Welcome to the Guide to the Week of Music, a round-up of music news, media and releases from the wide musical world. This week, we hear from Tim Garcia about Música Macondo’s inaugural release, bask in the brilliance of Vin Gordon’s new LP for Tradition Disc, and explore an assortment of sounds and visuals from throughout the world of music.
Musica Macondo Launch Record Label with Yelfris Valdés’ Debut Album
Digital platform Música Macondo have announced the first release on their newly founded record label: the debut full length album by London-based trumpeter, Yelfris Valdés. For The Ones features contributions from Moroccan Guembri master Simo Lagnawi and Senegalese singer Modou Toure, alongside the Cuban musician’s core sextet. It was recorded at London’s Fish Market Studios and is realised with funding support from Arts Council England.
Música Macondo founder Tim Garcia, who also presents a show on Jazz FM, explains that the label don’t wish to be confined by genre, and aim, ‘to work with artists that seek to push the music forward into new realms.’ Garcia states, ‘it’s always been a dream of mine to release the sounds we believe in at Música Macondo, I guess our ambitions are the same with the label as with the platform: we just want to share what we believe to be good quality, long-lasting music, whether that’s through a label, radio, events or even just playing records out. That has always been the main goal.’
Touching upon his relationship with Yelfris and decision to work together, Garcia explains: ‘I’ve know about Yelfris for a while and have always been mesmerized by his playing and tone. In my opinion he’s one of the best trumpeters out there. I went along to a show where he was playing some of this music as a preview and I had my mind completely blown — his manipulation of his horn, mixed with his influences as a Santero, collaborations with musicians from all over the world all underpinned by his love of electronica – it all just struck me as really forward thinking music.’
Garcia invited Valdés onto his Jazz FM show in 2018, during the campaign for his EP release, and explains that the pair bonded over a mutual love of Cuban rhythms. ‘It’s a real honour to work with a musician of his calibre and especially on our first release,’Garcia confirms, ‘I couldn’t be happier to work with him, we both have a mutual understanding and are on the same wave, I’m really excited to share this music with the world.’
Pre-order the record and stream its second track here.
This is an excerpt of a longer piece published on the Guide to the World of Music.