Wild Card: Cabin 19 Fever

Cabin 19 Fever lifts from its lilting opening notes into one of those fun, poppingly good discs aimed to satisfy jazz purists and sceptics alike. Crackling with a jubilant, Euro/Afro/Cuban/Latin flare, London-based guitarist Clement Regert's Wild Card picks up where it left off on 2019's heady and exuberant Beast from the East (Top End Records)

Sticking with his winning modus operandi of importing guest musicians into the Wild Card core of drummer Sophie Alloway and Australian organist Andrew Noble, Cabin 19 Fever catapults from "Olympus" into a tune and album that bares all genres but is hardly derivative by any stretch of the imagination.

Best not to resist the funky wallop that takes shape with "Definitely Maybe," its great rock riff and outta-space organ ride demanding attention. Then tenor saxophonist Binker Golding burns the house down. Marcus Strickland's whimsical soprano alights atop the slipped disc "Aleppo express." Powered by a fully take-charge Alloway invention and colored by Regert's clear-toned guitar, it is a groover on any planet. Vocalist Imaani crashes the party with a tear down version of Peter Gabriel's haunted ballad to the spirit of poet Ann Sexton, "Mercy Street." This high voltage re-imagining may, at first, stun those familiar with the tune, but one gets over it real quick.

"Copycat" punches and punches with the frontline of Golding, trombonist Trevor Mires and trumpeter Graeme Flowers right-jabbing the added rhythm of percussionist Snow Boy. A sly and wiry fictive, "Deception" flashes Regert's pan-world melodic style, while Strickland on tenor, Charlie Porter on trumpet and Alloway tell the tale their way. To sum up, Cabin 19 Fever tells a story well worth listening too.

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