JJ Whitefield

JJ Whitefield:
The German guitarist, bandleader and soundscape architect JJ Whitefield has been an innovative force of the contemporary scene of Neo-Jazz-Kraut, and adjacent sub-genres within the world of organic grooves, ever since the early 1990s. The work with his group Poets of Rhythm drew the blueprint for what’s now known as retro-soul, and his creative canvas has never been blank since with numerous solo projects and collaborations across diverse constellations.

'Off The Grid' is yet another testament to JJ Whitefield’s creativity. The album perfectly connects the dots to the spirit of the golden age of library music waving together a rich tapestry of his world of playfulness, hypnotic grooves, and driving drums. It breathes new life into the genre while continuing to shape the future, as he has for over three decades.

Sonor Music Editions beautifully bridges the gap between the past and present, with this album, by featuring a original paintings by Italian artist Vivì as the cover art. Vivì is renowned for creating iconic covers for 1970s library releases such as Paolo Casa’s 'Nature' (Wild Cat – WC 114), 'Movimenti' (Full Records – FRLP 5099), and 'Origini' (Leo Records – LR 21), and Domenico Guaccero’s 'La Cattedrale del Benessere' (Abramo Allione – A.A. 1010), among others.

JJ Whitefield & Forced Meditation:

Having plied his trade around the world for more than three decades, German guitarist,bandleader and musical explorer JJ Whitefield has always instilled in his craft a naturalaesthetic of authenticity, a key component which has seen him amass a sizeable andvaried catalogue of material which has remained timeless where some of hiscontemporaries have faded away.In the early 90s, as various UK bands were signed up by sizeable labels and enjoyed evenmainstream chart success in the Acid Jazz and rare groove boom, Whitefield was the co-founder of the Poets Of Rhythm, self-releasing their own uncompromisingly hard-edgedtake on 70s street funk on the then completely unfashionable 7” single format,forerunning the Deep Funk scene by almost a decade. 30 years on, in spite of a legion ofretro-focused bands having followed in their wake, few have yet to come close tomatching the energy and spirit of those early Poets 45s.Since then, Whitefield has applied himself to all manner of new incarnations andinnovative side-projects, releasing further funk surveys with his own band under thepseudonym Karl Hector, with releases on labels such as Stones Throw, Daptone, NinjaTune, Mo’Wax, Strut and more. An avid music lover, explorer and record collectorextraordinaire, Whitefield’s music has effortlessly absorbed his expanding interests alongthe way, particularly drawing influence from Ethiopian Jazz and West African funk andhighlife, as well as Kraut-rock and ambient via his Rodinia alter-ego.More recently, Whitefield has begun to venture into the astral planes of what’s nowcommonly referred to as ‘spiritual jazz’, and this is very much where we find himmanifesting on ‘The Infinity Of Nothingness’. A set of mature, delicate and meditativeorchestrations, like much of Whitefield’s best work the album is studiously true to its keyinfluences - and in this instance the twin figureheads of Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders areparticularly preeminent - but also completely avoids falling into a trap of mere tribute orfacsimile. With subtle yet diverse accents of Hip Hop, Library and the Avant Gardeappearing wholly unobtrusively, the album is unified by a marked trance-like feel,beginning with the sparse, processional opener ‘Nothingness’ through to the 3 part‘Infinity Suite’ of ‘Time’, ‘Space’ and ‘Energy’.As he did as a schoolboy with the Poets of Rhythm, with ‘The Infinity Of Nothingness’Whitefield achieves that exceptionally rare feat of creating music that is not only worthy ofsitting alongside that of his overarching influences, but will also stand up with it againstthe tests of time.