jazzwise choices,Jazzwise Editor's Choices - May 2023

by Barney Whittaker

Pictured: Fire! Orchestra

Jazzwise Editor's Choices from the May 2023 issue include new music from Billy Childs,Fire! Orchestra, Ingrid Laubrock, Nana Rashid and Billy Valentine and the Universal Truth, as well as archive releases from Bill Evans and Chet Baker.

New Releases 

The Winds of Change 

Billy Childs

“...An entire album that is a triumph of improvisational and compositional interaction and musicianly interplay … Overall, a rare treat.”

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

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Read our full review of The Winds of Change... 

     Echoes  

Fire! Orchestra

“Echoes makes for a satisfying and conceptually coherent musical experience, one that rewards repeated and careful revisiting. A winner.”

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

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The Last Quiet Place 

Ingrid Laubrock

“Laubrock’s ever-expanding compositional vision forms a genre-fluid super-sextet here, all six members capable of shifting seamlessly between free-jazz, avant-rock, and delicate classical-string textures [...] [Her] openness to so many contemporary sounds at once seems to have hit a new level.”

Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

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Music For Betty 

Nana Rashid

“This hugely impressive debut album from Danish vocalist Nana Rashid follows her well-received four-track EP, Sorrow in Sunlight, which she released in 2016 [...] with the understated, hypersensitive accompaniment of the Danish jazz piano trio Little North adding greatly to the intimate atmosphere.” 

Billy Valentine and the Universal Truth 

Billy Valentine

“...Valentine is in fine voice in his senior years, appearing to be positively invigorated by this new project. Collaborating with Bob Thiele Jr, son of the Bob who started Impulse! and head of the rebooted, much-loved Flying Dutchman label (partnered with UK imprint Acid Jazz), Valentine has gone into classic 1970s soul territory with an album that is classily helmed.”

Available Format: CD

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Reissues & Archive 

Treasures - Solo, Trio & Orchestral Records From Denmark (1965-69) 

Bill Evans

“...simply a joy to listen to, with Evans’ touch as light as a feather, his mood upbeat, confident - almost playful - and his playing ingenious, bringing freshness to even the most familiar tunes.”

Available Format: 2 CDs

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Blue Room: The 1979 VARA Studio Sessions in Holland 

Chet Baker

"...the jazz antennae of co-producer Zev Feldman have successfully winkled out a pair of fine Dutch radio recordings from a time when Chet’s chops were in good shape and he had two first-rate accompanying groups."

Available Format: 2 CDs

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from www.prestomusic.com