Toshio Matsuura Group LOVEPLAYDANCE - 8 Scenes From The Floor

Re-issue of Toshio Matsuura’s 2017 cult jazz / dance classic LOVEPLAYDANCE. A project is focused on covers, putting classic or influential tracks in a new context. This new edition includes a cover of the Rotary Connection’s classic "Black Gold of the Sun" featuring Cuban singer Daymé Arocena and her prodigious Havana-based players. as well as the high energy re-lick of Byron Morris and Unity’s ‘Kitty Bey’, a classic at Gilles Peterson’s seminal afternoon session at Dingwalls in the 1990s - neither included on the original vinyl LP. Casting musical cornerstones in a fresh light, the TOSHIO MATSUURA GROUP features Tom Skinner (drummer for Smile, Sons of Kemet amongst others) as its musical director, as well as some of the UK’s most exciting jazz-influenced musicians. Drawing on years of surveying and curating different corners of music, Matsuura deftly combines this talented pool of players into one singular, wide-ranging album. A co-founder of Japan’s United Future Organisation (aka U.F.O.), This new record sees Matsuura reconnect with longstanding friend and collaborator Gilles Peterson. Releasing the album via Brownswood Recordings in the UK, it’s a continuation of a relationship which started as a bridge between London’s then-blossoming jazz scene and Tokyo’s new musical vanguard of the early ‘90s. This album continues that two-way dialogue between Japan and the UK. The scope of the music reflects the breadth of Matsuura’s interests. It ranges from Bugges Wesseltoft’s Detroit-influenced, dancefloor-minded jazz, stretched out into a more meditative contemplation, to Flying Lotus’ LA-rooted, Brainfeeder beatmaking, translated from laptop-to-live, given a new, equally idiosyncratic lease of life. Elsewhere, Carl Craig’s iconic ‘At Les’ is taken in a looser direction, the overtones of euphoria cast in a different hue. They’re touchpoints which hint at interests in the different, diffuse corners of electronic music, and how they connect to jazz and improvisation. Featuring an all star line up of some of the best players London has to offer the personel line up including Nubya Garcia, Yazz Ahmed, Yussef Dayes and more.