About

The 13th volume in Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad's Jazz Is Dead series offers a significant change in the label's aesthetic. Its first wave of releases focused on re-engaging American and Brazilian jazz legends of the 1970s, wedding their pioneering jazz-funk and samba fusions to modern hip-hop and jazz grooves. The Katalyst Collective is an Inglewood-based ensemble founded in 2014, composed of younger contemporary producers, composers, and session musicians. Their lone album was last year's phenomenal Nine Lives on Alpha Pup. Drummer Greg Paul leads the group. Other members include pianists/keyboardists Brian Hargrove and Brandon Cordoba, saxophonists David Otis and Corbin Jones, trumpeter Emile Martinez, trombonist Jonah Levine, bassist Marlon Spears, and percussionist Ahmad DuBose-Dawson. Younge adds additional instrumental support here and co-produced with Muhammad. These seven tracks were written in common and are presented as an uninterrupted suite; each track segues seamlessly into the next. - Alllmusic