New Release Round-up,
Jazz New Release Round-Up - 26th May 2023
And so, the miraculous month of May concludes with classy new releases from trumpeter Linley Hamilton and a cool Scandinavian rendition of songs by Brazilian great, Milton Nascimento. There's a new guitar-piano duo in the form of Heinen & Kitchman, plus an recently unearthed slice of rare 70's Latin jazz. If all that wasn't enough, Iiro Rantala orchestrates his impression of the city of Venice and there's a new album from Shirley Collins!
Bandleader Steen Rasmussen presents a beguiling adaptation of the songs of Milton Nascimento, rekindled in Nordic surroundings. Singer Josefine Cronholm offers her own poetic renderings of the Brazilian maestro’s lyrics, translated here into her Swedish tongue - a surprisingly successful accomplishment and no mean feat given the source material’s temporal and geographical longevity. With utmost respect for the music that has inspired them, the ensemble trade in the delectable samba elements of Nascimento’s oeuvre for an altogether hazier layer of Scandinavian mist.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
A glowing new release from the Ulster jazz polymath, his sixth as leader. The immensely affable Hamilton heads an informed quintet through a crisp set of post-bop tunes with erudite lyricism and riffs for days. Such is the ineffable joy this album radiates that listeners will immediately pick up a sense of how fun this album was to lay down in as much as it is to listen to. With enough gear shifts in mood to keep things interesting, this record is funky, fresh and guaranteed to put a smile on your face.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
A recording consisting of equal measures optimism and despair, Rain Shadows possesses timbres cut from the same cloth as the mid-60s late night soundtrack of Bill Evans and Jim Hall’s Undercurrent. In this fashion, the pair resume the great lineage of sensitive guitar-piano dialogues (of which, this century, there have been astonishingly few notable releases to mention). Rather than wait to establish boundaries, the duo dive in from the very start, stating their goals of colloquial exploration and brotherly compassion. With several performances occurring in early June across London, this is definitely a musical bond that warrants further appreciation in a live setting.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Arcadian bliss emanates on this, the third album from the premier custodian of English traditional folksong since her return to the public eye after 38 years with Lodestar, released in 2015. Collins’ benevolent voice breathes new, albeit sagely life into a fabled collection of folk material that addresses the trials of a life well-lived, from toils of labour to the romantic tribulations of the heart. There’s even a sumptuous reprise of ‘Hares on the Mountain’, a song she recorded with Davey Graham on the immortal Folk Roots, New Routes that celebrates its sixtieth anniversary next year. Hail the Queen of the May!
Available Format: CD
From Canadian label We Are Busybodies comes the reissue of a privately-pressed miniature from Elegua, a Boston-based latin jazz unit of Irakere-like proportions. Originally released in 1977, this eclectic recording features a zappy rendition of Herbie Hancock’s ‘Tell Me A Bedtime Story’ as well as two feisty arrangements from trumpeter Gustavo Aranguren, who has overseen the re-release. The nitpickiness of the label’s ethos holds true on this self-titled LP since virtually no other information is provided or else remains, only adding to the alluring mystique of this record that quite simply allows the music to speak for itself in all its electrified funk glory.
Available Format: Vinyl Record
Commissioned for the Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic series, Finnish pianist and composer Rantala presents a musical cityscape of the Italian destination that has inspired countless artists and visionaries. Along with a selection of reputable players from the esteemed orchestra, this live recording of the musician’s crossover chamber piece captures the work’s concert premiere at the Philharmonie, which took place earlier this year. For a city with as many nicknames as bridges, its myths and legends are manifested throughout this melodious portrait that passionately displays all the markings of cinematic fervour and emotion.
Available Format: CD
Barney Whittaker
