24 best jazz albums of 2015 by The Telegraph,UK
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Topic: 24 best jazz albums of 2015 by The Telegraph,UK
Posted By: snobb
Subject: 24 best jazz albums of 2015 by The Telegraph,UK
Date Posted: 02 Jul 2015 at 11:48pm
KENNY WHEELER: SONGS FOR QUINTET (ECM) The fine trumpeter http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11108457/Kenny-Wheeler-British-jazz-star-dies-aged-84.html" rel="nofollow - Kenny Wheeler died in September 2014 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11108457/Kenny-Wheeler-British-jazz-star-dies-aged-84.html" rel="nofollow - and
this lovely album was recorded at Abbey Road nine months before he
died. There is some sweet flugelhorn from the Octogenerian and
particularly fine support from tenor saxophonist Stan Sulzmann. John
Parricelli (guitar), Martin France (drums) and Chris Laurence (bass)
complete the classy quintet. The CD
comes with two impressive booklets with photographs of the quintet and
of Wheeler's time with ECM. The album's nine tracks are full of
sensitive ensemble playing and supple rhythms, and it finishes with the
poignant Nonetheless. Songs for Quintet is an excellent testament to a
Canadian-born star who did so much for jazz in the UK. Martin Chilton JACK DeJOHNETTE: MADE IN CHICAGO (ECM)
Jack DeJohnette brings together colleagues of 50 years standing –
pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, sax players Roscoe Mitchell and Henry
Threadgill and young cellist and bassist Larry Gray – and the range of
expression these five players draw from their instruments is
astonishing. Ivan Hewett BOB DYLAN: SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT (COLUMBIA RECORDS)
Bob Dylan pays tribute to the jazz songs of Frank Sinatra, as he takes
beautiful material written by such greats as Rodgers and Hammerstein and
completely inhabits them, reimagining Some Enchanted Evening with the
wistful intimacy of someone peering back through the mists of time. Neil McCormick http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/bob-dylan/11366536/Bob-Dylan-Shadows-in-The-Night-review-extraordinary.html" rel="nofollow - Read the full review of Shadows in the Night TROYKA: ORNITHOPHOBIA (NAIM JAZZ RECORDS)
Ornithophobia is full of many-layered soundscapes which are often
suggestive and aurally seductive, if somewhat chilly in emotional tone.
Pianist Kit Downes, guitarist Chris Montague and drummer Josh Blackmore
make the line-up, but often it seems as if we’re hearing half-a-dozen
players, thanks to the clever guitar loops and over-dubbed synth lines.
Adding his own touch of suggestive magic to all this is producer Petter
Eldh, but thankfully he doesn’t sap the energy and drive of the playing,
which is considerable. This energy comes from the deliberate
mismatch between the hectic, pattering drum patterns and the repeating
riffs, which are always arithmetically ingenious, if as hard and angular
as steel girders. When heaped up into layers they almost defeat the
ear’s attempts to unscramble them. It could all be too much, but there’s
usually a moment when the pieces break out of their self-created
labyrinth – as in the opening number Arcades, where the music emerges
unexpectedly into a wide-open harmonic space. In the closing number
Seahouses (the Northumberland coast is another theme in this album), the
pattern is reversed. Gentle synth. chords fade into one another, like
layers of mist on an early morning sea, but over the horizon something
threatening and super-fast eventually approaches. Overall this album is
musically intriguing, and full of ear-tickling sounds, but only rarely
loveable. IH AARON GOLDBERG: THE NOW (SUNNYSIDE RECORDS)
The Now is a very polished album, divided between Aaron Goldberg's own
compositions, a few jazz standards, and some delightful reworkings of
Brazilian songs. IH http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11386514/Aaron-Goldberg-The-Now-album-review.html" rel="nofollow - See full review of The Now EMILY SAUNDERS: OUTSIDERS INSIDERS (MIX SOUNDS)
There's no doubting the strong vocal technique of Emily Saunders, who
trained in Jazz Voice at Trinity Conservatoire, and her phrasing is one
of the pleasures of her second album. The nine original jazz numbers,
which range across jazz ballads and Sixties soul jazz, allow for strong
instrumental solos from a band comprising the excellent Byron Wallen on
trumpet along with Trevor Mires (trombone), Bruno Heinen/Steve Pringle
(keys), Dave Whitford /Paul Michael (bass) Jon Scott (drums) and Fabio
De Oliveira/ Asaf Sirkis (percussion). Highlights include the crisp
voice-and-piano ballad You With Me and the optimistic Summer Days. Those
who like their jazz sultry and languid will enjoy the album although it
will be interesting to see if Saunders brings more fire into future
work. MC REBECCA FERGUSON: LADY SINGS THE BLUES (RCA RECORDS) Rebecca Ferguson's run through of Billie Holiday classics could have been bolder but she sings with sass and feeling. NM http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/cdreviews/11451349/Rebecca-Ferguson-Lady-Sings-the-Blues-review-rich-tender-soulful.html" rel="nofollow - See full review of Lady Sings the Blues JOE ALBANY: AN EVENING WITH JOE ALBANY (STEEPLECHASE RECORDS)
Something of a rarity. There are 17 tracks on this concert recorded at
the Cafe Montmartre in Copenhagen in May 1973, when American bebop
pianist Joe Albany (who died in 1988) was 49. April in Paris shows off
his skill for embellishing a tune; I Can’t Get Started is less assured.
Nevertheless, a welcome chance to hear an original jazz musician, who
played Charlie Parker. MC http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/11164644/The-best-jazz-films.html" rel="nofollow - The best jazz films of all time PETE OXLEY AND NICOLAS MEIER: CHASING TALES (MGP RECORDS)
Guitar duos are reasonably rare in jazz yet the difference in styles
from Pete Oxley and Nicolas Meier is the strength of the album as they
come together in a mostly acoustic album. Chasing Tales shows off their
elaborate, harmonically rich melodies and clever solos. Two masterly
guitarists creating an array of changing moods. MC WILD CARD: ORGANIC RIOT (TOP END RECORDS)
Wild Card are a fine live jazz act and they manage to capture their gig
energy on Organic Riot. The album blends hard-bop, Afro, Latin and
Funk, all held together by producer and French-born guitarist Clément
Régert. He and organist Andrew Noble (and drummer Sophie Alloway) are
joined by some strong guests, including Graeme Flowers on trumpet and
Roberto Manzin on tenor saxophone. Natalie Williams sings well on
Feeling Good and Wash Him Out. The longest track, at more than eight
minutes, is Flood and it's full of treats. MC ALEXANDER VON SCHLIPPENBACH TRIO: FEATURES (INTAKT RECORDS)
This CD must be in the running for the Least Appealing Title for a Jazz
Album prize, but fortunately the contents are livelier than the
packaging. The ponderous liner notes tell us the album is a summary of
how far the trio has come in 45 years playing together, which is
evidently a very long way indeed. The three players – pianist Alexander
von Schlippenbach, saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lovens – are
veterans of the ‘free jazz’ scene. Some devotees of free jazz make a
fetish of holding any echoes of ‘normal’ jazz at arm’s length. These
three have been around too long to be dogmatic, and much of the pleasure
of this album lies in savouring the little hints of blues and vamping
stride patterns and old-fashioned ‘licks’ that flit across the music’s
surface. The opening meditation from von Schlippenbach sounds
like his take on 1950s classical modernism, but lurking inside the
star-like points of sound is the ghost of a ‘jazzy’ seventh chord. Each
of the following fourteen ‘Features’ is like a little character study,
launching off with an idea – a repeated note, a whirling figure on the
sax or cymbals – and allowing it to wander where it will. Several times a
number ends with a descent down into the bass, so neatly contrived it
might have been arranged in advance. The most haunting Feature is the
eleventh, where Parker’s long multiphonic sound, like a bird that never
needs to breathe, is framed in delicate piano and percussive
commentaries. Free jazz can never be 'easy listening', but the witty,
relaxed interplay on this album comes close to it. IH THE BEN COX BAND: THIS WAITING GAME (CINNAMON RECORDS)
Ben Cox has a sweet and expressive voice and he shows he can handle a
classic in the way (with help from Claire Martin) he tackles the 1939
song A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. Cox's band, directed by
pianist Jamie Safiruddin, interplay well with his voice on an album
produced and co-arranged by Ian Shaw. It's not straightforward jazz –
And I Love Her by Lennon and McCartney is covered – but the jazz is done
well, especially when Adam Chatterton (trumpet and flugelhorn), Flo
Moore (electric and double bass), Will Glaser (drums) are sparking with
Cox and Safiruddin. The vibrant This Happy Madness (with Emily
Dankworth) is a highlight. MC http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11070432/The-best-jazz-albums-of-2014.html" rel="nofollow - The 33 best jazz albums of 2014 DJANGO REINHARDT AT THE MOVIES (CHERRY RED RECORDS)
Taking music from Louis Malle's 1974 film Lacombe, Lucien and Woody
Allen, this celebrates Django Reinhardt, the father of all jazz
guitarists and a musician who inspired countless players from across the
whole spectrum of popular and classical styles. Nuages is there of
course, work with Stephane Grapelli and the songs Allen used in Stardust
Memories and Sweet and Lowdown. Fans will have more complete
compilations but if you are looking for an introduction to his work,
then this is rather lovely. MC BILLIE HOLIDAY: THE CENTENNIAL COLLECTION (LEGACY/COLUMBIA)
We couldn't let April pass without a nod to the peerless Billie
Holiday, who was born 100 years ago. This short and sweet Centennial
Collection is a good snapshot of the late singer's early career,
including Them There Eyes and Strange Fruit. It gets four stars rather
than five because there are more comprehensive collections. But you
can't beat Billie. MC http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11490107/Billie-Holidays-10-top-songs.html" rel="nofollow - - Billie Holiday's top 10 songs JOE STILGOE: NEW SONGS FOR OLD SOULS (LINN RECORDS)
Music should be fun and the new album from pianist and
singer/songwriter Joe Stilgoe is just that. His own compositions
(comprising 10 of the 12 songs) are quirky and interesting and there's a
nostalgic charm to big band numbers such as Nobody Cares Like Me and
Pocket Song. Tom Farmer (bass), Ben Reynolds (drums) and Billy Adamson
(guitar) add fine support and there is a sweet duet with Liane Carroll
on a cover of Brian Wilson's I Just Wasn't Made For These Times. MC JULIAN ARGÜELLES: LET IT BE TOLD (BASHO RECORDS)
The indomitably cheerful spirit of South African jazz is revived here,
in the unlikely setting of a big band format. The performers are the
Frankfurt Radio Big Band, and the arrangements are by saxophonist Julian
Argüelles, who appears as soloist on several numbers. Argüelles is well
placed to make such an album, having steeped himself in the sound of
South African jazz as a young man. He played with émigré South African
musicians who’d settled in this country in the Sixties, and was also a
member of that now legendary band Loose Tubes, which itself was deeply
influenced by South African jazz. Argüelles’s take on that
tradition sometimes recalls Loose Tubes uproarious high spirits, in
numbers such as Johnny Dyani’s Mama Marimba. This begins with a musical
explosion, out of which the music gradually emerges. The band’s famously
tight ensemble gives plenty of rhythmic kick to upbeat numbers like
Dudu Pukwana’s Diamond Express, and Chris MacGregor’s Amasi feels like a
crescendo of cheerfulness. Behind the sunny dancing quality you
sometimes catch a deeper note of protest or religious feeling, as in the
hymn-like ending to Mongezi Feza’s You Aint’t Gonna Know Me. And
overall the soft palette of the Frankfurt band, with the trombones
sounding as mellifluous as clarinets, gives an affectionate glow to
everything. In all, it’s a joy. IH PARTIKEL: STRING THEORY (WHIRLWIND)
The combination of a jazz ethos with a mellifluous string sound is
fraught with dangers, as Charlie Parker’s ‘strings’ album reminds us.
Fortunately the importation of a string quartet into the lean,
piano-less sound of jazz trio Partikel works wonders on this new album.
Duncan Eagles, whose creamy mellifluous sax sound is a constant
pleasure, is also a clever arranger for string quartet. He conjures all
kinds of interesting textures from the medium, including a Xenakis-like
modernist fury at the very beginning. It’s typical of the album
that this abrasive beginning leads disarmingly to a sweetly pastoral
number, which boasts a real shapely melody of old-fashioned suavity. All
kinds of idioms rub shoulders on the album, ranging from a sturdy modal
quality somewhat reminiscent of Mike Westbrook to a sultry Latin
flavour. Lead violinist Benet Mclean is a wonderfully characterful
soloist, as is bass player Max Luthert. Some may find both the
sound-world and the actual compositions just too soft-edged and
ingratiating, others will enjoy the way the whole album seems to glow
with a new-dawn innocence. IH PATRICK NAYLOR: DAYS OF BLUE (PATRICK NAYLOR)
There is a lot to enjoy in the mellow Days of Blue, especially the
sensitive guitar playing of Patrick Naylor. The 9mins26secs Blue Morning
feels like a jam session and shows off the quality of the musicians
involved. The Latin feel of Restless is also a treat. Naylor blends well
with saxophone player Ian East on Lost Song and David Beebee (piano,
bass), Milo Fell (drums), Natalie Rozario (cello) and Alex Keen (bass)
offer fine support. There are also vocals from Sara Mitra and Stephanie
O'Brien, who is joined by and Dan Teper (accordion) on the sweet Naggar.
MC LIAM NOBLE: A ROOM SOMEWHERE (BASHO)
Liam Noble’s new solo album is a box of surprises. The mysterious
plucked notes at the very beginning reminds us that Noble is fascinated
by the piano as a resource of pure sound, who often collaborates with
players of more experimental hue like Mary Halvorson. But it’s not long
before this leads into the cosy sentimentality of Wouldn’t it be Lovely.
Noble isn’t one for cosiness and instead makes this unlikely choice of
standard seem amusingly angular. A dry tenderness peeps through as well,
but it’s held in check by Noble’s fascination with pattern and sound,
and this tension is there throughout the album. He enjoys going against
the grain of the instrument, as in Six White Horses, which recreates a
banjo idiom on the piano, and this is followed by another clever bit of
disguise in his own I Wish I Played Guitar. Sometimes I wished
Noble would relax, indulge the piano’s potential for emotional
amplitude, and go more with the grain of the standards he’s chosen, but
the wit and intelligence of the playing are always absorbing. IH INDRA RIOS-MOORE: HEARTLAND (DECCA)
Indra Rios-Moore, who grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side, is now a
respected figure on Denmark's jazz scene and it's easy to see why from
this classy and ambitious album. She ranges across bluesy jazz, such as
Little Black Train, and is as comfortable on Duke Ellington's Azure as
she is with David Bowie's Heroes. On Heartland, which is produced by
Larry Klein, there is a Doc Watson cover and a gorgeous version of From
Silence, which was written by Thomas Bartlett. Rios-Moore is worth
getting to know. MC MARIA SCHNEIDER ORCHESTRA: THE THOMPSON FIELDS (MARIA SCHNEIDER.COM)
Maria Schneider's latest album, some 10 years in the making, shows just
what a supple and powerful instrument a jazz orchestra can be. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11665542/Maria-Schneider-Orchestra-The-Thompson-Fields-album-review.html" rel="nofollow - See full review of The Thompson Fields IH THE BAD AND JOSHUA REDMAN: THE BAD PLUS JOSHUA REDMAN (NONESUCH)
A meeting of jazz musicians who push boundaries. Trio The Bad Plus are
joined by saxophonist Joshua Redman, and the intricate compositions
challenge and inspire the soloists. I particularly liked Redman’s swing
on Friend or Foe and the short and sweet Country Seat, written by
pianist Ethan Iverson. Silence is the Question, also featuring Reid
Anderson (bass) and David King (drums), is ambitious and nearly 14
minutes long. MC JOSE JAMES: YESTERDAY I HAD THE BLUES: THE MUSIC OF BILLIE HOLIDAY (BLUE NOTE)
José James has described Billie Holiday as "my mother in music" and the
acclaimed vocalist does full justice to Lady Day in this tribute album
produced by Blue Note president Don Was. The band is stellar band – and
includes pianist Jason Moran, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Eric
Harland – and the material to work with, including Body and Soul and
Strange Fruit, is timeless. Just right for Billie's centenary year. MC BEATS & PIECES BIG BAND: ALL IN (EFPI RECORDS)
Beats & Pieces are an exuberant live band and composer and arranger
Ben Cottrell has captured that energy on their new album All In. I
liked the treatment of David Bowie's Let's Dance and there is plenty of
old style big band verve on Rocky from a band that includes Finlay
Panter, Nick Walters, Sam Healey and Graham South. MC
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Replies:
Posted By: Cannonball With Hat
Date Posted: 03 Jul 2015 at 1:11am
Uhh...this year isn't over.
------------- Hit it on Five.
Saxophone Scatterbrain Blitzberg
Stab them in the ears.
|
Posted By: snobb
Date Posted: 09 Sep 2015 at 1:03am
they just refresh the list at regular basis, here is the newsest one:
MARIA SCHNEIDER ORCHESTRA: THE THOMPSON FIELDS (MARIA
SCHNEIDER.COM) Maria Schneider's latest album, some 10
years in the making, shows just what a supple and powerful instrument
a jazz orchestra can be. ★★★★★ Ivan Hewett
KENNY WHEELER: SONGS FOR QUINTET (ECM)
The fine trumpeter Kenny Wheeler died in September 2014 and
this lovely album was recorded at Abbey Road nine months before he
died. There is some sweet flugelhorn from the Octogenerian and
particularly fine support from tenor saxophonist Stan Sulzmann. John
Parricelli (guitar), Martin France (drums) and Chris Laurence (bass)
complete the classy quintet. The CD comes with two impressive booklets
with photographs of the quintet and of Wheeler's time with ECM. The
album's nine tracks are full of sensitive ensemble playing and supple
rhythms, and it finishes with the poignant Nonetheless. Songs for
Quintet is an excellent testament to a Canadian-born star who did so
much for jazz in the UK. ★★★★☆ Martin Chilton
JACK DeJOHNETTE: MADE IN CHICAGO (ECM)
Jack DeJohnette brings together colleagues of 50 years standing
– pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, sax players Roscoe Mitchell and Henry
Threadgill and young cellist and bassist Larry Gray – and the range of
expression these five players draw from their instruments is
astonishing. ★★★★☆ IH BOB DYLAN:
SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT (COLUMBIA RECORDS)
Bob Dylan pays tribute to the jazz songs of Frank Sinatra, as
he takes beautiful material written by such greats as Rodgers and
Hammerstein and completely inhabits them, reimagining Some Enchanted
Evening with the wistful intimacy of someone peering back through the
mists of time. ★★★★★ Neil McCormick
TROYKA: ORNITHOPHOBIA (NAIM JAZZ RECORDS)
Ornithophobia is full of many-layered soundscapes which are
often suggestive and aurally seductive, if somewhat chilly in
emotional tone. Pianist Kit Downes, guitarist Chris Montague and
drummer Josh Blackmore make the line-up, but often it seems as if
we’re hearing half-a-dozen players, thanks to the clever guitar loops
and over-dubbed synth lines. Adding his own touch of suggestive magic
to all this is producer Petter Eldh, but thankfully he doesn’t sap the
energy and drive of the playing, which is considerable. This
energy comes from the deliberate mismatch between the hectic,
pattering drum patterns and the repeating riffs, which are always
arithmetically ingenious, if as hard and angular as steel girders.
When heaped up into layers they almost defeat the ear’s attempts to
unscramble them. It could all be too much, but there’s usually a
moment when the pieces break out of their self-created labyrinth – as
in the opening number Arcades, where the music emerges unexpectedly
into a wide-open harmonic space. In the closing number Seahouses (the
Northumberland coast is another theme in this album), the pattern is
reversed. Gentle synth. chords fade into one another, like layers of
mist on an early morning sea, but over the horizon something
threatening and super-fast eventually approaches. Overall this album
is musically intriguing, and full of ear-tickling sounds, but only
rarely loveable. ★★★☆☆ IH
AARON GOLDBERG: THE NOW (SUNNYSIDE RECORDS)
The Now is a very polished album, divided between Aaron
Goldberg's own compositions, a few jazz standards, and some delightful
reworkings of Brazilian songs. ★★★☆☆ IH
EMILY SAUNDERS: OUTSIDERS INSIDERS (MIX SOUNDS)
There's no doubting the strong vocal technique of Emily
Saunders, who trained in Jazz Voice at Trinity Conservatoire, and her
phrasing is one of the pleasures of her second album. The nine
original jazz numbers, which range across jazz ballads and Sixties
soul jazz, allow for strong instrumental solos from a band comprising
the excellent Byron Wallen on trumpet along with Trevor Mires
(trombone), Bruno Heinen/Steve Pringle (keys), Dave Whitford /Paul
Michael (bass) Jon Scott (drums) and Fabio De Oliveira/ Asaf Sirkis
(percussion). Highlights include the crisp voice-and-piano ballad You
With Me and the optimistic Summer Days. Those who like their jazz
sultry and languid will enjoy the album although it will be
interesting to see if Saunders brings more fire into future
work. ★★★☆☆ MC
REBECCA FERGUSON: LADY SINGS THE BLUES (RCA
RECORDS) Rebecca Ferguson's run through of Billie Holiday
classics could have been bolder but she sings with sass and feeling. ★★★☆☆ MC
JOE ALBANY: AN EVENING WITH JOE ALBANY
(STEEPLECHASE RECORDS) Something of a rarity. There are
17 tracks on this concert recorded at the Cafe Montmartre in
Copenhagen in May 1973, when American bebop pianist Joe Albany (who
died in 1988) was 49. April in Paris shows off his skill for
embellishing a tune; I Can’t Get Started is less assured.
Nevertheless, a welcome chance to hear an original jazz musician, who
played Charlie Parker. ★★★☆☆ MC
PETE OXLEY AND NICOLAS MEIER: CHASING
TALES (MGP RECORDS) Guitar duos are reasonably rare in
jazz yet the difference in styles from Pete Oxley and Nicolas Meier is
the strength of the album as they come together in a mostly acoustic
album. Chasing Tales shows off their elaborate, harmonically rich
melodies and clever solos. Two masterly guitarists creating an array
of changing moods. ★★★★☆ MC
WILD CARD: ORGANIC RIOT (TOP END RECORDS)
Wild Card are a fine live jazz act and they manage to capture
their gig energy on Organic Riot. The album blends hard-bop, Afro,
Latin and Funk, all held together by producer and French-born
guitarist Clément Régert. He and organist Andrew Noble (and drummer
Sophie Alloway) are joined by some strong guests, including Graeme
Flowers on trumpet and Roberto Manzin on tenor saxophone. Natalie
Williams sings well on Feeling Good and Wash Him Out. The longest
track, at more than eight minutes, is Flood and it's full of treats. ★★★★☆ MC
ALEXANDER VON SCHLIPPENBACH TRIO: FEATURES
(INTAKT RECORDS)
This CD must be in the running for the Least Appealing Title
for a Jazz Album prize, but fortunately the contents are livelier than
the packaging. The ponderous liner notes tell us the album is a
summary of how far the trio has come in 45 years playing together,
which is evidently a very long way indeed. The three players – pianist
Alexander von Schlippenbach, saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul
Lovens – are veterans of the ‘free jazz’ scene. Some devotees of free
jazz make a fetish of holding any echoes of ‘normal’ jazz at arm’s
length. These three have been around too long to be dogmatic, and much
of the pleasure of this album lies in savouring the little hints of
blues and vamping stride patterns and old-fashioned ‘licks’ that flit
across the music’s surface. The opening meditation from von
Schlippenbach sounds like his take on 1950s classical modernism, but
lurking inside the star-like points of sound is the ghost of a ‘jazzy’
seventh chord. Each of the following fourteen ‘Features’ is like a
little character study, launching off with an idea – a repeated note,
a whirling figure on the sax or cymbals – and allowing it to wander
where it will. Several times a number ends with a descent down into
the bass, so neatly contrived it might have been arranged in advance.
The most haunting Feature is the eleventh, where Parker’s long
multiphonic sound, like a bird that never needs to breathe, is framed
in delicate piano and percussive commentaries. Free jazz can never be
'easy listening', but the witty, relaxed interplay on this album comes
close to it. ★★★★☆ IH
THE BEN COX BAND: THIS WAITING GAME (CINNAMON RECORDS)
Ben Cox has a sweet and expressive voice and he shows he can
handle a classic in the way (with help from Claire Martin) he tackles
the 1939 song A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. Cox's band,
directed by pianist Jamie Safiruddin, interplay well with his voice on
an album produced and co-arranged by Ian Shaw. It's not
straightforward jazz – And I Love Her by Lennon and McCartney is
covered – but the jazz is done well, especially when Adam Chatterton
(trumpet and flugelhorn), Flo Moore (electric and double bass), Will
Glaser (drums) are sparking with Cox and Safiruddin. The vibrant This
Happy Madness (with Emily Dankworth) is a highlight. ★★★★☆ MC
DJANGO REINHARDT AT THE MOVIES (CHERRY RED
RECORDS) Taking music from Louis Malle's 1974 film
Lacombe, Lucien and Woody Allen, this celebrates Django Reinhardt, the
father of all jazz guitarists and a musician who inspired countless
players from across the whole spectrum of popular and classical
styles. Nuages is there of course, work with Stephane Grapelli and the
songs Allen used in Stardust Memories and Sweet and Lowdown. Fans will
have more complete compilations but if you are looking for an
introduction to his work, then this is rather lovely. ★★★★☆ MC
BILLIE HOLIDAY: THE CENTENNIAL COLLECTION
(LEGACY/COLUMBIA) We couldn't let April pass without a
nod to the peerless Billie Holiday, who was born 100 years ago. This
short and sweet Centennial Collection is a good snapshot of the late
singer's early career, including Them There Eyes and Strange Fruit. It
gets four stars rather than five because there are more comprehensive
collections. But you can't beat Billie. ★★★★☆ MC
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/billie-holidays-10-top-songs/" rel="nofollow - Billie Holiday's top 10 songs
JOE STILGOE: NEW SONGS FOR OLD SOULS (LINN RECORDS)
Music should be fun and the new album from pianist and
singer/songwriter Joe Stilgoe is just that. His own compositions
(comprising 10 of the 12 songs) are quirky and interesting and there's
a nostalgic charm to big band numbers such as Nobody Cares Like Me and
Pocket Song. Tom Farmer (bass), Ben Reynolds (drums) and Billy Adamson
(guitar) add fine support and there is a sweet duet with Liane Carroll
on a cover of Brian Wilson's I Just Wasn't Made For These Times. ★★★★☆ MC
JULIAN ARGÜELLES: LET IT BE TOLD (BASHO
RECORDS) The indomitably cheerful spirit of South African
jazz is revived here, in the unlikely setting of a big band format.
The performers are the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, and the arrangements
are by saxophonist Julian Argüelles, who appears as soloist on several
numbers. Argüelles is well placed to make such an album, having
steeped himself in the sound of South African jazz as a young man. He
played with émigré South African musicians who’d settled in this
country in the Sixties, and was also a member of that now legendary
band Loose Tubes, which itself was deeply influenced by South African
jazz. Argüelles’s take on that tradition sometimes recalls Loose Tubes
uproarious high spirits, in numbers such as Johnny Dyani’s Mama
Marimba. This begins with a musical explosion, out of which the music
gradually emerges. The band’s famously tight ensemble gives plenty of
rhythmic kick to upbeat numbers like Dudu Pukwana’s Diamond Express,
and Chris MacGregor’s Amasi feels like a crescendo of cheerfulness.
Behind the sunny dancing quality you sometimes catch a deeper note of
protest or religious feeling, as in the hymn-like ending to Mongezi
Feza’s You Aint’t Gonna Know Me. And overall the soft palette of the
Frankfurt band, with the trombones sounding as mellifluous as
clarinets, gives an affectionate glow to everything. In all, it’s a joy. ★★★★☆ IH
PARTIKEL: STRING THEORY (WHIRLWIND)
The combination of a jazz ethos with a mellifluous string sound is
fraught with dangers, as Charlie Parker’s ‘strings’ album reminds us.
Fortunately the importation of a string quartet into the lean,
piano-less sound of jazz trio Partikel works wonders on this new
album. Duncan Eagles, whose creamy mellifluous sax sound is a constant
pleasure, is also a clever arranger for string quartet. He conjures
all kinds of interesting textures from the medium, including a
Xenakis-like modernist fury at the very beginning. It’s typical
of the album that this abrasive beginning leads disarmingly to a
sweetly pastoral number, which boasts a real shapely melody of
old-fashioned suavity. All kinds of idioms rub shoulders on the album,
ranging from a sturdy modal quality somewhat reminiscent of Mike
Westbrook to a sultry Latin flavour. Lead violinist Benet Mclean is a
wonderfully characterful soloist, as is bass player Max Luthert. Some
may find both the sound-world and the actual compositions just too
soft-edged and ingratiating, others will enjoy the way the whole album
seems to glow with a new-dawn innocence. ★★★☆☆ IH
PATRICK NAYLOR: DAYS OF BLUE (PATRICK
NAYLOR) There is a lot to enjoy in the mellow Days of
Blue, especially the sensitive guitar playing of Patrick Naylor. The
9mins26secs Blue Morning feels like a jam session and shows off the
quality of the musicians involved. The Latin feel of Restless is also
a treat. Naylor blends well with saxophone player Ian East on Lost
Song and David Beebee (piano, bass), Milo Fell (drums), Natalie
Rozario (cello) and Alex Keen (bass) offer fine support. There are
also vocals from Sara Mitra and Stephanie O'Brien, who is joined by
and Dan Teper (accordion) on the sweet Naggar. ★★★☆☆ MC
LIAM NOBLE: A ROOM SOMEWHERE (BASHO)
Liam Noble’s new solo album is a box of surprises. The mysterious
plucked notes at the very beginning reminds us that Noble is
fascinated by the piano as a resource of pure sound, who often
collaborates with players of more experimental hue like Mary
Halvorson. But it’s not long before this leads into the cosy
sentimentality of Wouldn’t it be Lovely. Noble isn’t one for cosiness
and instead makes this unlikely choice of standard seem amusingly
angular. A dry tenderness peeps through as well, but it’s held in
check by Noble’s fascination with pattern and sound, and this tension
is there throughout the album. He enjoys going against the grain of
the instrument, as in Six White Horses, which recreates a banjo idiom
on the piano, and this is followed by another clever bit of disguise
in his own I Wish I Played Guitar. Sometimes I wished Noble would
relax, indulge the piano’s potential for emotional amplitude, and go
more with the grain of the standards he’s chosen, but the wit and
intelligence of the playing are always absorbing. ★★★☆☆ IH
INDRA RIOS-MOORE: HEARTLAND (DECCA)
Indra Rios-Moore, who grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side, is
now a respected figure on Denmark's jazz scene and it's easy to see
why from this classy and ambitious album. She ranges across bluesy
jazz, such as Little Black Train, and is as comfortable on Duke
Ellington's Azure as she is with David Bowie's Heroes. On Heartland,
which is produced by Larry Klein, there is a Doc Watson cover and a
gorgeous version of From Silence, which was written by Thomas
Bartlett. Rios-Moore is worth getting to know. ★★★★☆ MC
THE BAD AND JOSHUA REDMAN: THE BAD PLUS JOSHUA
REDMAN (NONESUCH) A meeting of jazz musicians who push
boundaries. Trio The Bad Plus are joined by saxophonist Joshua Redman,
and the intricate compositions challenge and inspire the soloists. I
particularly liked Redman’s swing on Friend or Foe and the short and
sweet Country Seat, written by pianist Ethan Iverson. Silence is the
Question, also featuring Reid Anderson (bass) and David King (drums),
is ambitious and nearly 14 minutes long. ★★★★☆ MC
JOSE JAMES: YESTERDAY I HAD THE BLUES: THE MUSIC OF
BILLIE HOLIDAY (BLUE NOTE) José James has described
Billie Holiday as "my mother in music" and the acclaimed
vocalist does full justice to Lady Day in this tribute album produced
by Blue Note president Don Was. The band is stellar band – and
includes pianist Jason Moran, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Eric
Harland – and the material to work with, including Body and Soul and
Strange Fruit, is timeless. Just right for Billie's centenary year. ★★★★☆ MC
BEATS & PIECES BIG BAND: ALL IN (EFPI
RECORDS) Beats & Pieces are an exuberant live band
and composer and arranger Ben Cottrell has captured that energy on
their new album All In. I liked the treatment of David Bowie's Let's
Dance and there is plenty of old style big band verve on Rocky from a
band that includes Finlay Panter, Nick Walters, Sam Healey and Graham
South. ★★★★☆ MC
BOBBY BRADFORD & JOHN CARTER QUINTET: NO U-TURN (DARK
TREE RECORDS) Recorded in Pasadena (at Caltech's Baxter
Lecture Hall in November 1975) this engaging album features
clarinetist John Carter in a rare outing on soprano saxophone. As well
as cornet player Bobby Bradford, the Los Angeles-based band has Robert
Miranda on double bass and William Jeffrey on drums. A highlight is
Circle, which shows how well Carter and Bradford weaved together
musically. Another example of the value of the archives. ★★★★☆ MC
JOEL HARRISON: SPIRIT HOUSE (WHIRLWIND RECORDINGS)
Washington-born composer Joel Harrison's guitar resonates through
You Must Go Through a Winter, one of the multi-layered compositions on
Spirit House that shows off how well he blends with Paul Hanson’s
bassoon and Cuong Vu's subtle trumpet playing. The quintet on this
textured album is completed by the deft Brian Blade on drums and
Kermit Driscoll on bass. It's a languid and expressive album. Look out
for the psychedlic feel of An Elephant in Igor’s Yard and the swing of
Old Friends. ★★★★☆ MC
DUKE ELLINGTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA: THE CONNY PLANK SESSION
(GRÖNLAND) This is a fascinating listen, partly because
Plank really does give the band’s sound a feeling of multiple
perspectives, with flute and horns and trombones and drum-kit all in
their own acoustic spaces. And with Duke Ellington a retake is never
just a retake. He seizes the opportunity to rework the music each time. ★★★★☆ IH
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/jazz/duke-ellington-lost-recordings-review/" rel="nofollow - See
full review of the Duke Ellington lost recordings
KAMASI WASHINGTON: THE EPIC (FLYLO)
As a saxophonist, Kamasi Washington soars on this bold, three
CD, 172-minute epic. Washington, the LA-born 34-year-old who has
played with Kendrick Lamar and Flying Lotus, gets the best out of a
10-piece band that includes Patrice Quinn's innovative soul vocals,
electric bassist Thundercat and trombonist Ryan Porter. Epic has
shades of Coltrane, Miles Davis and Weather Report and tips a nod to
hip hop and funk. I particularly liked Final Thought and The Next
Step. Ambitious, swooping and only for those with a long evening spare. ★★★★☆ MC
BRUNO HEINEN & KRISTIAN BORRING: POSTCARD TO BILL EVANS
(BABBEL) The two albums made by the great Bill Evans with
the guitarist Jim Hall a half-century ago are among the most exquisite
jazz records ever made. So for young British pianist Bruno Heinen and
Danish guitarist Kristian Borring to make a recording of some
classical Evans numbers might seem like lèse-majesté. In fact they
don’t suffer by the comparison. They’ve avoided the compositions on
those two albums, recording seven Evans originals, plus Bernstein’s
Some Other Time, Kern’s All The Things You Are and an original number
by Heinen entitled Postcard to Bill that could almost be a long-lost
original by the great man.Each track is a model of quiet stylishness,
with nicely witty touches like the striding bass in Interplay, over
which the melody lopes like a gazelle, or the ending of Show Type
Tune, where a dancing phrase steps elegantly up the keyboard until it
almost disappears off the top. It’s a tribute to how well these
players know each other that they can bowl along in swinging rhythms
for a minute at a stretch, without treading on each other’s toes. By
the fourth track I was beginning to wonder whether the album wasn’t
tipping over from sophistication into preciousness, but on numbers
like Five real energy breaks through the cool surface. ★★★★☆ IH
FRED HERSCH: SOLO (PALMETTO) This is Fred Hersch’s tenth
solo piano album, and it proves his nimble technique and restless
imagination are undimmed, and more engrossing than ever. Everything
about it bespeaks a loyalty to the mainstream: the choice of pieces
(no Radiohead songs or rap numbers for Hersch), no reaching inside the
innards of the piano in search of ‘atmospheric’ sounds, no venturing
towards extremes of fortissimo or pianissimo. Familiar standards,
treated within the familiar language of swing and bebop, stretched
here and there towards Latin (there’s a lovely take on two Antônio
Carlos Jobim songs) and classical music (Robert Schumann’s Pastorale)
are all Hersch needs to create something extraordinary. Hersch tells
us he was ‘in the zone’ the day this live recording was made, ‘a
special place where everything is working – heart, mind and
technique.’ This blessed state allowed him to do daring things, like
the rhythmic gear-shifts in Monk’s In Walked Bud, with a sense of
complete ease. Any time he appears to be tying himself in rhythmic
knots, or skittering down a harmonic cul-de-sac, Hersch finds his way
back to familiar territory with amusing Houdini-like ingenuity.
Another pleasing feature of the CD is the way Hersch sidles up to a
number via a long introduction, which in the case of Kern’s The Song
is You is so ingenious it’s almost a disappointment when the song
itself begins. There’s also an appealing honesty about the album, in
the way Hersch stays faithful to a number's original nature. His oddly
sinister version of Caravan, which tiptoes with delicate menace like a
malevolent spider, is extraordinary partly because it brings out a
lurking oddity in the piece itself, which we’d only half-noticed
before. Hersch’s respect for his originals is actually a drawback in
Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now. He doesn’t want to compromise the
pellucid wise innocence of the original, so his freedom of manoeuvre
is curtailed; he can’t bring in those harmonic quirks that make the
other numbers so fascinating. It’s the only mis-step in an album that
everywhere else is full of quiet (and sometimes not-so-quiet) delights. ★★★★☆ IH
YARON HERMAN: EVERYDAY (BLUE NOTE)
Israeli pianist Yaron Herman is an accomplished pianist and
there is plenty to savour on Everyday, even small musical snacks such
as Gentle With Open Hands, which is only 79 seconds long. The album
was conceived and executed entirely with drummer Ziv Ravitz. Herman
calls him his "musical brother" and you can see why on the
moody track Retrograde, on which they blend together seamlessly. ★★★☆☆ MC
MISHA MULLOV-ABBADO: NEW ANSONIA (EDITION RECORDS) The
talent gathered on this album is astonishing. There’s Jacob Collier,
sensational young pianist and YouTube phenomenon, and a clutch of fine
instrumentalists including trombonist Tom Green, saxophonist Matthew
Herd and flugelhorn player James Davison. Renowned classical violinist
Viktoria Mullova, cellist Matthew Barley and guitarist Nick Goodwin
make guest appearances. At the centre of it all is bassist Misha
Mullov-Abbado, son of Mullova and the late Claudio Abbado, who also
has talent to burn. The compositions on this album are all his (apart
from a witty arrangement of Earth, Wind and Fire’s September), and
they show an amazing variety of mood, very artfully arranged. It kicks
off with a sweetly innocent number, twittering bird-song offset by
academically correct part-writing. It’s almost too sweet, but the
dirty slouching swing of the next number offsets that impression very
neatly. And so it goes on, each number pushing into a completely new
area, but always displaying Mullov-Abbado’s gift for fashioning
melodies that are shapely and almost remind you of something, but stay
just this side of being hackneyed. In Satan, Oscillate my Metallic
Sonatas he even dips a toe into modernism, with an intriguingly
angular three-part invention emerging out of electronic spaciness. But
it’s only skin-deep; warm harmonies eventually emerge, and the number
ends squarely on a proper chord, just like all the others. The sheer
profusion of different styles might make one wonder: where does
Mullov-Abbado’s heart really lie, musically speaking? But there’s
plenty of time for that to emerge. For now, best to simply enjoy this
unfailingly inventive, artfully produced, and delightfully sunny debut. ★★★★☆ IH
|
Posted By: snobb
Date Posted: 01 Jan 2016 at 10:48am
FINAL TOP 2015:
The best jazz albums of 2015
includes picks from jazz critic Ivan Hewett and culture
editor Martin Chilton. There are 50 albums for 2015.
1 MARIA SCHNEIDER ORCHESTRA: THE THOMPSON FIELDS (MARIA
SCHNEIDER.COM) Maria Schneider's latest album, some 10
years in the making, shows just what a supple and powerful instrument
a jazz orchestra can be. ★★★★★ Ivan Hewett
2 KENNY WHEELER: SONGS FOR QUINTET (ECM)
The fine trumpeter Kenny Wheeler died in September 2014 and
this lovely album was recorded at Abbey Road nine months before he
died. There is some sweet flugelhorn from the Octogenerian and
particularly fine support from tenor saxophonist Stan Sulzmann. John
Parricelli (guitar), Martin France (drums) and Chris Laurence (bass)
complete the classy quintet. The CD comes with two impressive booklets
with photographs of the quintet and of Wheeler's time with ECM. The
album's nine tracks are full of sensitive ensemble playing and supple
rhythms, and it finishes with the poignant Nonetheless. Songs for
Quintet is an excellent testament to a Canadian-born star who did so
much for jazz in the UK. ★★★★☆ Martin Chilton
3 JACK DeJOHNETTE: MADE IN CHICAGO (ECM)
Jack DeJohnette brings together colleagues of 50 years standing
– pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, sax players Roscoe Mitchell and Henry
Threadgill and young cellist and bassist Larry Gray – and the range of
expression these five players draw from their instruments is
astonishing. ★★★★☆ IH 4 BOB DYLAN:
SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT (COLUMBIA RECORDS)
Bob Dylan pays tribute to the jazz songs of Frank Sinatra, as
he takes beautiful material written by such greats as Rodgers and
Hammerstein and completely inhabits them, reimagining Some Enchanted
Evening with the wistful intimacy of someone peering back through the
mists of time. ★★★★★ Neil McCormick
5 TROYKA: ORNITHOPHOBIA (NAIM JAZZ RECORDS)
Ornithophobia is full of many-layered soundscapes which are
often suggestive and aurally seductive, if somewhat chilly in
emotional tone. Pianist Kit Downes, guitarist Chris Montague and
drummer Josh Blackmore make the line-up, but often it seems as if
we’re hearing half-a-dozen players, thanks to the clever guitar loops
and over-dubbed synth lines. Adding his own touch of suggestive magic
to all this is producer Petter Eldh, but thankfully he doesn’t sap the
energy and drive of the playing, which is considerable. This
energy comes from the deliberate mismatch between the hectic,
pattering drum patterns and the repeating riffs, which are always
arithmetically ingenious, if as hard and angular as steel girders.
When heaped up into layers they almost defeat the ear’s attempts to
unscramble them. It could all be too much, but there’s usually a
moment when the pieces break out of their self-created labyrinth – as
in the opening number Arcades, where the music emerges unexpectedly
into a wide-open harmonic space. In the closing number Seahouses (the
Northumberland coast is another theme in this album), the pattern is
reversed. Gentle synth. chords fade into one another, like layers of
mist on an early morning sea, but over the horizon something
threatening and super-fast eventually approaches. Overall this album
is musically intriguing, and full of ear-tickling sounds, but only
rarely loveable. ★★★☆☆ IH
6 AARON GOLDBERG: THE NOW (SUNNYSIDE RECORDS)
The Now is a very polished album, divided between Aaron
Goldberg's own compositions, a few jazz standards, and some delightful
reworkings of Brazilian songs. ★★★☆☆ IH
7 EMILY SAUNDERS: OUTSIDERS INSIDERS (MIX SOUNDS)
There's no doubting the strong vocal technique of Emily
Saunders, who trained in Jazz Voice at Trinity Conservatoire, and her
phrasing is one of the pleasures of her second album. The nine
original jazz numbers, which range across jazz ballads and Sixties
soul jazz, allow for strong instrumental solos from a band comprising
the excellent Byron Wallen on trumpet along with Trevor Mires
(trombone), Bruno Heinen/Steve Pringle (keys), Dave Whitford /Paul
Michael (bass) Jon Scott (drums) and Fabio De Oliveira/ Asaf Sirkis
(percussion). Highlights include the crisp voice-and-piano ballad You
With Me and the optimistic Summer Days. Those who like their jazz
sultry and languid will enjoy the album although it will be
interesting to see if Saunders brings more fire into future
work. ★★★☆☆ MC
8 REBECCA FERGUSON: LADY SINGS THE BLUES (RCA
RECORDS) Rebecca Ferguson's run through of Billie Holiday
classics could have been bolder but she sings with sass and feeling. ★★★☆☆ MC
9 JOE ALBANY: AN EVENING WITH JOE ALBANY
(STEEPLECHASE RECORDS) Something of a rarity. There are
17 tracks on this concert recorded at the Cafe Montmartre in
Copenhagen in May 1973, when American bebop pianist Joe Albany (who
died in 1988) was 49. April in Paris shows off his skill for
embellishing a tune; I Can’t Get Started is less assured.
Nevertheless, a welcome chance to hear an original jazz musician, who
played Charlie Parker. ★★★☆☆ MC
10 PETE OXLEY AND NICOLAS MEIER: CHASING
TALES (MGP RECORDS) Guitar duos are reasonably rare in
jazz yet the difference in styles from Pete Oxley and Nicolas Meier is
the strength of the album as they come together in a mostly acoustic
album. Chasing Tales shows off their elaborate, harmonically rich
melodies and clever solos. Two masterly guitarists creating an array
of changing moods. ★★★★☆ MC
11 WILD CARD: ORGANIC RIOT (TOP END RECORDS)
Wild Card are a fine live jazz act and they manage to capture
their gig energy on Organic Riot. The album blends hard-bop, Afro,
Latin and Funk, all held together by producer and French-born
guitarist Clément Régert. He and organist Andrew Noble (and drummer
Sophie Alloway) are joined by some strong guests, including Graeme
Flowers on trumpet and Roberto Manzin on tenor saxophone. Natalie
Williams sings well on Feeling Good and Wash Him Out. The longest
track, at more than eight minutes, is Flood and it's full of treats. ★★★★☆ MC
12 ALEXANDER VON SCHLIPPENBACH TRIO: FEATURES
(INTAKT RECORDS)
This CD must be in the running for the Least Appealing Title
for a Jazz Album prize, but fortunately the contents are livelier than
the packaging. The ponderous liner notes tell us the album is a
summary of how far the trio has come in 45 years playing together,
which is evidently a very long way indeed. The three players – pianist
Alexander von Schlippenbach, saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul
Lovens – are veterans of the ‘free jazz’ scene. Some devotees of free
jazz make a fetish of holding any echoes of ‘normal’ jazz at arm’s
length. These three have been around too long to be dogmatic, and much
of the pleasure of this album lies in savouring the little hints of
blues and vamping stride patterns and old-fashioned ‘licks’ that flit
across the music’s surface. The opening meditation from von
Schlippenbach sounds like his take on 1950s classical modernism, but
lurking inside the star-like points of sound is the ghost of a ‘jazzy’
seventh chord. Each of the following fourteen ‘Features’ is like a
little character study, launching off with an idea – a repeated note,
a whirling figure on the sax or cymbals – and allowing it to wander
where it will. Several times a number ends with a descent down into
the bass, so neatly contrived it might have been arranged in advance.
The most haunting Feature is the eleventh, where Parker’s long
multiphonic sound, like a bird that never needs to breathe, is framed
in delicate piano and percussive commentaries. Free jazz can never be
'easy listening', but the witty, relaxed interplay on this album comes
close to it. ★★★★☆ IH
13 THE BEN COX BAND: THIS WAITING GAME
(CINNAMON RECORDS)
Ben Cox has a sweet and expressive voice and he shows he can
handle a classic in the way (with help from Claire Martin) he tackles
the 1939 song A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. Cox's band,
directed by pianist Jamie Safiruddin, interplay well with his voice on
an album produced and co-arranged by Ian Shaw. It's not
straightforward jazz – And I Love Her by Lennon and McCartney is
covered – but the jazz is done well, especially when Adam Chatterton
(trumpet and flugelhorn), Flo Moore (electric and double bass), Will
Glaser (drums) are sparking with Cox and Safiruddin. The vibrant This
Happy Madness (with Emily Dankworth) is a highlight. ★★★★☆ MC
14 DJANGO REINHARDT AT THE MOVIES (CHERRY RED
RECORDS) Taking music from Louis Malle's 1974 film
Lacombe, Lucien and Woody Allen, this celebrates Django Reinhardt, the
father of all jazz guitarists and a musician who inspired countless
players from across the whole spectrum of popular and classical
styles. Nuages is there of course, work with Stephane Grapelli and the
songs Allen used in Stardust Memories and Sweet and Lowdown. Fans will
have more complete compilations but if you are looking for an
introduction to his work, then this is rather lovely. ★★★★☆ MC
15 BILLIE HOLIDAY: THE CENTENNIAL COLLECTION
(LEGACY/COLUMBIA) We couldn't let April pass without a
nod to the peerless Billie Holiday, who was born 100 years ago. This
short and sweet Centennial Collection is a good snapshot of the late
singer's early career, including Them There Eyes and Strange Fruit. It
gets four stars rather than five because there are more comprehensive
collections. But you can't beat Billie. ★★★★☆ MC
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/billie-holidays-10-top-songs/" rel="nofollow - Billie
Holiday's top 10 songs 16 JOE STILGOE: NEW
SONGS FOR OLD SOULS (LINN RECORDS) Music should be fun
and the new album from pianist and singer/songwriter Joe Stilgoe is
just that. His own compositions (comprising 10 of the 12 songs) are
quirky and interesting and there's a nostalgic charm to big band
numbers such as Nobody Cares Like Me and Pocket Song. Tom Farmer
(bass), Ben Reynolds (drums) and Billy Adamson (guitar) add fine
support and there is a sweet duet with Liane Carroll on a cover of
Brian Wilson's I Just Wasn't Made For These Times. ★★★★☆ MC
17 JULIAN ARGÜELLES: LET IT BE TOLD (BASHO
RECORDS) The indomitably cheerful spirit of South African
jazz is revived here, in the unlikely setting of a big band format.
The performers are the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, and the arrangements
are by saxophonist Julian Argüelles, who appears as soloist on several
numbers. Argüelles is well placed to make such an album, having
steeped himself in the sound of South African jazz as a young man. He
played with émigré South African musicians who’d settled in this
country in the Sixties, and was also a member of that now legendary
band Loose Tubes, which itself was deeply influenced by South African
jazz. Argüelles’s take on that tradition sometimes recalls Loose Tubes
uproarious high spirits, in numbers such as Johnny Dyani’s Mama
Marimba. This begins with a musical explosion, out of which the music
gradually emerges. The band’s famously tight ensemble gives plenty of
rhythmic kick to upbeat numbers like Dudu Pukwana’s Diamond Express,
and Chris MacGregor’s Amasi feels like a crescendo of cheerfulness.
Behind the sunny dancing quality you sometimes catch a deeper note of
protest or religious feeling, as in the hymn-like ending to Mongezi
Feza’s You Aint’t Gonna Know Me. And overall the soft palette of the
Frankfurt band, with the trombones sounding as mellifluous as
clarinets, gives an affectionate glow to everything. In all, it’s a joy. ★★★★☆ IH
18 PARTIKEL: STRING THEORY (WHIRLWIND)
The combination of a jazz ethos with a mellifluous string sound is
fraught with dangers, as Charlie Parker’s ‘strings’ album reminds us.
Fortunately the importation of a string quartet into the lean,
piano-less sound of jazz trio Partikel works wonders on this new
album. Duncan Eagles, whose creamy mellifluous sax sound is a constant
pleasure, is also a clever arranger for string quartet. He conjures
all kinds of interesting textures from the medium, including a
Xenakis-like modernist fury at the very beginning. It’s typical
of the album that this abrasive beginning leads disarmingly to a
sweetly pastoral number, which boasts a real shapely melody of
old-fashioned suavity. All kinds of idioms rub shoulders on the album,
ranging from a sturdy modal quality somewhat reminiscent of Mike
Westbrook to a sultry Latin flavour. Lead violinist Benet Mclean is a
wonderfully characterful soloist, as is bass player Max Luthert. Some
may find both the sound-world and the actual compositions just too
soft-edged and ingratiating, others will enjoy the way the whole album
seems to glow with a new-dawn innocence. ★★★☆☆ IH
19 PATRICK NAYLOR: DAYS OF BLUE (PATRICK
NAYLOR) There is a lot to enjoy in the mellow Days of
Blue, especially the sensitive guitar playing of Patrick Naylor. The
9mins26secs Blue Morning feels like a jam session and shows off the
quality of the musicians involved. The Latin feel of Restless is also
a treat. Naylor blends well with saxophone player Ian East on Lost
Song and David Beebee (piano, bass), Milo Fell (drums), Natalie
Rozario (cello) and Alex Keen (bass) offer fine support. There are
also vocals from Sara Mitra and Stephanie O'Brien, who is joined by
and Dan Teper (accordion) on the sweet Naggar. ★★★☆☆ MC
20 LIAM NOBLE: A ROOM SOMEWHERE (BASHO)
Liam Noble’s new solo album is a box of surprises. The mysterious
plucked notes at the very beginning reminds us that Noble is
fascinated by the piano as a resource of pure sound, who often
collaborates with players of more experimental hue like Mary
Halvorson. But it’s not long before this leads into the cosy
sentimentality of Wouldn’t it be Lovely. Noble isn’t one for cosiness
and instead makes this unlikely choice of standard seem amusingly
angular. A dry tenderness peeps through as well, but it’s held in
check by Noble’s fascination with pattern and sound, and this tension
is there throughout the album. He enjoys going against the grain of
the instrument, as in Six White Horses, which recreates a banjo idiom
on the piano, and this is followed by another clever bit of disguise
in his own I Wish I Played Guitar. Sometimes I wished Noble would
relax, indulge the piano’s potential for emotional amplitude, and go
more with the grain of the standards he’s chosen, but the wit and
intelligence of the playing are always absorbing. ★★★☆☆ IH
21 INDRA RIOS-MOORE: HEARTLAND (DECCA)
Indra Rios-Moore, who grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side, is
now a respected figure on Denmark's jazz scene and it's easy to see
why from this classy and ambitious album. She ranges across bluesy
jazz, such as Little Black Train, and is as comfortable on Duke
Ellington's Azure as she is with David Bowie's Heroes. On Heartland,
which is produced by Larry Klein, there is a Doc Watson cover and a
gorgeous version of From Silence, which was written by Thomas
Bartlett. Rios-Moore is worth getting to know. ★★★★☆ MC
22 THE BAD AND JOSHUA REDMAN: THE BAD PLUS
JOSHUA REDMAN (NONESUCH) A meeting of jazz musicians who
push boundaries. Trio The Bad Plus are joined by saxophonist Joshua
Redman, and the intricate compositions challenge and inspire the
soloists. I particularly liked Redman’s swing on Friend or Foe and the
short and sweet Country Seat, written by pianist Ethan Iverson.
Silence is the Question, also featuring Reid Anderson (bass) and David
King (drums), is ambitious and nearly 14 minutes long. ★★★★☆ MC
23 JOSE JAMES: YESTERDAY I HAD THE BLUES: THE MUSIC
OF BILLIE HOLIDAY (BLUE NOTE) José James has described
Billie Holiday as "my mother in music" and the acclaimed
vocalist does full justice to Lady Day in this tribute album produced
by Blue Note president Don Was. The band is stellar band – and
includes pianist Jason Moran, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Eric
Harland – and the material to work with, including Body and Soul and
Strange Fruit, is timeless. Just right for Billie's centenary year. ★★★★☆ MC
24 BEATS & PIECES BIG BAND: ALL IN (EFPI
RECORDS) Beats & Pieces are an exuberant live band
and composer and arranger Ben Cottrell has captured that energy on
their new album All In. I liked the treatment of David Bowie's Let's
Dance and there is plenty of old style big band verve on Rocky from a
band that includes Finlay Panter, Nick Walters, Sam Healey and Graham
South. ★★★★☆ MC
rest of the list here:
http://telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/best-jazz-albums-of-2015/" rel="nofollow - http://telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/best-jazz-albums-of-2015/
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