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Oscar Peterson: Con Alma
by Chris May
To borrow Duke Ellington's description of Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson was born poor, died rich and never hurt anyone along the way. He also brought joy to untold numbers of people. But, truth to tell, his style was the twentieth-century equivalent of modern day AI-produced generative music. Sit Peterson down at a piano, progamme him (as ...
Sergio Armaroli & Evan Parker: Dialog
by Chris May
Sergio Armaroli and Evan Parker's collaboration on Dialog was made possible by state-of-the-art 2022 digital technology, on which it was wholly reliant. But the structure of the music itself--call and response a.k.a. antiphony--predates the digital era by an unknown number of millennia. Located in different studios hundreds of miles apart, on different days, the two players ...
Palle Mikkelborg / Jakob Bro / Marilyn Mazur: Strands
by Chris May
Like a door that keeps revolving in a half-forgotten dream, or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream... like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel... and so on. There are more déjà vu moments in Strands than Marcel Proust could have waved a madeleine at. ...
Thelonious Monk: With John Coltrane 1957 Revisited
by Chris May
Once again, the ezz-thetics label has taken some of the finest artefacts of mid-twentieth-century US jazz and sonically restored them, bringing an unprecedented level of clarity, precision and presence. It is no exaggeration to say that the Swiss-based label's work can be compared with the restoration of Michelangelo's frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel ...
Piero Umiliani: A Tempo Di Jazz
by Chris May
Considering how many stylish movies were made in Italy in the 1950s and early 1960s, surprisingly few have jazz or jazz-based soundtracks of note; back at the ranch, jazz was Hollywood's go-to cool music. A handful of composers including Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone included jazz in their palettes but jazz was not their primary inspiration. ...
Mauro Sigura: Dunia
by Chris May
The Turin-born, Sardinia-based oud and bouzouki player and composer Mauro Sigura gave us one of the most singular albums of 2020 with Terravetro (S'ard Music). Leading an acoustic group, Sigura blended Sardinian and Levantine folk musics with North European jazz. The lineup was oud/bouzouki, piano, bass, drums and, on half the tracks, trumpet. (A review can ...
Ancient Infinity Orchestra: River Of Light
by Chris May
Since 2008, when he released his first album, Sending My Love, Yorkshire-based trumpeter and Gondwana label founder Matthew Halsall has been the catalyst for the emergence of a regionally distinct, Northern English sound in which spiritual jazz is the primary ingredient. This is unusual in England, a small country where most roads lead to London. The ...
Asynchrone: Plastic Bamboo
by Chris May
Put preconceptions aside and cast no nasturtiums. Against expectations, the free(ish) jazz / electro mash-up Plastic Bamboo is a winner, convincingly bringing together the unpredictability of the one with the robotic iterations of the other. The album collects eleven pieces written or co-written by Ryuichi Sakamoto, a founder member of Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978 and ...
Chris May's Best Albums Of 2023
by Chris May
Another great year for recorded jazz. Fourteen of 2023's most special albums are presented here. Eight are new recordings and six are reissues or previously unreleased archive items. Joint Number One Best New Albums Of 2023 Irreversible Entanglements Protect Your Light Impulse! There are two contendors for the slam-dunk ...
Two Tenors South Africa Style
by Chris May
The latest batch of albums from Canada's We Are Busy Bodies label, which specialises in vinyl reissues of South African jazz, spotlights saxophonists Winston Mankunku Ngozi and Mike Makhalemele, separately and together, on three discs originally released in 1975 and 1976. Ngozi and Makhalemele both opted to remain in South Africa during the apartheid era, thus ...
