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 […]
EYOT
2024 has not started well but this album is one of the best antidotes one can employ to escape the news, rain and wind. Quindecinnial (an event that occurs once every 15 years) is a long and joyous affair, it offers musical joy for the better part of two hours played by a very talented […]
Gili Lopes
There is something intoxicating about Algures, it has a gentle lilt that places it among albums that can be described as exploding with talent but are nevertheless charming. Algures is the creation of Brazilian-born composer, bassist, and bandleader Gili Lopes who says that the album is a sonic portrait of his travels around the world and […]
John Scofield
John Scofield looms large in the nation of jazzland, he is a legend who has become a sort of an institution. He has one of the most distinct sound signatures, much like Wes Montgomery and George Benson, you need only a moment or two of his playing to identify him. The number of the albums […]
Youn Sun Nah
Elles is Korean born French based singer Youn Sun Nah’s 12th album. It contains a string of unique, sensual and very intimate interpretations of iconic songs. Jon Cowherd brilliantly complements Nah’s expressive vocals on piano and various electronic keyboards. With the exception of two tracks, Elles is consists of renditions of an interesting collection of songs […]
2023 saw an great deal of amazing new musical recorded and released. The tracks listed below are not part of a ‘beauty pageant’ or a best of. It is rather a list of tracks which have impressed and continue to impress and have added joy to this enthusiast’s life many months after they were first […]
Yuhan Su
They say: On Liberated Gesture vibraphonist and composer Yuhan Su is joined by Dan Weiss on drums, Caroline Davis on alto sax and some recited poetry, Matt Mitchell on piano and Marty Kenney on bass. Yuhan is a former classical percussionist from Taiwan who came to jazz later on, but she has been living in […]
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 […]