Bass CDs
Bassist Michael Olatuja to Release Lagos Pepper Soup
Bassist Michael Olatuja Enlists a Star-studded Line-up to Celebrate the Intertwinings of West African Afrobeats and Jazz on New Cinematic Album, Lagos Pepper Soup…
Whirlwind Recordings is proud to announce the June 12th release of Lagos Pepper Soup, the new album from bassist and composer Michael Olatuja. On this, his third release as a bandleader, Olatuja presents his spectacular blend of West African Afrobeats and jazz, with the support of a string orchestra – arranged by iconic film score orchestrator Dave Metzger – alongside an international all-star cast which features Angelique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves, Brandee Younger, Lionel Loueke, Regina Carter, Joe Lovano, Laura Mvula, Gregoire Maret and Becca Stevens.
Almost five years in the making, Lagos Pepper Soup– named after a zesty, West African meal, with lyrics mostly in Yoruba and English, and recorded between London and New York – is Michael Olatuja’s most comprehensive and compelling album to date. While the bassist’s first two albums – Speak (2009) and The Promise (2011) – displayed his skills as more of a composer and producer than an instrumentalist, this twelve-track collection showcases his ebullient and bone-deep bass tones – a combination of Abraham Laboriel’s percussive approach, John Patitucci’s acoustic and electric fluency, and Richard Bona’s Cameroonian-derived inventions are in the foreground. On Lagos Pepper Soup, the London-born, Lagos, Nigeria-raised, New York-based electric and acoustic bassist is supported by an impressive, international and accomplished core band consisting of keyboardists Aaron Parks and Etienne Stadwijk (a native of Suriname), saxophonist/vocalist Camille Thurman, drummer Terreon Gully and Senegalese percussionist Magatte Sow – praised for his work on the Black Panther soundtrack.
“The themes [on this new record] are hope, inspiration, and new beginnings,” Olatuja says. “This recording started at a very tough time in my life, and it’s cathartic and healing. I had to separate myself into two people: my older self, and my younger self, as if the older me were speaking to the younger me, encouraging me, and thus, encouraging whoever’s listening. That was the motivation for how this album happened. Most of my recordings are like that: Whatever season or journey I’m going through in my life, the music speaks to myself [and] others.”
The special guests on this recording have either employed Olatuja as a sideman, or became friends with him on the scene. “Lionel and Angelique are like my big brother and sister,” Olatuja says. “I toured with him, and we just hit it off. His mum speaks Yoruba. I met Angelique two years ago, and have toured with her since. She’s always been one of my heroes. She’s Mama Africa: She’s the queen! Dianne Reeves has been an inspiration and supporter for years. She’s been my hero since my teenage years. I was doing a show with Brandee Younger in DC at the Kennedy Center and on the way back, she jokingly said ‘oh, I see you finished your album, but you didn’t ask me to play a song [laughs]. So I asked her to do it, and she said yes. And I know Joe Lovano loves African music, because I’m in one of his bands called The Village Rhythms.”
Lagos Pepper Soup, contains an assortment of sonically sumptuous African rhythms with jazz improvisation, albeit in a different sonic setting. “On Speak, which I recorded in London, I was mixing Afrobeats with jazz and gospel, and I took that experiment further on the second album, The Promise,” Olatuja says. “Now, what makes this album, Lagos Pepper Soup different, is that I was thinking of it as cinematic Afrobeat! When I worked on this album, I was playing in the orchestra of the Broadway musical, Frozen, which is arranged by Dave Metzger. While touring with trumpeter Chris Botti, we’d have large orchestras behind us, so those orchestral sounds – the kind you hear in Hollywood movies – started to get into my head. So for this album, the question was: how can I fuse this mix of Afrobeat and jazz as if it was a Hollywood film soundtrack?”
You can hear the answer to Olatuja’s question on the album’s orchestrated tracks, mostly arranged by Metzger, and conducted by Joseph Joubert. “The Hero’s Journey,” which Olatuja proclaims is the most “cinematic” track, is a sublimely syncopated selection in 6/4 time, enhanced by Metzger’s arrangement, with violinist Regina Carter’s vivid solo, dedicated to Olatuja’s late mother, Comfort Bola. “Soki,” arranged by Jason Michael Webb, is propelled by a popular Nigerian rhythm genre in 6/8 entitled woro. “A lot of African countries have their own version of it,” Olatuja says. “And what I love about “Soki” is that it [also] features woro styles from Mali, Cameroon, and Senegal. It’s more like a Pan-African 6/8.” Joubert’s arrangement of “Brighter Day,” co-written by Olatujaand Kate Kelsey-Sugg, showcases vocalist Laura Mvula’s stately vocals, while the heartwarming tribute toOlatuja’s mother, “Bola’s Song,” is laced with Gregoire Maret’s luscious harmonica.
The remaining tracks feature small ensembles. The opening opus, “Even Now Prayer,” sounds like a collaboration between Jaco Pastorius and Fela Kuti. The title track is another shout-out to the leader’s mother, featuring the Beninese dynamic duo of Kidjo and Loueke, propelled by an anthemic Afrobeat Tony Allen would approve of, while Loueke’s “Mivakpola,” originally released on his 2005 album, In a Trance is recast with an infectious drum-n-bass arrangement, reminiscent of Weather Report. “Ma Foya” was originally recorded on Speak, and is rendered here, in a hi-life beat with Brandee Younger’s evocative and ethereal harpistry. Vocalist Onaje Jefferson, who was also featured on Speak, returns for an impassioned performance on “Shadows Fade” (co-written by Jefferson and Olatuja). Joe Lovano’s towering tenor saxophone reigns supreme on “Leye’s Dance,” which is pulsed by a Nigerian musical genre called Fuji. Becca Steven’s pithy vocals navigate the complex rhythmic waters on “Home True,” composed by U.K. pianist Robert Mitchell. “I heard this song when I played in his trio when I was a teenager,” Olatuja says, “and I said to myself if I ever have the opportunity to record it, I would have him on the [track]. It’s got odd meters: some of it is in 11/4, some of it is in 17/4. There’s a lot happening, rhythmically.”
The album’s final track, the plaintive postlude, “Grace,” concludes this momentous recording of depth and complexity. “Thinking as a producer, I wanted different textures,” Olatuja says. “That’s why I had “Ma Foya” stripped down, with me and Brandee Younger on harp, and then another [track] would feature an orchestra. So I was very conscious of dynamics. I really wanted some songs to sound epic, and the small ensembles to sound like a whisper. So I ended with “Grace” because it sounds like a benediction. The word grace means unlimited favor. And I feel that there’s been a lot of favor shown to me on this project … because of the way people came together – their hearts, their attitudes, made me feel that there was something bigger happening.”
Indeed, Lagos Pepper Soup captures something bigger than an all-star group, led by a twenty-first century virtuoso who the BBC proclaimed, “had a firm handle on the music of the ‘motherland’ and diaspora.” It unveils the extraordinary musical life of Michael Olatuja – from his early days playing percussion in his Lagos Yoruba Christian church and his life with his pioneering mother to his first lessons on bass as a teenager, and his music studies in the U.K at Sussex University, as well as at The Manhattan School of Music, to his work as a sideman and leader. This recording aurally illustrates the places and spaces Michael Olatuja has been, and it forecasts the shape of his Afrocentric jazz to come.
Visit online at michaelolatujamusic.com
VIDEO: “Who Are the People?” – Composed by Brandon Kyle Miller, Performed by Golden Flower
Golden Flower is an improvising quintet from Orlando, Florida… violin, trumpet/flugelhorn, Rhodes/piano, upright and electric bass, and drums, whose debut studio album “Are You Even Awake?” releases June 12, 2026, on Romantic Poker Records.
Brandon Kyle Miller handles both upright and electric bass with effects throughout the record, navigating everything from deep funk grooves to Indian classical-inspired rhythmic structures to post-rock textures, often in the same song. The album was recorded live at Phat Planet Studios and mixed and mastered by Aaron Gandia, and represents five years of development from a band that has clearly found its voice.
Standout bass moments include the deeply grooving “Piecemeal” and “Distant Glow,” the slow-burn intensity of “Intrasomatic” (composed by Brandon) and “The Search Goes On,” and the album’s epic closing triptych “Perihelion I, Interlude, & Perihelion II,” which moves through funk, African 12/8, and metric modulation with purpose and power.
The band also cites Roy Hargrove, The Bad Plus, Kneebody, and Vijay Iyer among their touchstones, a lineage that should resonate with Bass Musician readers.
Pre-order: goldenflower.bandcamp.com/album/are-you-even-awake and visit online at goldenflowermusic.com
This 8-song collection by Linc Bloomfield (also known as Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield Jr.), longtime bass player for Kelakos, showcases his songwriting, singing and overall musicianship, along with his studio engineering skills. After remixing and re-releasing the 1978 Kelakos album in 2015 as Kelakos Uncorked, Linc produced Kelakos’ second album, the 2023 Deko double LP release Hurtling Towards Extinction, in which the collection of accompanying videos have racked up over one million views.
Echoes of Dreamwold is a true solo project. With the skillful studio work of two great drummers, Carl Canedy and Andy Hamburger, a sweet country pedal steel track by Billy Cooper on ‘No Second Chances’, and a classic lead guitar track by George Haberstroh on ‘(Got to) Save the World’, Linc sang all the vocals, played all the guitar, bass, keyboard and percussion tracks, and mixed every song, before they were mastered by Blaine Misner.
Listen to Echoes of Dreamwold here: https://push.fm/fl/nhz0a3fg
This album is meant to be played over and over, in the tradition of the sixties’ and seventies’ legends who inspired and influenced LB JUNIOR’s own songwriting. No two songs are in the same genre. As he explains the origins of each of the songs
“Walk Away My Girl” is a soft-rock tale of heartbreak, originally written on his dad’s 1917 Steinway baby grand piano, on which he recorded this smooth, melodic track.
“Alive” explores the insecurity that holds many people back. Against a lively track derived from the reggae sounds heard on local radio on the island of Kauai, the lyrics are about coming to terms with self-doubts.
“Shot Down”, the first song Linc wrote after leaving Kelakos, in 1978, is a lively pop song featuring bright acoustic guitar harmonics and chords, and a story about how not to try and meet women.
“Greedy Child”, also written years ago, captures the sadness as the giants from the golden age of rock and pop music pass from the scene and along with it, a generation for whom their music was the soundtrack of their lives.
“(Got to) Save the World” reflects Linc’s life’s work promoting international security. This fast-paced rocker featuring George Haberstroh’s lead guitar and Andy Hamburger’s relentless backbeat, is a wake-up call to do something about armed conflict, mass shootings, and environmental destruction, and realize what is at stake.
“The (2nd) Fiddler’s Song” is a personal message set to a soft acoustic track, in which LB JUNIOR explains why contributing to something worthy and necessary is more satisfying than chasing personal glory.
“No Second Chances” is a country song, pure and simple, featuring Billy Cooper’s pedal steel licks and the distinctive rich tone of Linc’s 1955 Gretsch Country Club guitar.
“Sand in My Hourglass” completes the 8-song set with a blues song, inspired by the recent pandemic, and showing LB JUNIOR’s chops on his 60s Les Paul guitar – inspired long ago, in 1968, when teenage Linc saw a memorable performance by bluesman Mike Bloomfield accompanied by Al Kooper and his whipping Hammond organ sound. This one is a real ‘echo’ of late sixties’ Dreamwold, as Linc’s earlier band Emergency Exit used to perform Kooper’s classic tune with Blood, Sweat, and Tears, ‘I Love You More than You’ll Ever Know.’
Dreamwold was a grand estate built in 1901–1902 by financier Thomas W. Lawson in Scituate, Massachusetts. By the late 1960s, the ballroom had become a popular venue for live music. One of the regular performers was Emergency Exit, from nearby Cohasset, that included Linc, George Haberstroh, and Mark Sisson, who would later join Carl Canedy to form Kelakos. The band had a homemade light show, black lights, and a vintage Kustom P.A. system wrapped in sparkling Naugahyde. The Dreamwold estate was eventually redeveloped into condominium residences.
Order the vinyl of Echoes of Dreamwold: dekoentertainment.com/inthesquare/lb-junior
The double bassist Alon Near presents his first album of compositions, “Names, Places”, a musical travel journal, written over five years of touring, traveling, and hiking. Available
May 22nd, 2026. Each composition reflects a place and a meaningful encounter that left a melody behind. Alon Near’s debut album moves between city and village, complexity and simplicity, tracing a personal journey shaped by movement, memory and human connection.
“Names, Places” starts with Alon’s first composition from years ago, Breathe, which he carried through years and changing landscapes. The music unfolds with openness and release, followed by Missing, written on a small keyboard after hiking Mount St. Catherine in Egypt with his grandfather, which inspired a melody searching for steadiness between distance and memory. The Same Story reflects the awareness of an old pattern repeating itself and the quiet decision to turn away from it. Strength of Repetition is a solo bass reflection on repetition as a quiet virtue: The piece unfolds through gradual development, suggesting that consistency and patience can shape one’s voice more deeply than sudden inspiration. The fifth song, Shiguim, a playful yet intricate composition, moves through shifting phases and rhythmic turns. Lichi centers on clarity and warmth, as Yotam Silberstein’s classical guitar meets a string quartet, creating a lingering and intimate musical landscape. Tokyo carries a light and affectionate spirit while Coral is structured in the spirit of a Bach chorale, leading to the outro, a quiet gesture of closure.
About Alon:
Based between Europe and New York, he began playing at 14. After winning 1st Prize at the Rostov International Jazz Competition in 2013 and earning scholarships to Berklee College of Music and The New School in 2015, he moved to New York City, where he performed with Grammy Award-winning Billy Childs, saxophonist Eli Degibri, piano virtuoso Joey Alexander, and WDR Big Band alongside Chris Potter. Awarded 3rd Prize at the International Society of Bassists competition in 2021, Alon’s ensemble features pianist Tom Oren, winner of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz competition, alongside trumpeter Itamar Borochov and drummer Ofri Nehemya.
Visit online at alonnear.com/
The healing power of music is more than just a mantra for The Nth Power, it’s an energy that drummer Nikki Glaspie, guitarist Nick Cassarino and bassist Nate Edgar harness with intent in the recording studio. When preparing to bring their fourth studio album ‘Never Alone’ to life, the trio converged on a remote farmhouse studio in Colchester, Vermont at the personal invitation of Phish bassist Mike Gordon. Over the course of two weeklong sessions overlooking a quiet bay of Lake Champlain, they tapped into what Cassarino calls “The Great Spirit” – a creative, driving force behind their genre-defying, soulful music.
“Vermont has an energy, there’s something special in the air,” Cassarino explains. “We were there recording late into the early morning hours one night during a lunar eclipse, and it was like the whole atmosphere changed. The creative force and beauty of where we were was just ridiculous.” Each band member brought raw demos and ideas into the recording space and collectively tracked songs that would become the final eight tracks on ‘Never Alone’.
Glaspie shares, “We created this album with the intention of sharing love back into the world, with the understanding that all people deserve love. You don’t have to know someone to love them. It’s about inspiring others to have more compassion for your fellow man, and mankind as a whole. We’re only here for a speck of time, so be nice. Time is precious.”
Throughout their individual careers, The Nth Power have used their time wisely, creating and performing with some of music’s most recognizable names. Notably, Nikki Glaspie was hand-picked by Beyoncé to join her all-female touring ensemble the Suga Mamas for many years, before expanding her chops with legendary saxophonist Maceo Parker, New Orleans funk torchbearers Dumpstaphunk, and most recently with Grammy-winning jazz ensemble Snarky Puppy. A longtime member of John Brown’s Body, Nate Edgar’s signature reggae-forward bass stylings have been tapped by Sister Nancy, G. Love & Special Sauce and Rubblebucket. And Nick Cassarino has been called upon by Christian McBride, Big Daddy Kane and Babyface along the way. But no matter where individual ventures take them, they always find their way back to each other, and the higher vibrations discovered in the music they create together as The Nth Power.
The album’s lead track “Dream Alive” delivers a transcendent first taste of the new record, with driving rhythms and colorful musicianship that captures The Nth Power’s raw and unapologetic musical approach as a power trio. “It’s a song about rolling with your crew, the chosen family we get to spend our lives with,” shares Cassarino. “The chorus says it all. We’re just happy to be creating, learning and riding together.” The closeness of their bond as friends, musicians and leaders is reinforced in the accompanying video for “Dream Alive”. Recorded in San Francisco during the group’s 2025 fall tour, visuals capture scenes from a spirited performance at the historic Glide Memorial Church, where the band led a musical worship of love one Sunday morning in between tour dates on the West Coast.
Love has always been a central theme of The Nth Power, ever since the group first coalesced during a late night New Orleans Jazz Fest showcase in 2011. The new album dives into a spectrum of sexy songs – “Crave You” speaks to the deliciously addicting nuances of a relationship with its sweet, irreverent country-funk groove; while “Thirsty” calls out more carnal elements of desire with early 80s R&B undertones. “Could It Be ‘74 Remix” – a 70s-esque revamp of a song originally heard on their 2015 album ‘Abundance’ – calls upon the band’s deep roots in soulful R&B and their collective love of Leon Ware. Former bandmate Courtney Smith delivers a powerful vocal performance in the final verse to round out the song’s smooth, soulful presence.
The title track “Never Alone” ushers in a more experimental undertaking for the group. Glaspie brought a raw afro-beat demo to the Vermont farmhouse recording sessions. Inspired by musical stylings from multiple regions across the globe, the song embodies the group’s uncanny ability to transcend genres with depth, meaning and musicality. Edgar explains, “‘Never Alone’ really represents who we are as a band that can’t be defined by one musical genre,” while Glaspie adds of the lyrical inspiration, “We’re all out here doing the best we can, but we’re all in this together. You don’t have to feel alone because you aren’t.”
Embodying that same spirit of community, The Nth Power called upon a handful of special guests to lend their talents to the new album. One of the standout songs “Smile” is enriched with world-class horn arrangements provided by jazz trumpeter Nicholas Payton and master saxophonist Skerik. Recorded at Marigny Studios in the band’s spiritual hometown of New Orleans, “Smile” has been kicking around The Nth Power’s catalog ever since their initial recording session for their debut EP ‘Basic Minimum Skills Test’. A song about finding light in the darkness of drug addiction, its lyrics are pleading yet hopeful. “‘Smile’ has one of my favorite choruses we’ve ever created, and feeds my inner strengths with its message,” says Edgar. With building, layered instrumentation and exceptionally powerful horn solos, it’s a track that will give you chills.
‘Never Alone’ comes full circle with its final offering, “Simple Life” – a song about enjoying the simple pleasures and finding peace with what’s in front of you, whether that be solace in the woods or a Michelin-star meal. Edgar explains, “I came up with the groove and idea for the title when I was living in remote California during the pandemic and asking myself what it really was that I wanted from life.” The capstone song showcases duet-style vocals from Cassarino and Glaspie, while horn ensemble The Soul Rebels elevate the recording with a joyous, New Orleans-style celebration throughout.
To The Nth Power, ‘Never Alone’ continues a heartfelt mission now 13 years in the making. Glaspie explains. “We believe in the power of love, and exhibit that belief through our music. This album is a culmination of our calling as musicians and human beings on this planet. We want to take the message as far as it can go.”
Listen on all platforms HERE
Find Nate Edgar on Instagram @n8_bass
Find the Nth Power on Instagram @thenthpower
Bass CDs
New Album: Zev Feldman’s Time Traveler Recordings’ Buster Williams ‘Pinnacle’ Muse Catalog Reissue
A precious, but previously elusive gem by the brilliant bass player Buster Williams will re-enter the jazz firmament with Time Traveler Recordings’ April 18 reissue of Pinnacle, the NEA Jazz Master’s celebrated 1975 debut album as a leader.
The package, an exclusive RSD release on LP, is being reissued for the very first time since its original release. It is the latest installment in TTR’s Muse Master Edition Series, unearthing the long-lost masterworks from the catalog of the historic Muse Records. The series is a collaboration with Virgin Music Group and Craft Recordings, spearheaded by TTR co-founder, producer and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman.
Remastered AAA directly from the original analog tapes by Matthew Lutthans at the Mastering Lab in Salina, Kansas, Pinnacle is pressed on 180-gram vinyl by Optimal. It will be issued in a hand-numbered, high-gloss tip-on sleeve, featuring a new liner essay by journalist Mike Flynn and a rare period photograph of Williams by Raymond Ross. The package also includes the original 1975 notes by Elliot Meadow who produced the original session which was recorded at Blue Rock Studios in NYC.
Thirty-three years old at the time of these August 1975 sessions, Camden, New Jersey native Charles Anthony “Buster” Williams was already an acclaimed and in-demand jazz bassist. He’d spent most of the 1960s touring and recording with Nancy Wilson, also freelancing for the likes of the Jazz Crusaders, Harold Land, and the Miles Davis Quintet—substituting for Ron Carter for several months in 1967—where he met and worked with Herbie Hancock. Williams joined Hancock’s Mwandishi band in 1971, placing him on the cutting edge of the new jazz fusion movement.
Pinnacle, recorded after Mwandishi’s breakup, finds Williams still very much informed by that idiom of funky, experimental jazz. The band includes fellow Mwandishi alum Billy Hart on drums and fellow Miles veteran Sonny Fortune on soprano saxophone and flute, along with legendary trumpeter Woody Shaw and a venturesome crew including saxophonist Earl Turbinton, keyboardist Onaje Allan Gumbs and percussionist Guilherme Franco. (Vocalists Suzanne Klewan and Marcus also join on two tracks.)
Williams blazed new trails in the use of electric bass in jazz: “A pioneer among jazz doublers—musicians equally adept on upright and electric bass,” notes Flynn in his new essay. But, while he features his Fender electric bass on the thumping opener “The Hump,” on most of the album Williams plays the acoustic upright bass that had always been his first love. It anchors the darker, funkier journeys the band takes on “Pinnacle” and “Batuki” and sets the swinging tone for the acoustic numbers, the deep spiritual jazz “Noble Eagle” and the breezy, playful “Tayamisha.”
“What I love about the acoustic bass is what I have to do to get music out of it,” Williams muses. “The sound I get depends all on me, not the help of an amp. The instrument relates to my heart; it’s alive, it has emotion, it’s not just a piece of wood.”
“Bass players are often described—perhaps unfairly—as the anchor of the band,” writes Flynn. “But in the hands of a master like Buster Williams, the bass becomes something much more: the engine, the heartbeat, the mellifluous core driving the music forward.”
Williams composed four of the album’s five tracks, making Pinnacle a brilliant first showcase for his writing as well as his playing and bandleading. “Buster’s writing abilities have not gone unnoticed in the past,” observes Meadows in his original liner notes for the album. “The writing for this date is fresh and varied. ‘The Hump,’ which should make you get up and do something, contrasts with the haunting serenity of the title song. Then ‘Tayamisha’ (named for Buster’s daughter) is light and airy as opposed to the intensity of ‘Noble Ego.’”
A prophetic release, Pinnacle forecasts the subsequent 50 years that Williams has spent balancing forward-looking musical adventures with the bounty and rigor of the tradition. “The title says it all,” writes Flynn. “Pinnacle wasn’t just a debut. It was a statement of arrival—an artist stepping forward from a prolific past into a fearless, unbounded future.” And, under the curation of Time Traveler’s Muse Master Edition Series, it now sounds better than ever.