Various Artists - Transmissions From Total Refreshment Centre (Blue Note)

It’s not hype to say that the jazz scene in London is one of the most exciting musical movements happening in the twenty-first century. An experimental, expansive, and multi-cultural community has sprung up over the last decade, consisting of both young and veteran musos from all backgrounds who’ve combine their formal musical training with the sounds they grew up hearing, from hard bop, funk, and fusion to hip hop, EDM, Afrobeat, Caribbean music, Latin music, trip hop, broken beat, and pretty much every other sonic wave that laps at their shores. Current move ‘n’ shakers like Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia, Shabaka Hutchings, The Comet is Coming, Moses Boyd, and Emma-Jean Thackray have earned international audiences, with dozens of their peers following close behind.

A scene needs more than just bodies performing the music, however – it also needs a support system and places to play. The London scene is rich with organizations devoted to helping the musicians move forward, including educational institution Tomorrow’s Warriors, DJ Gilles Peterson and his record label Brownswood Records, and record label/booking agency/promoter Jazz re:freshed. Another important cog in the machine is the Total Refreshment Centre, a performance/rehearsal space and occasional musician’s flophouse that nurtured several of the scene’s important artists, including The Comet is Coming. The TRC forms the unifying theme of Transmissions From Total Refreshment Centre, a collection curated by jazz titans Blue Note as an introduction to the scene’s happening sounds.

Appropriately enough, the collection kicks off with a TCIC spinoff: Soccer96 consists of Comet minus saxophonist Hutchings. The duo’s skittering electrojazz track “Visions” comes enhanced with verses from rapper Kieron Boothe. Trumpeter Byron Wallen, an older figure with a nearly three-decade history in British jazz, weighs in with the luminous “Closed Circle,” a lush blend of spiritual jazz and Afrobeat. Leader of scene-beloved act Maisha, whose There is a Place is a seminal text, drummer/composer Jake Long takes his dreamy composition “Crescent” and gives it a “City Swamp Dub” makeover, turning it into a late night crawl of psychedelic mystery. Eclectic collective Matters Unknown teams up with singer Miryam Solomon for the harmonically rich jazz ‘n’ B of “Eloquence.”

Afro-Caribbean rhythms and warm melodies characterize “Isa,” a striking tune from Australian fellow travelers Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange and singer Noah Slee that announces the emergence of a major new talent on the scene. Producer Neue Grafik leans heavily on broken beat-influenced electronic sounds, making “Black” the perfect backdrop for rapper Brother Portrait’s street musings. The comp closes with “Plight,” a propulsive Afro-bop from Chicago collective Resavoir, led by trumpeter/keyboardist Will Miller and aligned with ever-more-important label International Anthem, who are on a similar mission for Chicago music that the TRC and the other orgs are for London jazz.

Thoughtfully compiled, with a nice blend of rising stars and new faces, Transmissions From Total Refreshment Centre makes for a sterling sampler of a fervently active scene that still hasn’t reached its peak. Not only a worthy document for musicologists, Transmission also works solely as cracking entertainment.