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Ivo Neame: Moksha
by Roger Farbey
Making a welcome return in a leader rôle, Ivo Neame's follow-up to his excellent album Strata (Whirlwind, 2015), sees him taking a slightly different approach to his previous two quintet and octet configurated recordings. His cannily idiosyncratic music is also obviously divergent to those found on recordings with Phronesis and saxophonist Marius Neset, to which he ...
Shamek Farrah: First Impressions
by Chris May
Launched by trumpeter Charles Tolliver and pianist Stanley Cowell in New York in 1971, the Strata-East label became synonymous with the black-consciousness informed spiritual-jazz movement which was perhaps the crowning glory of African American music during the 1970s. By the close of the decade, the label had released just shy of 60 albums, an impressive catalogue ...
Al Di Meola: Opus
by Doug Collette
Guitarist/composer Al Di Meola explores his heritage musically and otherwise in the near hour-long Opus. Largely a solo project, the music becomes all the more compelling for an intricacy mirrored in the deceptively ornate cover art. The intimacy arising from the very first tones of “Milonga Noctiva (Wandering in the Dark)" eventually alternates overdubs ...
Dafnis Prieto: Back to the Sunset
by Patrick Burnette
Back to the Sunset, the new album by the Dafnis Prieto Big Band opens with “Una Vez Mas," a fairly traditional Latin big band workout. Don't let that fool you--this is not your padre's Latin jazz album. Half way through the decidedly more mysterioso second track, “The Sooner the Better," it's amply apparent that Prieto is ...
Ivo Neame: Moksha
by Geno Thackara
A solo album is generally a defining statement of identity, especially for musicians who juggle multiple outlets, but Ivo Neame has such a hard time sitting still that even he must have a hard time pinning down his sound for very long. His piano makes a key voice (pun unintended) in the Escape Hatch quartet and ...
Toshio Matsuura Group: Loveplaydance: 8 Scenes From The Floor
by Chris May
Loveplaydance is the latest chapter in a collaboration which started over 25 years ago between Tokyo DJ Toshio Matsuura and London DJ Gilles Peterson. At the time, Matsuura was a member of the mutant jazz and funk collective United Future Organization (U.F.O), and Peterson was running the post-acid jazz Talkin' Loud label, whose name was derived ...
Stephan Oliva, Susanne Abbuehl, Øyvind Hegg-Lunde: Princess
by Neri Pollastri
Princess è il primo album di un trio europeo multinazionale, dedicato alla figura di Jimmy Giuffre, dal quale provengono anche cinque delle undici composizioni (una delle quali completa di sue liriche). La formazione è composta dal francese Stephan Oliva, eclettico pianista che si muove tra la contemporanea e il jazz, dalla cantante svizzera Susanne Abbuehl, ben ...
Aalberg / Kullhammar / Zetterberg / Santos Silva: Basement Sessions Vol. 4 (The Bali Tapes)
by Glenn Astarita
Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva joins the core Swedish trio for the 4th installment of this series recorded in Bali, Indonesia. Moreover, each musician uses indigenous Gamelan instruments to induce World Jazz treatments within a variety of motifs. However, the quartet executes a range of alternating flows, combining coarse and meaty horns parts with sonorous thematic ...
Tyler Wilcox: Works for Two Chapels
by Karl Ackermann
Brooklyn-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyler Wilcox authored the two extended pieces on Works for Two Chapels, playing only on the second. The Baltimore native works in a minimalistic style and has an affinity for performing in houses of worship, where the natural acoustics become a partner in his largely improvised compositions. On this recording, Wilcox utilizes ...
Pablo Held Trio: Investigations
by Roger Farbey
The complex title perfectly characterises Pablo Held's compositional approach. Here he utilises light and shade to mix swathes of tranquillity with petulant stabbing phrases accompanied by equally sharp drum retorts. However, and this is crucial, the piece flows together seamlessly. The lissome nature of “Dr Freeds" betrays an influence of Bill Evans but the ...
