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Steve Reid Ensemble: Daxaar
by Chris May
At age 62, most people are slowing down a little, taking fewer risks and carefully pre-planning their activities. Not so Steve Reid. The Bronx-born drummer, whose recording debut, aged 19, was on Martha & The Vandellas' iconic “Dancing In The Street," and who went on to work with many of the “new thing" movers and shakers ...
Madilu System, Vieux Farka Toure, Orchestra Baobab
by Chris May
Three ripe and fragrant albums taking in the modern and the post-modern, the venerable and the cutting edge. La Bonne Humeur is the last sonic will and testament of Congolese soukous star Madilu System, who passed shortly after recording it. Remixed: UFOs Over Bamako is a re-interpretation of tracks from the 2007 debut album by Malian ...
Portico Quartet: Knee Deep In The North Sea
by Chris May
Portico Quartet are currently le dernier cri in London--awards nominations, MTV sync deals and top-end TV and radio sessions are being thrown their way like confetti. Knee Deep In The North Sea is the quartet's debut album and it proves to be great stuff, deserving of much of the media cavalcade. Portico's USP is ...
Dhafer Youssef / Wolfgang Muthspiel: Glow
by Chris May
Although it's a dual-leader album, in which oud player Dhafer Youssef's performance is at least as important as that of guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, one of Glow's chief causes for celebration is Muthspiel's on-form presence. After releasing the shimmeringly beautiful Bright Side (Material Records, 2006)--a little-known masterpiece which may yet take its place alongside such jazz guitar ...
Various Artists: The Best of Polish Jazz 2005
by Chris May
Various Artists The Best Of Polish Jazz 2005 PolishJazz.com 2005 Is Poland the best kept secret in jazz? The evidence suggests it might be. During the four decades since the composer and pianist Krzysztof Komeda recorded his iconic Astigmatic (Polskie Nagrania, 1966, reissued on Harkit), Poland has produced ...
Mulatu Astatqe: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale
by Chris May
Mulatu Astatqe Ethiopiques 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale Buda Musique 2002 An idiosyncratic amalgam of late 1960s/early 1970s US jazz and jazz-rock refracted through the prism of Ethiopian five-tone scales and harmonies, the early work of composer, keyboardist and bandleader Mulatu Astatqe, the godfather of Ethiopian jazz, has finally ...
Max Roach: We Insist! Freedom Now Suite
by Chris May
Re-released following the passing of drummer Max Roach in August 2007, We Insist! Freedom Now Suite (Candid, 1960) remains a work of enduring musical and social importance. Notwithstanding Roach's central role in the creation of bop, or his later hard bop explorations with trumpeter Clifford Brown, it is, by some margin, the most perfectly realised album ...
Ike Quebec: Bossa Nova Soul Samba
by Chris May
This is quite a painful disc to listen to. Not because of the music--which is beautiful--but because of the events surrounding it. Recorded in October 1962, it was to be tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec's final album. Less than four months later he died of lung cancer. This fact rather sticks in the mind like a house ...
Getatchew Mekurya: Negus Of Ethiopian Sax
by Chris May
Getatchew Mekurya Ethiopiques 14: Negus Of Ethiopian Sax Buda Musique 2003 Buda Musique's mind-expanding Ethiopiques series--23 discs strong and counting--is a treasure trove of strange and wonderful music, none more so than that contained on Negus Of Ethiopian Sax, which is devoted to tenor saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya and ...
Geraldine Laurent: Time Out Trio
by Chris May
Formidable, as her compatriots would say. Time Out Trio, the debut album from young French saxophonist Geraldine Laurent, introduces a bare knuckle force of nature, well-versed in the jazz tradition but not afraid to put her own abandoned spin on it. Rough-edged, risk-taking, high octane, totally in the moment, the music bursts out of the speakers ...
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