The latest Jazzwise issue's Editor's Choice picks include Origin, the debut album from teenage piano prodigy Joey Alexander on Mack Avenue, saxophonist Binker Golding's sophomore album Dream Like a Dogwood Wild Boy that embraces sounds of country-jazz and electric blues, and In the Spirit of Ntu by South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini on Blue Note's new Africa imprint.
Check out some of the Jazzwise choices available at Presto...
Origin
Joey Alexander
"For these acoustic tracks alone, the album not only deserves its four star rating, but, recorded during the two days before his 18th birthday, it charts Alexander's continuing progress to becoming one of the finest of all jazz pianists."
Available format: CD
Dream Like a Dogwood Wild Boy
Binker Golding
"‘My Two Dads’ sees his tenor intimately murmuring towards soft resolution, then accelerating into Pogues-like, cleansing delirium. ‘’Til My Heart Stops’ is somewhere between a love song and an elegy in a wake’s dying embers, closer now to death but still here. This is an album of positive reckoning, bittersweet but never less than alive."
Available format: CD
Dream Like a Dogwood Wild Boy
Binker Golding
Available format: Vinyl Record
Thread of Light
Satoko Fujii & Joe Fonda
"All but two unaccompanied solos here were created as Fonda's subsequently improvised rejoinders to existing piano pieces by Fujii, but they sound uncannily like a realtime conversation. 'Kochi', the opener, quickly establishes the modus operandi, with Fonda's resonant long-tones sliding between Fujii's wide-spaced ascending ripples and softly dissonant chords."
Available format: CD
Trios: Chapel
Charles Lloyd
"Saving the best until last though ‘Beyond Darkness’ sees Frisell in more garage-y downtown mood with Lloyd’s butterfly-like flute offering deep shade as well as light, and ‘Dorotea’s Studio’ dedicated to Lloyd’s artist wife Dorothy is a charming, playful diversion. Three is absolutely a magic number here."
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Trios: Chapel
Charles Lloyd
Available formats: Vinyl Record, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
In the Spirit of Ntu
Nduduzo Makhathini
"In the Spirit of the Ntu is the first to be released on the newly-formed Blue Note Africa imprint, and suggests Universal is looking to give welcome exposure to some of the dynamic young musicians on the South African/African jazz scene. This album is a good example, covering a wide emotional range, from the dynamic ‘Abantwana Belanga,’ to the reflective introspection of ‘Nyonini Le’ or ‘Senze’ Nina’."
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
Swing on This
Opus 5
"Funky-beat drums and four-in-the bar piano give Kikoski’s 'Pythagoras' a hiphop vibe and Kozlov’s ballad 'Moonbay' glows with warmth. 'Fermata' and 'Sight Vision', both written by Sipiagin, deliver Latin inflection and a Donald Edwards brace swing hard and change tempo with a snare-drum snap. Great solos, strong songs and a consistently engaging set."
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
