)
01 Barcelona Sunrise 4:50
02 Moon Goddess 4:03
03 Beyond the Stars 3:59
04 Asteroid Belt 2:32
05 Miracles 4:55
06 Take Off 3:30
07 Sirens of Salo 4:19
08 Gamelavad 4:18
09 Going for the Gold 3:36
10 Gimme Little Bit 5:23
11 Tsunami 3:21
12 Mr. French 3:06
13 Strawberry Place 3:54
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Jiimi Tenor's greatest gifts are curiosity, fearlessness, and his sense of humor. Now, he holds forth about contemporary classical music, remixing, re-focusing: 1. Steve Reich; 2. Esa-Pekka Salonen; 3. Pierre Boulez; 4. Erik Satie; 5. Edgard Varèse; 6. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Erik Satie; 8. Steve Reich; 9. Pierre Boulez; 10. Edgard Varèse; 11. Erik Satie; and 12. Georgi Sviridov.
Jimi tends to do things like put out electronic remakes, this works to his advantage here, though, because he's working with composers who are largely extremist and abrasive in their approach. The work of Salonen, Boulez, and Varese, in his hands, becomes music that is often actively pleasant to listen to. This is probably the most radical thing you can do with this music. He doesn't betray the music like Stokowski does with Stravinsky. Mostly he turns it into Herbie Hancock Mwandishi.
Jimi Tenor - Deutsche Grammophon Recomposed (flac 303mb)
01 Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ 6:29
02 Wing on Wing 5:32
03 Section 1 (Répons) 3:15
04 Vexations - Version 1 1:32
05 Déserts 5:45
06 1. Largo (Symphony No.2, Op.9 "Antar") 3:24
07 Vexations - Version 2 3:10
08 Six Pianos 5:38
09 Très rapide (Messagesquisse pour violoncelle solo et six violoncelles) 3:55
10 Ionisation 6:17
11 Vexations - Version 3 3:49
12 3. Choral (Choral Concerto without Words in Memory of Alexander Yurlov) 4:30
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Yes, that's a dashiki-clad Jimi Tenor on the cover of Joystone (and on the back cover, crouched in the grass, accompanied by a walking stick), although the earthy '70s avant-garde of Astral Traveling and Thembi is only a partial influence on this, his first record released with help from the new-groove merchants at Ubiquity. From the first track, it appears Tenor is using his "special instruments" (from the credit) to connect the dots from Lonnie Liston Smith to Fela Kuti to Stereolab. His co-credited partners are Kabu Kabu, a potent West African rhythm section including at least one of Kuti's former sidemen, Nicholas Addo Nettey. (Support also comes from nine of Tenor's Finnish compatriots, jazz musicians all.) Despite the heavy jazz quotient, Joystone is above all a party album, with Tenor once again playing the interstellar love man with features like "Hot Baby," "I Wanna Hook Up with You," "Bedroom Eyes," and "Love Is the Only God." His vocals are as quavery as ever but also quite endearing, and best of all, they're over soon enough as the fabulous musicians (Tenor among them) use his themes as launching pads to more great solos and rhythmic finesse.
Jimi Tenor & Kabu Kabu - Joystone (flac 398mb)
01 Anywhere, Anytime 7:06
02 Green Grass 1:49
03 I Wanna Hook Up With You 4:20
04 Hermetic Man 3:49
05 Hot Baby 5:26
06 Bedroom Eyes 5:21
07 Love Is The Only God 5:27
08 Ariane 4:25
09 Smoking 6:12
10 Horror Water 4:25
11 Sunrise 7:56
12 Dede 7:23
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The fourth installment in Strut's Inspiration Information series pairs two innovators, Afro-beat drummer Tony Allen, and the ever-mercurial Finnish musical chameleon Jimi Tenor -- with members of Tenor's large Kabu Kabu band and Daniel Givens. The set was recorded in Paris and in Finland, and includes a wide range of funk, Afro-beat, jazz, beat-conscious rock, and dub-wise reggae. It's all groove conscious, however. Check the opener "Against the Wall," with its Afro-beat grooves, funky breaks, horns and bassline pumping out a dark minor-key vamp as guitars snake their way inside the melody. Moody and swampy, it is turned around by a hilarious rap, and the mood turns decidedly funky. "Sinuwe" and "Got My Egusi Fix" offer two sides of Afro-beat funkiness. On the former, it begins on the bluesy tip with a kalimba, Allen's drums, a Wurlitzer piano, an electric guitar atop the bassline, and the male and female chorus line chanting in call and response. On the latter, a fat horn section -- heavy on the tenor and baritone saxes -- creates a vamp that is double-timed by Allen's drums and aided by hand percussion, as vibes, bass, and guitar slither underneath. The vocals appear in syncopated rhythmic lines in both English and Nigerian. Tenor appears to be the musical director of this wooly ensemble which effortlessly slides from tracks like the aforementioned to the stellar jazz of "Path to Wisdom." with a killer spiritual rap by Allonymous, and the ritualistic percussion jams in "Cella's Walk," where dub effects, Tenor's saxophone, an organ, and even a flute allow themselves to be spirits guided by Allen's astonishing kit work. "Selfish Gene" is pure reggae goodness, with its beautiful Wurlitzer organ and a purposely out-of-key but utterly soulful Tenor vocal. As always, Allen double-times, even in his breaks, but the bassline, guitars, and organ bubble along with a sweet minor-key melody line. Tenor's spindly vocal also graces "The Darker Side of Night," which is highlighted by one of the hippest, funkiest flute solos this side of '70s-era Hubert Laws. What Inspiration Information, Vol. 4 reveals is that Allen and Tenor are not only natural collaborators, but that they should work together again -- and soon. Each of its nine tracks is a wonder, one that takes some time to wrap your head around but no time at all to get up and start dancing to. I’d lean toward the slinky reggae of “Selfish Gene,” a wicked-cool ramblin’ song with a mean organ vamp, but I could just as easily point to the thirteen-minute closing epic, “Three Continents” a free-flowing suite that travels the globe without ever leaving the club. Come to think of it, that might be the best way to summarize this sensational recording – this is music that reaches high and far without losing its footing, an album of big ideas but even bigger grooves. It’s a knockout from top to bottom, and it’s almost as fascinating as it is fun.
Jimi Tenor & Tony Allen - Inspiration Information (flac 373mb)
01 Against The Wall 4:37
02 Sinuhe 6:11
03 Selfish Gene 3:47
04 Darker Side Of Night 6:54
05 Got My Egusi 7:58
06 Path To Wisdom 5:48
07 Cella's Walk 5:16
08 Mama England 5:09
09 Three Continents 13:51
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