Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano, Jan Lundgren
All three of the protagonists that have collaborated on this album have been reviewed on the Ear in past years, be it as collaborators or leaders, this is the first time that they have released an album as a trio. Mare Nostrum IV is loosely translated as ‘our sea’, while Galliano and Fresu are share a possible […]
Prepared
Prepared are a trio from Munich who play a fairly conventional array of acoustic instruments in an unconventional style, Chris Gall is a pianist with a predilection for preparing his instrument with devices placed on the strings, Flo Riedl is on bass clarinet and Christopher Holzhauser plays the drums. Their music is distinctly metronomic, reminiscent […]
Johanna Summer & Jakob Manz
Cameo highlights many juxtapositions, be they temperamental, stylistic or musical. The album combines the sound of Johanna Summer’s piano with the saxophone of the very young Jakob Manz, who featured on the All That Matters lead by Simon Oslender and featuring Steve Gadd which we covered recently. Cameo pays homage to jazz but in many […]
Moses Yoofee Trio
Most will need a whole new arsenal of definitions to pin down the style that best describes this musical gem. Few will have any difficulty describing enjoying the creativity of MYT. MYT features soul music, it contains hip hop, it has Satriani like guitar licks and conversely tuneful guitar tunes that remind one of Khruangbin, […]
Tord Gustavsen
Seeing is Tord Gustavsen’s 11th album. Gustavsen released his debut album Changing Places 21 years ago and in many respects Seeing is a revisit of his musical id, one in which Gustavsen and his trio weave a spellbinding musical tour. There are clues in the track names that lead one to suspect that Gustavsen may be […]
Simon Oslender, Will Lee, Steve Gadd
Autumn, short days cooler temperatures colourful leaves and yes you guessed it, funky jazz. This album features one of the most famous drummers in the solar system, Steve Gadd, and in addition to being a mostly happy foot stomping album, All That Matters sets a challenge of sorts to any future NATO (Germany, US and […]
Aaron Parks
Sometimes good things happen to those who review music! A case in point is Aaron Parks’ Little Big III albumfor which fans of prog and jazz rock should gather and rejoice. Aaron Parks (piano, keyboards) leads the Little Big quartet, featuring Greg Tuohey (guitars), David Ginyard Jr. (bass), and Jongkuk Kim (drums). This album is reminiscent of GoGo Penguin, Nik Bärtsch and early Stanley […]
Joel Lyssarides
It is highly (exceedingly) likely that an album review involving a piano and a bouzouki has never been featured in any high end audio journal. Most will have never heard of this instrument and will utter “It’s all Greek to me”, and they will of course be correct. Arcs & Rivers is just such an […]
Pinhas and Sons
What Will Become of Us defies musical classification and in many respects is more of an opera in eight, instead of three acts. It merges musical themes of many kinds and styles it pays homage to (take a very deep long breath) four languages and is performed by 40 (yes 40) musicians. Enough people to […]
Bill Charlap Trio
Pianist Bill Charlap has been playing his brand of elegant standard jazz for over three decades. One could say he has been around. Whether with his on trio featuring bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, or as part of various bands headed by others. He has contributed and left his witty, sophisticated and elegant […]
Nils Landgren Funk Unit
Nils Landgren Funk Unit – Raw It is slick, it is funky, it is intoxicatingly grand, it is the Nils Landgren Funk Unit 30th anniversary celebration. They are so hot that they redefine cool and are sensational to boot. The Funk crew creates sound that is moored in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, they trombone […]
Joe Webb
According to his bio, Joe Webb is “fuelled by deep love of 90s guitar bands and an unwavering passion for football”. Don’t let that sweet talk and fool you for a nano second though, even though he is looking as if he is still enjoying his 20s, Webb has jazz and not blood flowing in […]
Meg Okura and Kevin Hays
The blurb that accompanied this release does not mention the essence of this album, it should say: ‘achingly beautiful’. Two protagonists are involved, Tokyo-native violinist Meg Okura and American jazz pianist Kevin Hays.Hearing the first notes you might assume that they are celebrating modern classical music, but you’d be very, very wrong.. Lingering contains nods to Aaron Copland and Franz […]
Lizz Wright
Lizz Wright is considered a soul singer but that’s not what you get on the remarkable Shadow. Instead we have a superb voice and some top notch backing that fall into many styles including blues and folk but mainly heartfelt. Shadow is a diverse collection of songs that includes Gillian Welch’s ‘I Made a Lover’s […]
Raffi Garabedian
The Crazy Dog is a strange title of a very unusual album. It is an attempt by tenor saxophonist Raffi Garabedian to create a musical vehicle for exploring his family’s past. A short album with a series of jazz compositions drawing inspiration from letters written by his paternal grandparents, who fled Armenia during the first world […]
Adam Bałdych & Leszek Możdżer
The music on Passacaglia features only three instruments, with Adam Bałdych playing violin as well as a renaissance violin, while Leszek Możdżer tinkles the ivories of a grand piano. The sound (aided by what must be some oversampling) is panoramic and both wide and deep, it’s as if you have been invited to a performance […]