One For The Weekend: Nicola Conte feat. Gregory Porter

Nicola Conte's "Love & Revolution" album is getting a long overdue vinyl release. Check out "Ghana" with Gregory Porter. 

Here's the scoop...

“Do You Feel Like I Feel” and “Ghana” are two tracks which originally appeared on Nicola Conte's “Love & Revolution” album released on Impulse! back in 2011. While producing that record, Nicola Conte was joined by an impressive cadre of guests, both Italian and international, a rich collective invited by the artist to enter the studio of his long-time friend Tommy Cavalieri and participate in the creation of a diverse and modern jazz album. However, “Love & Revolution” has never been released on vinyl – until now. Soon a brand new 2-LP version will see the light of day on Schema Records, preceded by 45rpm single featuring two of the most significant tracks and the main ingredients of the entire work: the soul of “Do You Feel Like I Feel” and the Latin-jazz of “Ghana”. 

Both tracks are further embellished by Magnus Lindgren’s arrangements and, in particular, by the voice of Gregory Porter, here still at the beginning of his career, recognized by Nicola Conte as a rising star of the contemporary vocal jazz scene. Get a copy of Nicola Conte's new single with Gregory Porter right here here. Have a listen to "Ghana" below along with Nicola and crew's stellar live performance of the Bubba Thomas classic "All Praises To Allah" originally by the Lightmen Plus One.  

José James fires up Nicola Conte's Love & Revolution

The long awaited Nicola Conte album Love & Revolution is finally finished and it's coming out on the Impulse! label through Universal which seems perfect for the sunny spiritual jazz vibe of the highly collaborative project. Once you get past the festively flowery sleeve art, the first thing you'll notice about the new 15-track recording (there's also a limited-run 2 CD version with six bonus songs) is that it's much more of a vocally-driven affair from the deep-digging DJ turned dancefloor jazz maestro with notable contributions from rising star José James along with Gregory Porter, Alice Ricciardi and Nailah Porter. Their positively smokin' update of the Roy Ayers Ubiquity classic Love From The Sun (see the clip below) will make you forget Alex Attias ever touched it.
Of course, Conte's bold decision to tackle such  monumental pieces – including the Lightmen Plus One's majestic All Praises To Allah reissued on Now Again's enhanced US version of the superb Spiritual Jazz compilation – required serious instrumental support so Conte enlisted a stellar cast Timo Lassey on flute and baritone sax, Till Bronner, Fabrizio Boss, and Flavio Boltro on trumpet; Magnus Lindgren and Tim Warfield on tenor sax, in addition to his dependable core group comprising Gaetano Partipilo, Pietro Lussu, Paolo Benedettini, Teppo Makynen, Bridgette Amofah, Fabrizio Bosso, and Pierpaolo Bisogno. There's no telling when (or even if) it will appear in Canada but since Conte just staged a Love & Revolution release party at Teatro Piccini in his hometown of Bari, Italy on May 21, the album will likely be available in some form momentarily.
 
Love & Revolution (Impulse!)

1 / Do You Feel Like I Feel (3:53)

2 / Love from the Sun (4:33)

3 / Here (3:50)

4 / Black Spirits (5:44)

5 / Mystery of You (4:22)

6 / Shiva (5:30)

7 / Ghana (5:09)

8 / Quiet Dawn (4:45)

9 / Scarborough Fair (4:03)

10 / Love and Revolution (3:35)

11 / Bantu (5:59)

12 / All Praises to Allah (4:30)

13 / Ra in Egypt (4:02)

14 / Temple of Far East (6:06)

15 / I'm the Air (4:19)





Love From The Sun by Nicola Conte feat. José James