Editor's Choice: March 2023 | The best new jazz albums
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Introducing new albums from the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Joe Chambers, Eliane Elias, Mette Henriette and more
The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris
Art Ensemble of Chicago
Rogue Art
"Scaled up to a 18-piece orchestra, AEC sounds as powerful, sonically, and as varied, stylistically, as at any point in those eventful decades as it presents material that shows how its distinctive blend of stately, often fraught melody and mercurial improvisation coheres with barrages of African percussion, soaring operatic vocal, whirring strings and passages of rabble rousing spoken word." Kevin Le Gendre
Dance Kobina
Joe Chambers
Blue Note
"Two bands are featured, one based in New York, the other in Montreal, and the leader’s precise rhythmic drive is compelling. Chambers multitracked vibraphone solos are equally gripping, and are scattered throughout this excellent release." Mike Hobart
Quietude
Eliane Elias
Candid
"As its title suggests, this exquisite album serves as a showcase for Elias’ characteristically understated vocal approach, one which eschews vibrato, with phrasing that glides over bar lines such that they dissolve away, and with each note dead centred." Peter Quinn
Drifting
Mette Henriette
ECM
"Drifting may remind you of a dream, or an embrace, or a preoccupied woodland wander a lot more than a wild bop-blasting night in a jazz club, but that's what the unique Mette Henriette is all about." John Fordham
Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles
Brad Mehldau
Nonesuch
"Mehldau’s highly expressive touch and use of rubato and dynamics are nothing less than exemplary and unexpected twists add a new dimension to the material without abstracting the original songs. It’s a recipe that’s likely to satisfy both jazz lovers and fussily dedicated Beatles fans alike." Selwyn Harris
Travel
The Necks
Northern Spy
"The Necks' music is sometimes criticised for 'not going anywhere', but that is to miss the point. As ever, Travel – their best album since the aforementioned Unfold – is all about the journey, not the destination." Kevin Whitlock
Sphere
Bobo Stenson Trio
ECM
"This session – made at Lugano’s Italian-Swiss radio studio – catches the immediacy of a group that approaches every session afresh, yet demonstrates years of shared understanding of one another’s playing." Alyn Shipton
