Hiromi Sonicwonder
Hiromi Uehara, is mostly known by her first name, she is the happy child that toys endlessly with styles and fuses JS Bach with funk, jazz and pop rhythms to popular effect. The Japanese pianist’s sound signature is evident in both her concerts and albums. This album may surprise some, this is more of a […]
Todd Sickafoose
This album is akin to an arduous climb up a steep mountain in order to see glimpses of unique scenery. It’s a slog to be sure, but one that offers musical rewards. It is in places harsh but also intimate and engrossing. Bear Proof is a purely instrumental album that in places appears to discourage […]
Joe Policastro Trio
2023 is shaping up to be a great year for pleasant musical surprises. A case in point is Ceremony, a charming piece of work that possesses a light easy breezy feel with humour, gusto, and melodious verve. It is filled with witty musical clues and references that are offered as a constant icing on very […]
Rymden
If the Nobel committee should ever wish to expand its awards categories and include instrumental modern music, it could do worse than considering Rymden’s band members for its first such honour. Rymden is a pure Scandinavian affair, consisting of a Norwegian and two Swedes. Their talent is prodigious and their names may be very familiar […]
Adam Birnbaum
Adam Birnbaum’s Preludes is a musical gem, an album that will remind listeners of the enormous influence of J.S. Bach on music that has been composed centuries after his death and remains omnipresent in both pop and jazz to this day. Paul Simon’s American Tune is very similar to Bach’s O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, […]
Joshua Redman
Where Are We is in many ways a journey across a modern American musical landscape. As befits everything American, this is a long’ish album it contains some familiar tunes that are interpreted and reimagined with a massive amount of talent and in a first for Joshua Redman, a human voice to counter and accompany his […]
Shalosh
Shalosh is a jazz trio, their name literally means three in Hebrew. The trio offers a brand of soulful non-traditional jazz pioneered by Scandinavian luminaries such as Tord Gustavsen and EST. Tales Of Utopia is the trio’s sixth album. These extraordinarily talented guys hail from the holy land and indeed purport to antecedence in the city […]
Harold López-Nussa
Harold López-Nussa – Timba a la Americana This album pays homage to the aphorism ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’. It is Harold López-Nussa’s sixth album and while all the signs point at a hot-blooded latin jazz that will erupt from the first note to the last, the album has some unexpected revelations that […]
The Hot Toddies Jazz Band
The Hot Toddies Jazz Band Got an itch for a bit of trad jazz? Maybe it’s blues swing you are after? A touch of the post prohibition jazz scene? Or maybe you’re after the sound of Kansas City rhythms of the Count Basie big band? Still yearning for the joy of western swing played by […]
Dorothy Ashby
With Strings attached 1957-1965 is effectively the greatest hits of Dorothy Ashby (1932-1986). The lesser-known harp jazzista of her era, in deference to Alice Coltrane, Ashby’s style and choice of material was always presented in a gentle, rhythmic, lyrical, and melodious fashion, happy and light. A native of Detroit, her father who was a self-taught […]
Michael Blake
Dance of the Mystic Bliss is the type of album you make time to listen to. It requires attention and patience. It offers vast musical landscapes with details that will be better enjoyed and even more appreciated after the second and third listen. The album was created by a very talented septet lead by Michael […]
The Danny Fox Trio
It’s not every day one gets to hear of a jazz album like Time Took Care Of It that is coordinated with the cook book that accompanies it and directly correlates tracks to recipes. It may be that the Danny Fox trio is hedging their bets between ably playing their instruments and parading dishes out of […]
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 […]