Fire! Orchestra
Ritualsees Erik Lindgren’s Mannen utan väg (The Man Without a Way) a Swedish modernist poem noted for its unconventional imagery and syntax, brought to life in a musical format by the Fire!Orchestra in the shape of five long suites. Originally the simple trio of Mats Gustaffson on sax, Johan Berthling on bass and Andreas Werliin […]
Susie Arioli Swing Band
Hailing from Montreal, Susie Arioli has championed jazz swing with a host of musicians and bands for nigh on twenty years. Pennies From Heavenwas released in 2002 and is her second album, it’s a smile inducing foot tapping affair. A perfect antidote to the endless stream of politics, news and other negative tales of wow and […]
Kjell Tore Innervik – Percussion
I must confess that I enjoy listening to well recorded percussion music, which probably puts me into a minority. Back in the day I was one of those who didn’t treat the inevitable drum solo at a gig as an excuse to retreat to the bar. Instead, I marvel at the dexterity and co-ordination as […]
Tord Gustavsen Trio
Recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in January 2018, this is Gustavsen’s eighth album. It is also his return to a trio form after a number of albums that the Norwegian pianist made with quartets. Joining him on this occasion are drummer Jarle Vespestad his long musical partner who helped to cement the Gustavson sound, and […]
Hoff Ensemble
Jan Gunnar Hoff – piano Anders Jormin – bass Audun Kleive – drums This is very much Jan Gunnar Hoff’s project. As a composer and pianist he has delivered a cohesive album, having selected the trio format and invited two other extremely talented musicians to join him. The recording was produced by the owner of […]
Kacy & Clayton
Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum hail from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. With a small band of musicians the two distant cousins who reside in rural agricultural area have produced one hell of an album that evokes CSNY, the Marshall Tucker band, the Band, Grateful Dead, Fairport Convention and other giants of the late sixties rock-folk scene. […]
Freddie Hubbard
This is the album that placed Freddie Hubbard right in the blossoming fusion mainstream, winning him in the process a Grammy for best commercial jazz album. It comes back to life in the guise of a 180gm vinyl reissue courtesy of Pure Pleasure Records who have established quite a respectable catalogue across a number of […]
Various
If you’ve been fortunate enough to experience a symphony orchestra in a concert hall, you’ll appreciate how exceptionally difficult it is to capture the sound in a way that not only does justice to the intricacies, scale and emotional impact of the performance but also reflects the distinctive sonic qualities of the venue. Mike Valentine […]
DeJohnette, Grenadier, Medeski, Scofield
In essence Hudson is all about a bunch of long time friends getting together and playing to their hearts’ content. Only those four friends just so happen to be elder statesman of jazz at their peak, the result is sheer musical magic. The quartet of Jack DeJohnette, Larry Grenadier, John Medeski and John Scofield have […]
Schnellertollermeier
Tight doesn’t even begin to describe the high level of interplay displayed by this Swiss guitar bass drums trio. Somehow, with just four albums under their belt they have managed to map out an alternative route to the conventional guitar-led power trio format and take it to an altogether different level. Schnellertollermeier is in fact […]
João Paulo Esteves da Silva, Mário Franco, Samuel Rohrer
To some the album Brightbird might be considered an expression of modern jazz. I beg to respectfully disagree. This incredibly well recorded album sounds like a modern version of baroque music. It is very intricate and rich in tonal colour and harmonies. It is also almost ‘algebraic’ and often cerebral in its composition, requiring both […]
Jovino Santos Neto, André Mehmari
Guris is a charming and in places romantic Brazilian antidote for super-hot summer days of the sort we occasionally experience in the UK. It is a musical smorgasbord that contains flavours from many musical styles but is fundamentally a testament to the very unique charm and magic of Brazilian music and culture. Those looking for […]
Various Artists
Subtitled The birth of electric maloya on Réunion Island 1975 – 1986, the music on this compilation is something else. Réunion is part of the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean and a melting pot of different cultures for centuries, maloya is it’s traditional music, originally described as the music of slaves. This album however […]
National Symphony Orchestra
Earlier in the year Mike Valentine’s most ambitious recording project to date came to fruition when he brought the NSO together with conductor Debbie Wiseman and mezzo soprano Rosie Middleton at Air Studios in north London. This was the first orchestral direct cut vinyl recording he had done and as you can imagine it wasn’t […]
Omer Klein
Every few years one comes across an album such as Sleepwalkers. An album that jolts one awake with its brilliance, but Sleepwalkers is that kind of an album. It is played with talent and confidence that justifies putting Omer Klein on a scale normally reserved for the work of fellow pianist Tord Gustavsen, it has […]
Yogev Shetrit
Yogev Shetrit and his fellow musicians are a brilliant bi-product of the land they live in. It would appear that in addition to being a pressure cooker, Israel is a melting pot of many cultures and musical genres which are represented here in a polished and mighty impressive set of world music style jazz that […]