Recommended by
The Shakedown
Recorded in a single eight-hour session at Abbey Road Studios, the second album from Tenderlonious (Ed Cawthorne) is a contemporary jazz album with hip hop, electronica, afro-beat and jazz-funk references built in. Unsurprisingly, it has an organic, live feel, the limited palette of keys, bass, drums and percussion augmenting Cawthrone’s flute, sax and synth to construct a nimble album of beat-laden, slinky jazz funk fusion. Yussef Dayes is a big presence, supplying the drum fire and a diamond-hard snare sound, his beats on Yussef’s Groove undulating like a deep ocean swell, pulling and pushing the rhythm every four bars.
Ranging from super-charged flute-funk to languid jazz-funk improvisation, The Shakedown is a deftly executed musical project with hints of that sleek, chrome-edged future-flavoured space jazz funk of Lonnie Liston Smith and Herbie Hancock to its hybrid sound.