contemporary jazz
Album Review: Emma Rawicz –‘Inkyra’: Bold, widescreen, dynamic jazz from the irrepressible saxophonist and her explosive band.
You could say prestigious young saxophonist Emma Rawicz is on a roll right now. Just a few months ago she was turning jazz-heads with her exquisite and sumptuous ‘Big Visit’, a duo album with the phenomenal Gwilym Simcock and now in hot pursuit comes her new set ‘Inkyra’ via the ever-discerning ACT. To be completely …
Album Review: Cecilie Strange – ‘Beech’: Compelling Nordic Jazz with a subtle strength and singular sound.
When an artist settles into their groove, over time the spark in their music can dim. Listening to ‘Beech’ the new album by Danish saxophonist Cecilie Strange it’s more than clear that she’s not going to follow that flat line. It’s her fifth album for Copenhagen’s modern jazz curators April Records and the fourth to …
Album Review: Emma Rawicz & Gwilym Simcock – ‘Big Visit’: A sax/piano jazz connection that sets new standards.
The similarities in the musical pathways between saxophonist Emma Rawicz and pianist Gwilym Simcock are a bit uncanny. Both studied at Chethams School Of Music and The Royal Academy, both have won a sleuth of UK Jazz plaudits including the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, Simcock in 2007 and Rawicz in 2021, both release through the seminal …
Album Review: Red Gazelle Trio – ‘On A Human Level’: naturally soulful and melodically warm, a new Nordic jazz gem.
Perceptions and pronouncements about Nordic Jazz can often return to parts of the classic ECM catalogue with its sophisticated coolness, ambient leanings and breathtaking spaciousness. But naturally, the Scandinavian scene is so vibrant that the music’s boundaries are forever shifting, on the reach for new horizons. Over the last couple of decades, ever since the …
Album Review: Lophae – ‘Perfect Strangers’: thrilling, fine-tuned jazz with subtle powers.
There’s a playful irony in both the band and album names chosen by this new London jazz quartet led by guitarist/composer Greg Sanders. For a start this lush, intricately woven set of tunes played with finesse, vibrancy and uncanny sensitivity is anything but ‘lo-fi’. Perhaps the ‘Lophae’ just hints at Sanders’ move away from the …
Album Review: Raffy Bushman – ‘Here Today Gone Tomorrow’: More thrilling post-bop nu jazz from the London pianist and composer.
For a musician who puts out an annual album release, pianist, cellist and composer Raffy Bushman manages to keep surprisingly under the muso-radar but you sense that’s just how he likes it. His music is part, yes a significant part, of what he recognises as his whole life. Watching any of the documentary shorts, which …
Album Review: Bill Laurance/The Untold Orchestra-‘Bloom’: Gently moving, deceptively powerful orchestral jazz from the Snarky Puppy mainstay.
It’s tricky to summarise the range and significance of pianist and composer Bill Laurance’s musical CV to date. The chance hook-up as a student in Leeds, backing a young Michael League during his sojourn from the States; the subsequent return invitation to travel to the US to play in League’s new band the then unknown …
Album Review: Benjamin Samuels – ‘Dissensation’: New name, nu jazz, new thrills – an album set to make an impact.
Straight after any hugs or handshakes the first thing musicians ask each other when they meet up is ‘Are you busy’? For sax-player, clarinettist and composer Benjamin Samuels the answer for some time now has been a ‘yes’. He’s worked with Californian fusionist Balkan Bump and Brighton’s own global beat pioneer Seb Taylor (aka Kaya …
Track/Video: Dynamic prog-jazzers Emily Francis Trio preview new EP with the drama of ‘After The Rain’.
For many the jazz piano trio is an edifice that shouldn’t be tampered with, the classic enactment of pure jazz, a rhythm section suddenly given license to express itself but with a heritage that binds them together. So any messing with the tradition needs to be done well, with a purpose and conviction. Plucking at …
Album Review: Okvsho – ‘A Place Between Us’: sophistication, groove and sonic depth – a new force in jazz fusion emerges.
Operating out of Zurich the brothers Kiss, Georg and Christoph (a.k.a Okvsho) are on some kind of a mission to shake up the music scene in their city. Unlike say Geneva that throbs to pulse of a vibrant underground art network, Zurich may lack some impetus but the producer/ instrumentalist brothers are looking to pick …