Jazzwise Choices,
Jazzwise Editor's Choices - December 2023/January 2024
Jazzwise Editor's Choices from the December 2023/January 2024 issue include new music from Arild Andersen, Bex Burch, Cautious Clay, Nikki Iles & NDR Big Band, Samara Joy, Steve Lehman & Orchestra National de Jazz, Stacey Kent, Ed Motta, Gregory Porter and Imogen Ryall, plus an archive release from Bill Evans recorded during his European tour with Chuck Israels and Larry Bunker in 1964.
“A gleeful, skipping folk-dance takes the music out into stretches of increasingly uninhibited ensemble postbop [...] Only improvisers at the top of their game could have made Affirmations as loose yet gracefully melodious as this.”
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
“...There’s an attention to the subtleties of tones within percussion instruments and the sonic palette they offer, that reflects Burch’s insight as an instrument maker as well as composer and player.”
Available Format: Vinyl Record
“Clay is an adept virtuoso across several instruments [...] Soulful, heartfelt and just downright life-enhancing, Karpeh packs a knockout punch.”
Available Format: CD
“...All eight pieces offer a rewarding listen, with one of Britain’s most consistent and interesting composers joining forces with an equally absorbing collection of players.”
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
“Xmas platters are often cheap cash-ins or malodorous cheese-fests ,but not in this case. A Joyful Holiday is a triumph: the playing is perfectly judged, and the singing richly sensual, honeyed like a cognac supped by the fire.”
Available Formats: Vinyl Record, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
“The match of ideas, talent and resources is gripping, above all because Lehan retains his trademarks all the while building new frameworks around them.”
Available Format: CD
“Summer Me, Winter Me sees Kent weaving her supremely subtle storytelling through a handpicked selection of fan requests which harmoniously blends cherished classics, timeless ‘chanson’ gems, and fresh originals.”
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
“Best not to fret over the baffling title. Instead, wallow in the soaring melodies, lush vocal and orchestral harmonies, and a luxuriously burnished production.”
Available Format: CD
“With deluxe string/harp arrangements [and] some ingenious song choices [...] Gregory Porter’s Christmas Wish is a corker.”
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
“One of her most important artistic touchstones, you get the sense that Ryall has completely immersed herself in the Mingus sound-world, such that the entire album – lyrics, melodies, textures – has been absorbed into the fine print of her consciousness.”
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Archives & Reissues
“All in all, a very important and rewarding document of a great piano trio in its prime.”
Available Format: CD
Barney Whittaker
