Jazzwise Choices,
Jazzwise Editor's Choices - April 2024
Jazzwise Editor's Choices from the April 2024 issue include new music from Melissa Aldana, Doncaster Jazz Alumni, Flo & The Murmurs, Ruth Goller, James Brandon Lewis, Kjetil Mulelid, Chris Potter and Trio HLK, as well as archive and reissue releases from Alice Coltrane, Roberta Flack, Joe Henderson, Art Pepper, Osmar Milito and Tom Zé.
“The haunting, ethereal qualities of 12 Stars continues apace on Echoes of the Inner Prophet with Aldana’s sax playing seeming to dig deeper into the interior recesses of herself.”
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
“Twelve performances, a dozen charts, some by noted US writers, multiple lineups, varied soloists, but above all a zest in execution and a sense that whatever the challenges offered by these often complex pieces, these players, old and new, have them sorted.”
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
“The compositions feel pastoral and sensual, dramatic and interior, and both voice and quartet are beautifully recorded.”
Available Format: CD
“It is symptomatic of the vivid drama that permeates this new work which sees Lewis, an authoritative, stately saxophonist continue to make his quartet one of the most important bands in contemporary creative music.”
Available Format: CD
“With the shifting cast of musicians infusing each track with textural variety, this is large-ensemble jazz that breathes to its own natural rhythms.”
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
“For this most unassuming of supergroups, it’s never about anything else other than the music.”
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
“...Whatever the entry point, the outcome is music of stunning energy, breath-taking virtuosity and rather surreally, great humour and wit.”
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Archives & Reissues
“As this noble two-disc release clearly testifies, this was a special, almost sacred, evening for both the audience and the players involved.”
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
“Flack’s debt – pianistically and vocally – to Nina Simone is clear, but she’s very much her own woman [...] her playing is just as good, full of celestial passion but tempered by a virtuosic skill and control remarkable for a 21-year-old.”
Available Format: 2 Vinyl Records
“Indeed, at a time when many of his tenor playing colleagues were floundering in the great post-Trane freak-out, Henderson was making great music full of melody, careful musicianship and craft, taking only the bits of the new wave he could pattern as he wished.”
Available Formats: Vinyl Record, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
“Recorded when West Coast jazz’s time in the sun was in decline, Pepper’s playing was moving away from the more fluid construction of his solos that marked him out in the context of West Coast jazz to a more epigrammatic approach, as if distilling the essence of what he had to say down to its true essence.”
Available Formats: Vinyl Record, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
“Pleasant rather than musically memorable, the hypnotic Brazilian feel does make you come back for more.”
Available Format: Vinyl Record
“Both minimalistic and with hints of dada-esque mischief, the album is indeed playful from a deadly serious period and closer to Brazil’s folkloric heritage in parts…”
Available Format: Vinyl Record
Barney Whittaker
