So we'll be releasing a new album, entitled Manifesto, on September 23rd 2008, once again through Do Right! Music. This one blends the heavy afro-sounds of Freedom No Go Die with a good dose of tropical highlife, dirty funk, and big band jazz. A 7" vinyl single, featuring two of the tracks on the album, will be coming out ahead of time, in July: look out for that.

Our summer tour is just about finalized: we'll be hitting England, Scotland, Austria, Hungary and Denmark for the first time, returning to France once again, and of course doing a few shows in Canada as well. Highlights: playing Bayonne with Erik Truffaz, performing Joe Zawinul's Birdland in Vienna, hitting the Cargo in London, playing the Big Chill in Hereford with fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen, sharing the Fiest'A Sete stage with the likes of Charles Walker, Gwen McCrae, Kid Creole, and Ethiopique legend Mahmoud Ahmed.

Check out our schedule for more details:

http://www.souljazzorchestra.com/concerts.html

All right, so we'll be touring France at the end of November.  For some reason, one of the many bugs in MySpace won't let us post the venue names on our list of concerts...  If you'd like to check out the list of venues, cities and dates we're playing, check out our official website:

http://www.souljazzorchestra.com/concerts.html

Nous serons en tournée en France vers la fin du mois de novembre.  Pour une raison ou une autre, MySpace n'affiche pas le nom des clubs où nous allons jouer...  Pour plus de détails sur notre itinéraire, vous pouvez consulter notre site officiel, ça ira mieux:

http://www.souljazzorchestra.com/concerts.html

So we just finished our summer Canadian tour, it was a little hectic, but it was a blast...  Montreal Jazz Fest was crazy, lots of people...  Ottawa Jazz Fest the next morning was a different story, pretty mellow...  Opening for Femi at Bluesfest was just amazing, what a show, it was beautiful.  We got to chat with Femi and the Positive Force a little, they were real cool and encouraging.  The London Sunfest was jammed packed with good music, cumbia, gamelan, latin jazz, name it...  Met Sambasunda down there, I just love those guys, check em out. 

Quebec was hard, we had the worst luck.  They were having the Festival d'ete, and the whole city was bumper-to-bumper.  We had a heck of a time parking, then we lost the van at the end of the night. We got to where we were supposed to stay, and our rooms weren't booked.  We got to bed at 6 in the morning, at some cheap hotel, with no van...  We found the van the next day, and everything was good, but man...

East Coast was cool.  Moncton had this wicked light show, it felt like a Michael Jackson video up there.  The Seahorse in Halifax was the bomb, it's this old bar made from old ship and church parts.  The place was hopping, too...  We got to chill out in Shediac the next day: ah, that place was like heaven, with the lobster, the sun, the patios...  Afrikadey in Calgary was awesome, it's too bad it wasn't better attended...  It was at the same time as the Reggae Festival, that was probably a bad idea.  There was us, Afrodizz from Montreal, Femi Abosede from Toronto, and Dele Sosimi of the Egypt 80, down from London.  It turns out the festival didn't have enough money to bring down Dele's entire orchestra (all he had was his drummer and his bassist), so he asked to back him up...  I was so impressed by Dele, every song was charted out to the finest detail.  We did some Fela compositions, as well as his own really beautiful compositions.  Dele's a total genius, in my opinion, a great player, great composer...  He really manages to stretch the boundaries of afrobeat while being respectful of its tradition.  We had a great time playing with him, it was a great learning experience.  Femi Abosede really impressed me too, he should really be better known.  We came back to Ottawa and did the Folk Fest...  It was different, it was the first time we had a solo banjo player open up for us (the guy was really good too...)

So we'll be doing another East Coast tour in September, look out for that...  We're also planning a tour of France and England in late November, early December, we'll keep you posted!  

Hey, looks like "Mista President" made it to the 9 spot on Gilles Peterson's Best of 2006 list.  We weren't expecting that...  Thanks to all those that voted.

By the way, Souljazz is playing Babylon on Saturday, January 6th.  Haven't played there in a while, should be a good party.

Found out about James Brown's passing a few days ago...  a great loss for the world of music.  What pisses me off is that they barely mentionned it on the news, in Canada anyways.  Sure, the guy was excentric, but it doesn't take away from the fact that he basically created funk music, and had an immeasurable influence on soul, r&b, jazz, hip-hop, afrobeat, reggae, rock, disco, and just about every modern dance style...  RIP JB & WM.

The first song on our new album, "Mista President", is up for "Track of the Year" on Gilles Peterson's BBC site...  Help us out, drop your vote, it only takes a second:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/gillespeterson/allwinners2006.shtml

Thanks!

Just found out Gilles Peterson threw in the Souljazz Orchestra's "Mista President" on his BBC Radio One show in London last Sunday...  Had some nice comments about the band too: "Made for music, that is...  Souljazz Orchestra, from Canada!"  Gilles is the man.

Lots is brewing in the Souljazz world.  Stay tuned.

You can now get "Freedom No Go Die" on-line from CD Baby!

Just follow the link below:

http://cdbaby.com/souljazzorch2

Man, we had a good night last night...  Played Bluesfest with Alanna Stuart, opened up for John Lee Hooker Jr. and Etta James.  We did our regular Thursday night gig at the Babylon after, and drummer Michael Rogers and guitarist Jeff Horan, both from John Lee Hooker Jr.'s band, showed up.  Michael sat in on drums for two tunes, Phil Ranelin's "Sounds From The Village" and Lou Donaldson "Everything I Do Gonn Be Funky"...  This guy just tore it up, what a monster!  He just oozes the funk.  Check the band out, these cats can play: http://www.johnleehookerjr.com .