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Jan 18, 2025 | 
soundsandcolours.com | Mark Sampson
Something you can do when you’re in bed with the flu is to check out the latest singles from the Latin world. The pickings are somewhat slim this time around, but there’s enough here to keep the doctor far hence.
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Jan 2, 2025 | 
soundsandcolours.com | Mark Sampson
Happy New Year, one and all – and here’s a bit of good news. The erstwhile star of City of God and the enigmatic interpreter of David Bowie’s songs in what could be the most purely enjoyable of all Wes Anderson’s films, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, will be appearing at London’s (genuinely) iconic Roundhouse at the end of March. That might seem like a long way off, but – believe me – time will fly.
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Dec 23, 2024 | 
soundsandcolours.com | Mark Sampson
Happy Christmas or bonnes fêtes, as they say inclusively in France. This year, my regular “marginal” colleague Andy Cumming and I decided to get our list of the year’s finest in before rather than after Christmas. Well, everyone else is doing it and your Prézident ain’t too proud or imperious to forego his customary New Year’s Honours List. I’m delighted to see that Andy has come up with a couple of my choices, which gives me a little more wriggle-room.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
soundsandcolours.com | Mark Sampson
No, we’re not announcing the opening of an exclusive new shop in South Kensington, but rather a night at the Jazz Café in Camden in January next year featuring some of the most exciting female voices emerging from London’s Latin music scene.
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Nov 23, 2024 | 
soundsandcolours.com | Mark Sampson
It’s wet, wild and windy as I write this; proper November weather after all the balmy warmth earlier in the month. The wood fire is burning, the stove-top fan is turning and Christmas is in the offing. Christmas!! Quick… music, maestro, please!I’ll begin proceedings once again by facing my shame squarely and going back to a couple of albums that escaped my attention. A couple of classy Latin jazz albums came out at the end of the (gulp) summer.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
soundsandcolours.com | Mark Sampson
You may remember the name Arthur Nogueira from a few years back on this site. While the singer, songwriter and poet from Belém (in the north of Brazil, in the Brazilian Amazon) was in Europe in 2019, performing some acoustic shows, he was interviewed for Sounds and Colours by Charlotte Peet. He also gave us an in-depth and enlightening playlist to broaden our appreciation of lyrical Brazilian music. Arthur clearly didn’t forget his time in London nor his encounters with our writers.
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Nov 16, 2024 | 
soundsandcolours.com | Mark Sampson
No comment on the disastrous turn of events this month, let’s just focus on music, music, music – as the famous show-tune would urge us. Fingers on buzzers… Here’s a left-field starter courtesy of the co-founder of the Jazz Is Dead label. It’s taken from a compilation album on its predecessor, the Linear Labs label, out about now.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
songlines.co.uk | Mark Sampson
Rating: ★★★
View album and artist details
Artist/band:
Oonga
Label:
MTL Sauce Piquante Records
December/2024
This ‘fire-spitting’ album from Montréal is the work of producer Oonga, who has hooked up with his Belizean equivalent, Ivan Duran (of Calypso Rose and The Garifuna Collective fame), and the usual host of expat international guests – including, I should add, Mighty Sampson – for an album of ebullient dance music.
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Oct 26, 2024 | 
soundsandcolours.com | Mark Sampson
On my last visit to New York, pre-Covid about six or seven years ago, my Man in Manhattan took me to his local thrift store on Columbus Avenue, where he has been buying records for next to nothing since the year dot. My own insatiable search for great music encompasses all formats, so I had the run of the CD shelves. Among the one-dollar delights I picked out was The Best Of Ocho on Universal Sound.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
soundsandcolours.com | Mark Sampson
It’ll be upon us before we know it – and then it’ll be gone in a trice. So if you’re anywhere near London on the second day of the traditional Day of the Dead festivities, Saturday 2nd November, hurry on down to Hackney Bridge before all those dancing papier maché skeletons are packed away in their trunks and coffins once more. Why? Because Movimientos will be curating a fiesta in Block C of Hackney Bridge.
