New Release Round-up,
Jazz New Release Round-Up - 21st January 2021
For your consideration this week we have Nottingham-born drummer Will Glaser's zippy new album for Ubuntu, featuring Matthew Herd and Liam Noble, Arthur Hnatek Trio's energising Static, which features a cover of a Squarepusher track (very brave), and Bastian Stein's excellent Aries Point, which merges jazz trumpet with melancholic consort music. The Soweto-based Urban Village release their debut album for Parisian label N0 F0rmat, mixing traditional Zulu music with jazz, hiphop and pop, and Ranky Tanky's acclaimed Good Times gets two double vinyl issues. And finally Enrico Pieranunzi and Bert Joris enchant us with some lush piano and trumpet duets.
Nottinghamshire born drummer and percussionist Will Glaser mixes an eclectic range of influences into his drum style, and manages to be musical, melodic and deeply rooted in the Jazz tradition. Will's latest album Climbing in Circles is the culmination of a three-year project, exploring his musical relationship with Matthew Herd (sax) and Liam Noble (piano). For this outing the tracks are threaded together by explorative improvisations, with the trio playing tunes from a range of sources; some standard repertoire, as well as tunes by Tom Waits, Tom Jenkins (aka Squarepusher), Paul Motian, and Don Cherry.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Static is Zurich-based musician Arthur Hnatek’s first trio record, and he is here joined by equally fearless bandmates Fabien Iannone on bass and Francesco Geminiani on tenor sax. The bulk of the album was written by Hnatek, paying close attention to the details and textures, and drawing a range of different sounds from his drum kit: 'I like the idea that you can have very complicated rhythms, but played in a repetitive way that sounds natural, and where the binaries of 'written' and 'improvised' aren't too clear - like a jazz record: we improvise with rhythmical structures and texture as much as notes and chords. I'm really proud of this record.'
Available Format: CD
Signed to Parisian label N0 F0rmat! (home to Oumou Sangar, Blick Bassy & Mlissa Laveaux), Soweto-based 4 piece band Urban Village present their debut album, Udondolo. Marrying the day-to-day experiences of Black South Africans with ebullient elements from traditional Zulu music, Urban Village is the alias of four experimental musicians all born & raised in the township of Soweto at the tail end of apartheid. Urban Village release music under a name which specifically references the blend of cultures, music & rites which were assimilated into the now 1 million-strong population of Soweto, when black South Africans from multiple provinces were brought to the area during the establishment of apartheid, under strict segregation from Johannesburg's white suburbs.
Available Format: CD
An interesting meeting between German jazz trumpeter Bastian Stein and early music ensemble the Hathor Consort, Aries Point is the intermingling of viola da gambas with Stein's jazz improvisations, and makes for a fascinating listen. The overall cloud of melancholia inherent in consort music suits Stein’s style, and the whole endeavour sounds organic and rich. Well worth a listen.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Duo recording by the well-known pianist Enrico Pieranunzi and Trumpet player Bert Joris, Afterglow does indeed offer warm fuzzy feelings, with Joris’s trumpet sounding especially burnished. Enrico Pieranunzi was born in Rome in 1949 and has recorded more than 70 albums under his own name, ranging from piano solo to trio, from duo to quintet. He has collaborated, either live or in the studio, with Chet Baker, Lee Konitz, Paul Motian, Charlie Haden, Chris Potter, Marc Johnson, and Joey Baron.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Ranky Tanky's 2019 second album, Good Time, gets released on double vinyl for the first time, and is also available as a limited edition gold vinyl double LP in a gatefold sleeve. The follow-up to their wildly successful debut album, Good Times explores the Gullah culture that makes their musical story so compelling. Numerous originals also colour this spectacular collection of iconic regional favourites. Ranky Tanky translates loosely as ‘Work It’, or ‘Get Funky!’. In this spirit the Charleston-based quintet performs timeless music of Gullah culture born in the southeastern Sea Island region of the United States.
Available Format: 2 Vinyl Records
Matt Groom - Head of Jazz
