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Bill Frisell: History, Mystery
by Chris May
Over the 25 years he's been recording as a leader, guitarist Bill Frisell has worked in a multitude of settings, from gritty downtown to pastoral Americana, and with as many kinds of line-ups, from string trios through small groups to little-big bands. He's convinced in most contexts, and dug deep in many, always retaining his own ...
Finn Peters: Butterflies
by Chris May
After the best part of a decade immersed in dance, hip hop, Afro-Cuban, electronica and contemporary classical musics, flautist and saxophonist Finn Peters returned to his jazz roots with Su-Ling (Babel, 2006). An album made instantly engaging by its lyricism and rainbow of non-European musical influences, but which revealed its full beauty only after repeated listenings, ...
Monica Vasconcelos: Hih
by Chris May
Based in London since the early 1990s, the Brazilian singer and composer Monica Vasconcelos has an enchanting presence which brings sunshine and good vibes to every stage she graces, even in the cold grey depths of a London winter. And she has a voice to match.Since 1996, Vasconcelos has released five albums with her ...
Scott Hamilton & Friends: Across the Tracks
by Chris May
A tenor saxophonist standing foursquare and unreconstructed in the tradition established by Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Illinois Jacquet, Scott Hamilton is considered so uncool in some quarters that to admit you enjoy him is to risk being shunned by hip society. Now in his mid-fifties and playing a brand of jazz that was ...
Manuel Mengis Gruppe 6: The Pond
by Chris May
Listening to Swiss trumpeter Manuel Mengis' cross-genre Gruppe 6 is to hear an intoxicating melange of musics, from bop and free-bop to skronk and groove, in which the spirit of bassist/bandleader Charles Mingus' jazz workshop lives again, recalibrated by geography and history. Mengis' music is less intense in its passions--less tortured and confrontational--than Mingus,' ...
Titina: Cruel Destino
by Chris May
For twenty years, Cape Verdean music has been personified internationally by just one singer, the magnificent Cesaria Evora--the “barefoot diva," so-called following her decision always to perform shoeless, in solidarity with the impoverished Cape Verdeans who make up the bulk of her native audience. The 67-year old Evora's name is now practically synonymous with Cape Verde's ...
Alboran Trio: Near Gale
by Chris May
Since 1995, when they began recording for the ACT Music label, Sweden's Esbjorn Svensson Trio (e.s.t.) has played a key role in rejuvenating the acoustic piano trio tradition, along with its audience. Svensson and his crew have liberated both from--or at least offered an alternative to--an overly familiar, standards-based repertoire and a precisely codified approach to ...
Jazz Warriors: Afropeans
by Chris May
A live recording made at London's Barbican concert hall in October, 2007, Afropeans commemorated two anniversaries. The first, for which reed player/composer Courtney Pine had been commissioned to assemble the music and the band, was the 200th anniversary of Britain's abolition of the slave trade. The second, coincidentally but with a fine synchronicity, was the 20th ...
Nicholas Payton: Into The Blue
by Chris May
This is a strange mixture of an album. It includes passages of extraordinary and singular beauty and others of noodling anonymity. Practically all of the interest lies in trumpeter Nicholas Payton's performances; most of the blandness comes from his band. The two best tracks, “Drucilla" and “Chinatown," are so exquisitely gorgeous that they almost make up ...
Nicolas Meier: Silence Talks
by Chris May
Like the saxophonist/flautist Gilad Atzmon, guitarist Nicolas Meier is a British-based musician exploring the rich synergy between jazz and Middle Eastern folk musics. Atzmon's synthesis is primarily shaped by Israeli music, but includes the traditions of neighbouring Arab countries. Meier's focus is Turkish, and also extends to neighbouring countries, particularly to the Balkans, with added flecks ...
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