On his second album Quit to Play Chess, the singer/songwriter and producer Cola Boyy takes a step away from the shimmering retro disco and soft rock sounds that made him a sensation and instead branches out into all sorts of directions, including R&B, hip hop, retro dance music, reggae, and funk. Sadly, it’s also his final album; he passed away on the same day he approved the final mastering. There’s no sense of sadness found in the music though; it’s a buoyantly joyful expression of Matthew Urango’s musical vison and philosophy of life that is meant to move feet and stir hearts. It succeeds on both fronts. Urango recorded the album in his hometown of Oxnard with the help of a batch of collaborators including co-producer Jared Solomon and MGMT’s…
Category: funk
Dywayne Thomas Jr., aka MonoNeon, marches to his beat and can take any direction. We seen him burn up the stage at Newport Jazz with a decibel-breaking, raucous performance. That same MonoNeon, though, as he did on his 2024 Quilted Stereo, delivers a batch of highly accessible songs on You Had Your Chance…Bad Attitude!. In his own irreverent and thoroughly modern way, MonoNeon represents his hometown, Memphis, which has long embraced a confluence of genres. Both of these albums argue that we should take this fellow, who arrives on stage in a knit green mask and neon splattered jumpsuit, seriously. That eccentric onstage posture is amplified by the fact that he purposely plays a right-handed electric bass upside down. This flamboyant persona is…
The third album of throwback fusion and funky soul from Don Glori, 2025’s Paper Can’t Wrap Fire is a feel-good summer jazz album. The stage name of Australian-born, London-based bassist and multi-instrumentalist Gordon Li, Don Glori has carved out a niche on the international nu jazz scene with his evocative, vintage-inspired grooves. These are the kinds of organic, club-friendly tracks that artists like George Duke, Lonnie Liston-Smith, and George Benson pumped out in the ’70s and ’80s. As Don Glori, Li crafts his own infectious songs that build upon the warm, analog vibe of those original LPs, but with a freshness and immediacy that feels genuine.
While Glori impressively plays a plethora of instruments on his album, including bass,…
José James returns to his birth year for inspiration, crafting a follow-up to 1978 that further celebrates the multicultural pluralism of the era. At a glance, 1978: Revenge of the Dragon seems destined to suffer the same fate as most sequels. The basic concept is the same, and where 1978 was all-original, this is half-interpretive — four of the eight songs were either first recorded or released in ’78 — indicating a shortage of ideas. However, it’s far from a rehash. A bit of new wave pluck and rock swagger are added to the gumbo of soul, jazz-funk, and disco.
The feeling is all about romance, seduction, and joy, with nonstop feel-good energy no doubt fostered by an accompanying kung fu flick James and his band filmed daily before entering…
Philadelphia’s Pieces of a Dream hold a unique place in the contemporary jazz pantheon. Co-founded in 1976 by high school classmates Curtis Harmon (drums), James Lloyd (keyboards), and Cedric Napoleon (bass), they chose their name after Stanley Turrentine’s reading of Michel LeGrand’s “Pieces of Dreams.” The band was discovered by saxophonist and fellow Philadelphian Grover Washington, Jr., who signed them to Elektra. He produced and played on their eponymous debut album. It charted at Jazz and R&B and made the Top 200. Since then, 18 more of their albums have placed on various charts. They have been an international touring sensation since 1982. While Napoleon left the trio in 1990, he remained close to his former bandmates.