I spent last week almost locked in by cold windy and rainy weather in a small apartment in "Dear old Stockholm" (which didn't look all that dear under occasional snowflakes falling around in the second half of April). Under lead-heavy clouds, the only things that brightened my mood there were seagulls' screams flying over the town and a few CDs I took with me for the trip. Shabaka's "Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace" was one of them.

Band leader and reeds player Shabaka Hutchings is with no doubt the most significant figure of a new generation of the London jazz scene. For a decade he dictates musical fashions with his projects, Sons of Kemet, The Comet is Coming and Shabaka & the Ancestors covering the wide range of genres from space-jazz to Afro-beat and avant-garde jazz. Still, till now his music was always very rhythmic, energetic and often explosive.

On "Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace", Shabaka's first real solo album, he plays predominantly flute (not saxophones or bass clarinet, as he usually did before). As a result, we got a very much flute-jazz album, which can be an acquired taste.

Shabaka, quite predictably for such kind of music, starts somewhere between new age and world fusion here on his new album, fortunately he develops it towards more sophisticated and tasteful contemporary jazz with melodic songs and touch of electronics. There is a list of renown musicians participating here, but still it is obvious that Shabaka is an obvious leader. Even playing the music which doesn't associates with him a lot (predominantly Far Eastern, Eastern European and Latin American flutes), Shabaka sounds a bit like Shabaka from Comet... or Shabaka from Sons of Kemet.

Among the guests, there are participating pianist Jason Moran (on two songs) and rising South African star Nduduzo Makhathini, Floating Points on Rhodes electric piano, renown bassist Esperanza Spalding (on two songs), respectable New York drummer Nasheet Waits and even freshly established flutist André 3000. Still there are vocalists/rapers who's participation is probably most influential.

Differently from all of Shabaka's previous music, "Perceive Its Beauty..." is a heavily meditative and quite relaxed work, fortunately it doesn't slip into esoteric sleepy listening. Arrangements are all tasteful and quite original, rhythm changes are presented too, each of the songs included has it own face.

Never a big jazz flute fan, I chose this album because of my interest in Shabaka's music. Still, this music really made my day brighter, more comfortable and harmonic, even under dark Nordic sky. I believe those appreciating flute in jazz will find much more to enjoy.

"Crescent With Love" is a Pharoah Sanders album released on the Japanese Venus label, a label well known for its specialization in "late night jazz" (or predominantly hard bop ballads) - original recordings of renown artists, released on albums with erotic-art covers. This album is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Coltrane's death. Even if Sanders played in Coltrane's band during his avant-garde (post-1965) times, "Crescent With Love" contains material strictly from the mainstream jazz category. Which perfectly fits under Venus label philosophy for sure.

There are five Coltrane hard bop-period songs included, plus Duke Ellington's "In A Sentimental Mood", Erroll Garner's "Misty" and other jazz standards. Sanders leads a competent acoustic quartet with double bassist Charles Fambrough, drummer Sherman Ferguson and pianist William Henderson - his regular quartet of the early 90s.

Sanders doesn't try to imitate Coltrane's sound here, he plays his own warm, a bit sentimental, soulful jazz deeply rooted in the r'n'b and blues of Sanders' youth. The trio on support do their job well, building an unpretentious background for Sanders' slow to mid-tempo soloing. The musical material is of excellent quality, so fans of regular Venus releases will find this album really attractive. Not much is offered for freer and more explosive Sanders music fans though. The album has been released in US in 1994 (with alternate cover art), and reissued a few times after, so everyone interested can find it without big problems.

My interest to music comes from my early teens, and Polish music was a huge influence during my formative period. Two years of accordion private lessons didn't impress me a lot, later I tried to become a drummer in a school band, without a significant success. My hometown, Vilnius, in Russia's occupied Lithuania wasn't a very inspiring place, with a lot of people in gray military uniforms, dark blue militiamen and civilians, wearing same gray clothes, usually silent. There was quite a lot of music on state TV and radio stations (private stations didn't exist at all at that time), but it was predominantly kitsch versions of (mostly Russian) folklore and hyper-enthusiastic Soviet propaganda-pop. Plus some classics – classics sounded especially boring for my ears.

And there was Polish Radio – one of two foreign radio stations I could listen to regularly. The other was a BBC Russian services, banned in the Soviet Union. Its signal was usually weak, but time to time it was possible to listen to their excellent Friday night radio shows, dedicated to rock music.

Differently, Polish Radio had a strong and high quality radio signal. There was lot of short talks in a language I didn't really understand, and a lot of music between the talks too. I learned my basic Polish trying to understand what the voices on the radio were talking about, and my musical aesthetics were formed under the heavy influence of music I listened to regularly on Polish Radio.

That music was similar to what I already knew, but different at the same time. Doesn't matter, what genre it was – pop, rock or even r'n'b and reggae, it sounded richer, more full-bodied, brighter, much more colorful. As a teenager, I had no idea, where this difference came from. Only later I find out, that this difference in sound (and in general aesthetics too) was the result of different arrangements. It was quite often JAZZY ARRANGEMENTS, making almost any music sound fabulous.

Some years and decades later I found the genius of Tomasz Stanko trumpet, jazz, Polish fusion and many more. But even now, from almost half-a-century time distance, Poland for me is a land where all music sounds jazzy. Crossing the country by car, every time I impatiently wait for the moment when my car's radio is able to catch the first possible Polish radio station – almost always I get that very specific soulful, sometimes slightly melancholic jazzy sound of Poland, doesn't matter who plays.

It's a shame on me. I didn't know before who Krzesimir Dębski and Tadeusz Sudnik are. True, I knew Polish fusion stars from the 80s, The String Connection, and I knew Stanko's Freelectronic project, but I never knew the names of both band's members. As a foreigner, I knew even less about Krzesimir Dębski's films soundtracks and classical works. Then, two Polish jazz seasoned artists' new work comes for me as a discovery of sort.

Listening to a lot of jazz (hundreds of albums annually) for a few decades, it's not a regular situation when you start listening to a new album of seasoned artists without expectations, you are not familiar with their music and simply don't know what to expect. It's quite a good thing, history teaches us that expectations often lead to disappointments.

So, Krzesimir Dębski and Tadeusz Sudnik Borello, present a comeback album after long pause. Four longish (between 9+ and almost 15 minutes long) free form compositions, recorded by a duo of violinist/keyboardist and a live electronics wizard. The music which could be formally tagged as “jazz-electronica” has nothing in common with New Millennium jazz related electronica, like played by Squarepusher or Flying Lotus. With an absolute dominance of analog sound, this album's electronics are much closer to American composer and early Moog player Richard Teitelbaum's music.

Album's opener, “Borro”, dedicated to Tomasz Stanko, sounds very much as a variation of early Miles abstract fusion, with Dębski's violin soloing instead of trumpet. Warm and tuneful, this song sounds very much as if had been composed, not fully improvised. “Rebo”, the album's longest piece, is of a more amorphous nature, centered around vintage electronic rhythms. Quite relaxed though.

“Lerro” is a mid-tempo song with violin soloing over the (warm) synth loops and bubbles, in moments quite unpolished and almost nervous. “Rero”, the closer, same way as a previous piece, sounds more improvised, freer than the first two album's songs. Still, there are lot of tuneful snippets and emotively colored violin.

Not really a revolutionary album, still it's a very impressive standing alone work of two masters. Maturity, knowledge of the past world without even traces of sentimental melancholy, and that soulful jazzy feel so important for Polish jazz. Bravo!

Fans of a legendary jazz bassist William Parker know that he has a long lasting collaboration history with singers on some his projects and Texas-born Leena Conquest is one of his most regular vocalist. Still, Parker's "The Inside Songs Of Curtis Mayfield" project is quite unusual since his all-star combo plays a soul star Curtis Mayfield songs here.

Recorded in Rome, Italy during 2004 New York IS Now! Festival and released by Rai Trade, a publishing division of national public broadcasting company of Italy three years later, "The Inside Songs Of Curtis Mayfield - Live In Rome" is a real rarity. Parker leads the band, containing his regular drummer Hamid Drake, pianist Dave Burrell, capable reeds section of Sabir Mateen, Darryl Foster and Lewis Barnes, plus renown in 70s poet and voice artist Amiri Baraka on support of singer Leena Conquest. Music itself is a bit quirky mix of straight-forward r'n'b with Leena vocals, with rich brass arrangements, plenty of Amiri Baraka politically sharp recitatives and free jazz sax soling over it. Most probably, Curtis Mayfield songs never sounded this way.

Recording sound is clear, but the mix is odd, most probably taken from initial video recording. Vocals are on the very front, with drums sounding extremely flat with loud brass arrangements beside. Leena Conquest singing is OK, but Baraka's participation is a bit out of place - in a first decade of New Millennium his lyrics sounds really dated. The editing could be better as well - in all the release sound as average quality bootleg from the era.

Being a rarity, this album is mostly a collectors' item. There is another, not so rare album, recorded by same Parker's project and containing similar material, recorded by almost the same band on US and European tours, "I Plan To Stay A Believer: The Inside Songs Of Curtis Mayfield", released in US by AUM Fidelity.

On ancient maps there were unknown territories signed as "Hic Svnt Dracones"(here are dragons). Polish-born Germany raised sax player Angelika Niescier leads her all-female non-convential sax / cello / drums trio towards "beyond dragons" territories.

There is not much of Polish cultural influence in Angelika's music - no beautiful tunes, no melancholy, no spiritual atmosphere at all. Having grown up in Germany from the tender age of 11, Niescier sounds much more like Peter Brötzmann than Adam Pieronczyk (or Tomasz Stanko, if you want). The trio's other member, American cellist Tomeka Reid, is a significant figure on the international contemporary jazz scene, she adds a lot of creative vibes to the album's music. Third member, lesser known NYC-based drummer Savannah Harris, holds her own and does not descend below her better known collaborater's musicianship.

The album's music, which sounds free from first touch, actually contains Angelika's compositions mixed with improvisation, all under strict Niescier control. Quite heavyweight and teutonically-brutal by nature, "Beyond Dragons" is still not a radical assault attack in Brötzmann's fashion, more a well calculated, but creative product of German engineering. Not really often such music is produced by young female trio hands.