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James Poole recommendations

2021: Top ten albums

These pages started over a decade ago. The original intent was for the freethinking movement to sit alongside a club night, operating every week in NYC. My mate Jamison, AKA DJ Prestige, and I kicked it all off and it was a blast. As I sit to compile my top ten albums of 2021 – […]

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James Poole recommendations

José James: breathing fresh life into jazz

It seems that José James was put on Earth in order to breathe fresh life into an entire genre. His voice is a pure gift from heaven – it eclipses jazz greats such as Mark Murphy (I truly mean this). His voice has more texture, more silk. You could picture his voice pouring off the […]

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defining freethinking James Poole recommendations reflection

13 minutes of genius, from Gil Scott-Heron

My mum brought the album home from work. A friend of hers knew that me and my brothers were into our music, so he thought he would work on expanding our knowledge. I want to shake him by the hand. For, the album which I put my hands on, I am guessing as a 14 […]

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James Poole recommendations

This just makes me smile

Damn that Gilles Peterson. He’s always not one, but about four hundred steps ahead. And so, when he posted a link to YouTube, with the simple line ‘check this’, I felt it only right. And, sweet baby Jesus, I am glad I did. Have you ever heard of the Soul Rebels Brass Band? If you […]

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freethinking nyc James Poole recommendations

Joanne Grauer. You won’t have heard of her.

This isn’t going to be easy. I know near on nothing about the subject of this blog post. I say that, but what I mean is that I know nothing about the artist. Other than the fact that she’s responsible for one of my favourite pieces of music. Ever. So – it’s worth having a […]