Mark De Clive-lowe, Shigeto & Melanie Charles - Hotel San Claudio (Colour)

Revered composer, pianist, DJ and acknowledged bridge between jazz, dance and hip-hop, Mark de Clive-Lowe (MdCL), links up with jazz vocalist/flautist Melanie Charles and Detroit drummer/producer & DJ, Shigeto on Hotel San Claudio, a collaborative LP of spiritual jazz and live deconstructed beats. Following Melanie Charles’ formidable Verve album Y’all Don’t (Really) Care About Black Women and MdCL's lauded 2022 Soul Bank album, Freedom – Celebrating the Music of Pharoah Sanders, the three forward-thinking musicians unite for a sonic exploration across jazz, hip-hop and soulful house.

This project was seeded in Detroit, USA, in 2018 when MdCL (Nubya Garcia, Bugz In The Attic, Ge-Ology), was invited to perform alongside Detroit native Zach Saginaw aka Shigeto (Andrés, Dabrye, Shlohmo) at local spot, MotorCity Wine despite the two having never actually met. Months later, the Italian Fat Fat Fat Festival invited them to open their 2019 programme, yet the duo felt a piece of the puzzle was missing. Enter the “triple threat”, Melanie Charles. Having first connected post-show at a festival in Brooklyn in Oct 2018 MdCL knew Charles was the perfect fit.

In light of Pharoah Sanders passing, there's reinterpre- tations of The Creator Has a Master Plan (Part's 1 & 2) and Love is Everywhere reimagining them for the here and now. Strings speaks to the group’s love of hip-hop, whilst Kanazawa references a love of soulful house, with Charles’ 70s disco/fusion flute solo, leading into a euphoric, climactic outro. Bushido leans even heavier on 70s jazz fusion, MFT showcases Charles’ sublime vocals, affording a vast, celestial quality that stands present throughout Hotel San Claudio.