jazz fusion
Album Review: Àbáse –‘Awakening’: Stunning spiritual jazz and beyond from the prolific producer/instrumentalist.
It doesn’t seem that long since Hungarian keyboarding producer whizz Szabolcs Bognár was premiering his ambitious Àbáse project with the extensive, celebratory ‘Laroyê’. Released at the end of 2021, it was assembled from jams recorded in collaborators’ lounges and apartments during a lengthy musical sabbatical in Brazil. Stoked with Bognár’s unflappable positivity, ‘Laroyê’ somehow came …
Album Review : Don Glori – ‘Don’t Forget To Have Fun’ : Fresh, funky and inspired soul jazz from the revitalised and relocated multi-instrumentalist.
Now this is a bit different. An album of contemporary instrumental music shaped within the mundane pressures of the day to day, paying the rent, food on the table, making ends meet. Don Glori (aka Gordon Li) is a producer, multi-instrumentalist and composer originally out of Melbourne who has detached from Naarm’s vital scene to …
Album Review: TC & The Groove Family – ‘We Have Each Other’ : UK Nu-jazz collective forge ahead with a powerful, passionate EP.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from TC & The Groove Family but you can’t keep a good collective down. Led by drummer Tim Cook (TC) and based around players who originally crossed paths in Leeds, the band’s 2022 debut ‘First Home’ (reviewed in BSM HERE ) made a sizeable dent in the listening …
Album Review : Herandu – ‘Ocher Red’ : a dazzling jazz-fusion journey from the brothers Gavrilov.
If there was a section in the record store for ’Music by Brothers’ just imagine how expansive that would be. Stretching from the Everlys to the Johnsons, Louvins to the JAMC boys and beyond, the genre could probably consume all others. But there is something else about brotherly music-making, whether driven by love or hate, …
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: Jazz/afrobeat fusionists TC & The Groove Family announce new EP with the dynamic ‘Stand Strong’.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from TC & The Groove Family but you can’t keep a good collective down. Led by drummer Tim Cook (TC) and based around players who originally crossed paths in Leeds, the band’s 2022 debut ‘First Home’ (reviewed in BSM HERE) made a sizeable dent in the listening schedules. …
Album Review: Parisian fusion combo Monsieur MÂLÂ deliver a self-titled debut brim-full with energy and ambition.
World Jazz/Jazz Fusion/World Fusion…you sometimes wonder if the genre game is really worth playing. Yes useful for shorthand and signposts but not to be depended on to for the full picture. Enter Parisian five-piece Monsieur MÂLÂ and their self -titled debut LP out now via Bridge The Gap. Looking way beyond any label conventions the …
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 : John Garner – ‘Movie Night’ : Re-imagining the soundtrack through an improviser’s lens.
That most singular of labels, Lewes based Difficult Art And Music consistently end the year with a flourish. They capped 2022 with their three volume cassette release ‘Bivouac Of the Avant Garde’, a fulsome resume of the experimental, leftfield scene from those on the inside. Now to round off 2023, the final release from the …
Album Review : Júlio Resende Fado Jazz – Sons Of Revolution : immaculate and moving fusion from the Portuguese quartet.
Portuguese jazz pianist and composer Júlio Resende has just released a fourth Fado jazz journey, ‘Sons Of Revolution’ through the indispensable ACT label and it’s another intriguing excursion. Resende first explored the alchemic potential of blending Fado music with the free spirit of jazz sensibilities on his 2013 album, ‘Amália por Júlio Resende’. A deep …