New Release Round-up,
Jazz New Release Round-Up - 18th October 2019
Lots of interesting releases this week: a fine example of just how varied the current jazz scene is, reminding me that it would be so easy to miss some fantastic music-making. Carla Marciano offers obtuse takes on Bernard Herrmann scores, Chick Corea, Brian Blade and Christian McBride give a masterclass in musicality, Overground Collective kick out a psychedelic spurge of new colours, Alaias take us surfin’ and Alice Zawadzki presents some of her charming chamber jazz art songs.
I’ve enjoyed listening through this collection, a homage to Bernard Hermann’s brilliant film scores. In some ways it reminds me of John Zorn’s Big Gun Down, a tribute to Morricone, in that the source material is often well and truly buried under the improvisation, but there none the less. Carla Marciano plays with real gusto, her sopranino saxophone leading the group through many moods. For a sampler take a listen to the Theme from Psycho, which takes its time getting to anything remotely recognisable, then suddenly gels into the main theme, making Herrmann’s score genuinely Coltrane-esque.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
I’ve always preferred to hear Chick Corea in the live context, something about the excitement of having an audience in front of him brings out his more direct, and often more innovative, playing. A 3-CD boxed set Trilogy released in 2014 was a fine example of this, and a true collaboration between him, Brian Blade and Christian McBride; happily we now have another instalment in this concert from 2016. Many a work-a-day piano trio could do with checking this out for the sheer invention on display - and observe how Corea puts aside any notion of who is the ‘star’. Bassist Christian McBride often leads in many sections, whilst Brian Blade is all over his kit, looking for new and interesting things to say. Fabulous.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
One of a couple of tasty releases this week from the always interesting label Babel. The OverGround Collective is an 18-piece band put together by the Portuguese composer Paulo Dias Duarte. Walking the fine line between chamber compositions and improvising, this album abounds in novel colours and textures, and for once the glorious cover art does a good job of representing the music within. And at 32 minutes there’s a good sense of structure going on.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
This is fun – Dick Dale goes bebop anyone? I am a sucker for a concept album, and Music for an Imaginary Surf Film ticks all the boxes, again with another pitch perfect cover (many an overly-reverential, high-brow monochrome label ident could take a leaf out of Babel’s book on this subject). Alaias hail from Bristol, and the trio was cooked up by guitarist Dan Messore, with Dan Moore on organ and synth (some moreish Moog action going on with this gentleman), and drummer Matt Brown. With plenty of novel quirks, this is a rewarding listen and easy to live with, like looking out to sea on a sunny day. Fans of the current crop of chilled instrumental bands like Khruangbin should hop on and catch one of Alaias’s waves.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Alice Zawadzki writes some very quirky songs, and matches their charms with exquisite arrangements, leading an inspiring band of musicians; Fred Thomas (piano, drums, percussion, banjo, organ), Rob Luft (guitar), Misha Mullov-Abbado (double bass) and Hyelim Kim (taegum - a Korean flute made from bamboo). Integral to the impressive, layered detailing is the Amika String Quartet of Simmy Singh, Laura Senior, Lucy Nolan and Peggy Nolan, and engineer Alex Killpartrick.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Matt Groom - Head of Jazz
