Nguyên Lê Trio
Silk And Sand is a brilliant collaboration that spans a wide range of cultures and musical worlds. The playing by Lê and his band is that of musicians at the top of their game. Listeners are treated to a melodious fusion that marries sounds which are reminiscent of Hadouk Trio, King Crimson’s Discipline, Abdullah Ibrahim […]
Villiers Quartet
This recording captures quartets written in a roughly twenty-year period by two revered English composers. Roughly contemporary with each other Delius and Smyth were perhaps the ‘non-mainstream’ element in English music of that time (if you consider Elgar to be mainstream, that is). Smyth continued to challenge many ‘mainstream’ preconceptions during her lifetime, and is […]
Clare Hammond
This is a remarkable collection of etudes. Many composers have written etudes as a means of exploring different compositional devices in a set of pieces, usually for piano, (but other instruments are available!), but rarely by a woman composer in those times (late 18th and early 19th century). Hélène de Montgerould’s etudes are much more […]
Song Yi Jeon & Vinicius Gomes
This is not the first time that a Korean singer has graced these pages. Only this time she’s not calling France her home as was the case with Youn Sun Nah, instead Song Yi Jeon is a Swiss born singer with immense vocal talent. She is accompanied by the solo guitar of Vinicius Gomes who […]
Julian & Roman Wasserfuhr
This album serves as a talented musical Smiley. Julian Wasserfuhr (trumpet) and Roman Wasserfuhr (piano and keys) lead a large band of a dozen talented guys while they waltz their way through a broad variety of musical genre. Mosaic was pieced together from places a long way apart: from the Wasserfuhrs’ studio in Hückeswagen, a small […]
Matt Aronoff
An interesting and in places engrossing album that shouts from every fibre of its digital being: hard core modern jazz. The sound reminded me of Moon Germs an old favourite from the early 1970s by Joe Farrell, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette. The line up here is Matt Aronoff (bass), Jason Rigby (tenor […]
Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic XIII
Take Mingus’s music, add a wee bit of European accent, sprinkle on a great performance, pour in incredible recording quality and joyful wit, and voila, you get Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic XIII – Celebrating Mingus 100. Led by Magnus Lindgren (sax/bass clarinet) and Georg Breinshmid (double bass), the album features a talented bunch of musicians […]
Vincent Peirani
Vincent Peirani’s Jokers doesn’ fall under any of the usual classifications. From its first track, a rendition of Marilyn Manson’s This Is the New Shit and thereafter, it’s a musical hoot. Across the Brexit channel, Peirani is considered to be a jazz musician, on the evidence of this album, he swings his accordion in very […]
Iiro Rantala
WARNING: This album will spellbind from its first note and induces a feeling of well-being that is liable to spread smiles and relaxed expressions on the faces of listeners. This is the second time I have reviewed an album by this prolific Finish pianist and it won’t be the last. On this occasion Rantala has chosen to […]
Yogev Shetrit Trio
In his second album drummer Yogev Shetrit presents a compelling and unique fusion of middle-eastern, North African and Spanish Flamenco inspired rhythms packed into short, thoughtful and innovative musical gems. In places the style is distinctively jazz albeit of the most enjoyable and listenable type. In others it’s a cornucopia of world music that is […]
9 Horses
Omegah is a remarkable musical feet that will never be heard and appreciated by enough people. The music is hard to define but post-modern-Americana may go some way towards describing it. The album contains essence of heavy metal, but can hardly be described as raucous, it has a lead violin backed by Hammond B3 with […]
Roy Mor
This album is a treat. Straight jazz shuffle imbued with a significant influence of middle eastern themes courtesy of pianist Roy Mor’s original homeland. The album consists of 12 Jazz tracks that weave a personal tale and stand as separate musical statements. I get the impression that the musicians have enjoyed themselves immensely and likely […]
Tonbruket
Masters Of Fog is a peach of an album. It’s the brainchild of a very able Swedish quartet going by the name of Tonbruket, among their number is the well known bass player Dan Berglund of E.S.T and various musical partnerships including Bugge Wesseltoft. The rest of the quartet consists of Martin Hederos on piano and […]
Kandace Springs
Singer/keyboard player Kandace Springs’ musical antecedents can be traced back to her first EP in 2014 also on the Blue Note label. She has since performed on the Letterman show and Prince said that she has a “voice that can melt snow”. The Women Who Raised Me is a reference to the artists that inspired her, thus […]
Stephen J Malkmus
Former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus seems to have a romantic side, maybe that’s a bit strong, but on this lovely album there’s not much obvious angst. Made with Decemberist Chris Funk and a bunch of great instruments and musicians Traditional Techniques is a feast of acoustic guitars with very little in the way of the […]
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter’s lifelong fascination with comic books spurred Blue Note’s boss Don Was to propose the idea of a graphic novel to be created as an integral part of a musical project. The story created by Shorter and co-written with Monica Sly with illustrations by Randy Du Burke talks of Emanon, a super hero on […]