Yazz Ahmed

A Paradise in the Hold

Night Time Stories 

Yazz Ahmed (t, flhn), George Crowley (b cl), Noel Langley (t), Ralph Wyld (vb, mrba), Samuel Hällkvist (g), Naadia Sheriff, Alcyona Mick (p), Dudley Phillips, Dave Mannington (b), Corrina Silvester (perc), Martin France (d), Natacha Atlas, Brigitte Beraha, Randolph Matthews, Jason Singh and Alba Nacinovich (v). Rec. date not stated

British-Bahraini trumpeter Yazz Ahmed has long used her dual cultural heritage as inspiration for her music. Since 2011’s confident debut, Finding My Way Home, Ahmed has combined instrumentation like the darbuka drum, electronic samplers and horns to produce artful compositions that draw on Arabic quarter-tone scales as much as jazz improvisation.

Yet, it’s Ahmed’s latest, fourth record, A Paradise in the Hold, that most fully realises her distinct imagining of British-Bahraini jazz. Drawing inspiration from the folk pearl diving songs of Bahrain and traditional wedding music, the 10 songs on the album are some of Ahmed’s most high-energy and expansive.

Opener ‘She Stands On The Shore’ sets the tone with its plaintive trumpet melody that soon builds over the evocative Arabic vocals of singer Natacha Atlas. Referencing the Epic of Gilgamesh, Ahmed’s lyrics and expressive trumpet lines produce atmospheric texture before launching into the 10-minute odyssey of the title track. Sampling a performance from pearl diving singers, Ahmed soars through a keening solo to land on a propulsive percussion break led by the late drummer Martin France.

France’s work throughout the record is stellar, driving the frenetic polyrhythmic pace of ‘Her Light’ and the earthy groove of pearl diving standard ‘Though My Eyes Go To Sleep My Heart Does Not Forget You’, while ensemble percussion provides a moody, undulating foundation for Ahmed’s emotive soloing on ‘Into the Night’. The effect is immediate and engaging, producing one of Ahmed’s standout records in a genre entirely of her own making. Ammar Kalia

Carl Allen

Tippin’

Cellar Live 

Carl Allen (d), Chris Potter (ts, ss, bs, cl) John Lee (p) and Christian McBride (b). Rec. date not stated

Although he has now appeared on more than 200 releases, this is drummer Carl Allen’s first album as a leader for over 20 years. The repertoire is well chosen and Chris Potter on reeds and bassist Christian McBride are on song. Both can easily overwhelm lesser spirits, but here their trenchant virtuosity and emotional strength are matched by Allen’s muscular, fuss-free approach. Just check out the trio bringing the blues to life on a magisterial cover of 'Parker’s Mood'.

Allen’s recording career begins in the mid-1980s as a Blue Note sideman on albums by trumpeters Woody Shaw and Freddy Hubbard. The drummer released his first own-name album, The Pursuer, on Atlantic in 1994 and two years later was on McBride’s Verve album Number Two Express. Potter digs into a perky reading of Hubbard’s 'Happy Times' on the album’s second track, delivers vibrato melancholy on McBride’s 'A Morning Story', released in 1996, and switches to blues-laced bass clarinet on Allen’s Coltranesque original 'Hidden Agenda' from that debut release.

Elsewhere a swaggering 'The Inchworm' and the ballad romance of Irvin Berlin’s 'They Say It’s Wonderful' are passing references to John Coltrane, 'Roy’s Joy' swings joyfully and Pat Metheny’s 'James' delivers a lyrical funky twist. John Lee joins on piano for a lovely reading of Kenny Barron’s 'Song for Abdullah' with Potter easing off the throttle on delicate bass clarinet. Mike Hobart

Marshall Allen

New Dawn

Week-End 

Marshall Allen (kora, EWI, as), Knoel Scott (bar s, congas, d), Cecil Brooks (t), Bruce Edwards (g), Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Richard Hill, Timothy Ragsdale, Joseph Richard Carvell (b), Owen Brown Jr, Akiko Arendt, Violin Cristina Ardelean Montelongo, Derek Washington,, Elias Feldmann, Dimitra Karageorgopoulou (vn), Michael Ireland, Vasileios Vasileiadis (va), Ilektra-Despoina Stevi (clo), Jorik Bergman (fl), George Gray (d), Jan Lankisch (perc) and Neneh Cherry (v). Rec. May 2024

Was there ever a more astonishing career trajectory than Marshall Allen’s? Two days after his 100th birthday last year, he went into the studio to cut this, his first album as a leader, after nearly 70 years on the scene. It turns out to be a quiet triumph.

Having been a key member of Sun Ra’s Arkesta since 1958 – and its leader for the last 30 years – it’s unsurprising that the endeavour reverberates with Ra-ish Nubians-in-space vibrations. After a brief introductory meditation plucked on West African kora, the album launches into the lilting exotica of ‘African Sunset,’ with lush strings and Allen’s otherworldly wibbles on the Electronic Wind Instrument suggesting a starship lounge. The title track is a gorgeous ballad sung with sultry poise by Neneh Cherry, and Allen providing breathy flurries on alto sax.

Elsewhere, there’s a big band blues shuffle, a deep-jazz excursion with fellow Arkestra member, Knoel Scott, blowing a ragged baritone solo, a percussion-heavy African-flavoured jam and, finally, Allen’s classic ‘Angels and Demons at Play’ deconstructed as slow cosmic funk. It all adds up to a very satisfying release from a genuine hero of jazz. Let’s see if he can sneak another one out before he hits 110. Daniel Spicer

Ron Carter/Michael and Florian Arbenz

The Alpine Session: Arbenz vs Arbenz Meets Ron Carter

Gabriel Recordings

Michael Arbenz (p), Ron Carter (b) and Florian Arbenz (d). Rec. 16 March 2024

Although the Swiss Arbenz twins have toured and recorded with the likes of Greg Osby, Dave Liebman, Marc Johnson, Kirk Lightsey, and Bennie Maupin, collaborating with their childhood hero Ron Carter was at another level. But far from being overawed in the company of one of the true giants of the music, they just happen to number among the top echelon of European jazz musicians. Even Carter, who is not noted for bestowing praise on musicians unless they match his own ferociously high standards, acknowledged they were both “very talented.” Which is praise indeed from the Master. Pianist Michael clearly passed the test with his sophisticated harmonic voicings – mostly rootless so as not to class with Carter’s lines – a beautiful touch that permits cleanly articulated lines and a melodic imagination that seems brimming with ideas. A case in point is his masterful reharmonisation of Duke Ellington’s ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)’ – which according to Carter was probably the first time he has ever recorded the song. This produces the kind of piano work you have to return to: great voicings, a beautifully articulated solo with Carter and his brother locking in behind him, it’s worth four stars alone. Brother Florian is a musician first and a drummer second with a rhythmic feel within which he works to enhance the playing of others. He also contributed three of the four originals on the album, Michael one, plus the reharm of the Ellington tune and Jerome Kern’s ‘All the Things You Are’. It seems Carter enjoyed the session – indeed, flanked by the Arbenz brothers on the album cover, he’s actually smiling. Stuart Nicholson

Josephine Davies & The Ensō Ensemble

The Celtic Wheel of the Year Suite

Ubuntu Music 

Josephine Davies (ts, comp, cond), Michael Chillingworth (as, ss), Rachael Cohen (as), Helena Kay (ts), Adam Bishop (ts, cl, af), Tamar Osborn (bs, bcl), Noel Langley, Reuben Fowler, Nick Smart, Robbie Robson (t, flhn), Anna Drysdale (frhn), Olli Martin, Maddie Dowdeswell (tb), Eddie Curtis (btb), Alcyona Mick (p), Dave Whitford and Shaney Forbes (d). Rec. date not stated

This is a landmark recording from Josephine Davies, writing for her biggest and most ambitious ensemble yet. It’s an eight-part loosely programmatic suite that uses the modern neo-pagan concept of the Wheel Of The Year as a framework to explore the different seasons. On the opening ‘Eos (Midsummer)’ Davies handles the large ensemble with confidence and aplomb, with the different sections moving slowly against each other like clouds over a summer wheatfield, never crowding each other, allowing the leader’s own light-toned but satisfyingly acidic saxophone through like shafts of sunlight. ‘Mabon’ brings a stealthy funk groove under breathy whooshes of woodwind, ‘Samhain’ evokes the otherworldliness of Halloween with skirling sax over dramatic chords, ‘Ostrara’ builds to a powerful climax over Shaney Forbes’ drums.

Davies is a dab hand at using the low brass to sustain drama and movement while allowing plenty of light and air into the arrangements – the outstanding ensemble interpret the writing beautifully and contribute some outstanding improvisations. There’s a unity of mood that tends towards the sombre and stately, but there’s enough light and shade to ensure that things never feel oppressive. The evocation of the natural world is very effective, with always enough bite to the writing to prevent a slide into Vaughan Williams pastiche pastoralism: this is a captivating album of occasionally unsettling but always very listenable music. Outstanding. Eddie Myer

Elliot Galvin

The Ruin

Gearbox Records 

Elliot Galvin (p, ky, elec), Ruth Goller (el b, v), Sebastian Rochford (d), Shabaka Hutchings (f), Ligeti Quartet: Freya Goldmark (vn), Patrick Dawkins (vn), Richard Jones (vla) and Val Welbanks (clo). Rec. date not stated

Back in 2019 the Elliot Galvin Trio recorded Modern Times live-mixed and cut direct to vinyl as ‘a quiet protest against the overproduced, changing world we live in’. Cut to 2025 and Galvin releases The Ruin, an electro-acoustic tone poem very much the product of intense laptop constructions. The continuity factor, however, is that negative understanding of change, albeit in a wider context: the album is a bleak soundtrack to his assertion that England ‘feels like a living ruin’. As such, paradoxically, it is a thing of beauty, Galvin’s judiciously chosen sonic materials including Ruth Goller’s distinctively ethereal voice as well as trademark bass sound, the Ligeti Quartet, Sebastian Rochford drumming empathetically and the haunting shakuhachi flute of Shabaka Hutchings. The latter features on 'High and Wide' in a duet with Galvin’s prepared piano, a rare moment of clarity among shape-shifting collages like the aural assault of 'As If By Weapons'. Another is the Early Music-evoking 'Giants Corrupted', though even that devolves into a harsher grating coda. Given this diversity there’s a strange integrity to The Ruin, reflecting Galvin’s clarity of purpose and musical vision in taking what looks like a promising new direction. Tony Benjamin

Gouldian Finch

Schizo

All Ape 

Martin Horntveth (perc, ky, prog), Eivind Lønning (t), André Roligheten (ts), Karl Hjalmar Nyberg (t, ss), Håkon Aase (vln), Kai Von Der Lippe (Wurlitzer, ky), Andreas Ulvo (org, ky), Karl Bjorå (g, pedal steel g), Ole Morten Vågan (b) and Axel Skalstad (d). Rec. date not stated

Reminiscent of Jaga Jazzist’s frenetic drum-n-bass fuelled 2002 cult classic, A Livingroom Hush, Schizo marks the return of that supergroup’s motoric drummer Martin Horntveth (aka Gouldian Finch) who comes roaring back with a nonet of Norse prog-jazz gods. He’s mostly on percussion and keys here, with those relentless roiling beats performed by drummer Axel Skalstad.

This set started life as a Horntveth-penned commission for the 2021 Kongsberg Jazz Festival, titled ‘Polaroid’. The now seemingly on-ice Jaga were heading into slightly portentous terrain circa their 2020 album Pyramid, but here that old disregard for stylistic rules is back, albeit occasionally on the edge of collapse. The hyperactive bass of ‘CAPS LOCK’ is a case in point, Ole Morten Vågan’s manically maximalist picking adorned with knowingly cheesy synth stabs and jabbing horns. Orchestral layers quickly pile up too, Hammond, lap steel and Håkon Aase’s violin all adding to the richness. Things dissipate for a gritty guitar solo, before heading into the stratosphere again with the horns igniting the afterburners to lift Karl Bjorå’s axe to new heights.

And just when things all get a bit too much on the title track, a euphoric hands in the air melody triumphantly eases you home.

Schizo plays on these two-faced combinations throughout with intricate jazz smashed into head-spinning genre-defying vaults. And yet their joyous abandon is strangely cohesive, all driven by a good humoured Scandinavian swagger. It’s music to make your brain fizz while pogoing around your living room. Mike Flynn

Kenny Wheeler Legacy

Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores

Greenleaf Music 

Ingrid Jensen, John Daversa, Brinley Heywood-Snell, Michael Dudley, Gabriel Taylor, James Copus (t), Etienne Charles, Brian Lynch, Nick Smart (fh), Joe Evans, Sam Keedy, Izzi Guzman, Ismael Aasgard (tb), Kevin Bryson (btb), Harry Maund (tu), Evan Parker, Emma Rawicz (ss, ts), Eric Law, Donovan Haffner (as), Noah Chiari (bars), Shelly Berg, Josh Beck, Scottie Thompson (p), Niklas Lukassen (b), Ananda Brandão, Jacob Smith (d), Norma Winstone, Immy Churchill and Maria Quintanilla (v). Rec. 25-26 June 2024

Bringing together two big bands from music conservatories on different sides of the Atlantic, and leavening the ensemble with celebrity guests for two days at Abbey Road might seem a daunting prospect. But directors Nick Smart and John Daversa have succeeded in creating an excellent ensemble to interpret the highly individual (yet equally influential) scores of trumpeter, composer and sometime bandleader Kenny Wheeler.

All the ingredients are here that I remember from so many of Kenny’s own concerts and broadcasts, nowhere better exemplified than the title track, the ‘Some Days Are Better Suite’, in which fully-scored passages are interspersed with moments of freedom when, initially, Norma Winstone and Evan Parker, and then Evan with the drums of Ananda Brandão, take off into improvised flights. Yet these performances of Wheeler’s music contain other contrasts as well, not least between the lyricism of Ingrid Jensen’s trumpet and that of Emma Rawicz’s soprano saxophone on the opening ‘Smatta’. Emma also shines on ‘Some Doors Are Better Open’, where she follows the strong, yet lyrical, trumpet of Etienne Charles, who conjures up aspects of Kenny’s own playing, not least in the effortless leaps between registers, although some of his more rapid-fire phrasing takes its own course.

There are new lyrics from Norma Winstone on ‘Sweet Yakity Waltz’ along with dynamic playing from Chris Potter. James Copus’s trumpet work shines on ‘Dallab’ after a fine intro from pianist Shelly Berg, while up-and-coming saxophonist Donovan Haffner stars on ‘Who’s Standing In My Corner?’ I’ve singled out individual players because so much of Wheeler’s work was written with specific people in mind as well as containing fine ensemble writing. Where this project really succeeds is in taking virtually un-played scores from over half a century ago, finding new individual solo voices to fit alongside Wheeler’s own colleagues from the time, Evan and Norma, and bringing the music to life with tremendous verve and confidence. Never does one think this is a student orchestra – it’s a first-rate big band by any measurement. Alyn Shipton

Steve Lehman Trio featuring Mark Turner

The Music Of Anthony Braxton

Pi Recordings 

Steve Lehman (as), Mark Turner (ts), Matt Brewer (b) and Damion Reid (d). Rec. 2024

Although he is one of the most original composer-improvisers in creative music today saxophonist Steve Lehman has always readily acknowledged the work of others. Of his recorded output to date the 2019 set The People I Love, which reprised songs by Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kenny Kirkland and Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts alongside his originals, is a highlight. The quartet that recorded that album returns here but pianist Craig Taborn drops out and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner comes in, while the programme is Lehman’s take on the works of Anthony Braxton. Entering such a singular a world might be daunting, but Lehman has the advantage of having extensively recorded with the Chicagoan titan of the avant-garde. Lehman’s band has the extreme rhythmic precision to make the lengthy, choppy, cyclonic themes, where sixteenths are often whizzing and whirling upwards, flow with a sustained, disciplined rush of adrenalin.

The drums and bass axis formed by Damion Reid-Matt Brewer slides easily from tough funky backbeat to hard swing while Turner and Lehman form a horn section which captures the metamorphic gymnastics of so many of Braxton’s scores. The complexity of his music is matched by its ferocity, the intellect by earthy physicality.

Braxton has always been resoundingly himself while interpreting the music of others, be it Coltrane, Bird or Brubeck, and Lehman’s originals such as the exhilarating ‘LA Genes’ reflect how astutely he has absorbed elements of Braxton’s vocabulary into his own language, while his soloing on occasion fearlessly dredges the lower range of his alto saxophone as if to match Braxton’s cavernous contrabass clarinet adventures. Lehman’s ability to impose his strong personality on a range of sources, be it the electronica of Autechre or the hip-hop of GZA, is well consolidated by this latest venture, which sees him represent another master with quite masterful imagination.
Kevin Le Gendre

Tom Smith Big Band

A Year In The Life

Fey Moose Records 

Tom Smith (as, ss), Graeme Blevins, Sam Glaser (as), Alex Garnett, Paul Booth (ts), Jessamy Holder (bs), Tom Walsh, George Hogg, Freddie Gavita, James Davison, Alistair Martin (t, flhn), Trevor Mires, Olli Martin, Dan Higham (tb) Yusuf Narcin (btb), Will Barry (p), Jamie McCredie (g), Liam Dunachie (elo), Conor Chaplin (b, el b) and Luke Tomlinson (d). Rec. September 2023

While still in his teens, the UK saxophonist /composer Tom Smith had already spurred Django Bates, observing his performance on the 2014 BBC’s Young Jazz Musician of the Year final, into calling his music ‘passionate, punchy and joyful’. In 2021, Smith released his sparky sax-trio album Gecko, and now comes A Year In The Life, unveiling a big band that shows just how creatively and quickly this gifted young artist has broadened his already rich musical palette.

The atmospheric work of Maria Schneider, and the music of Carla Bley, Bill Frisell, and Guy Barker, have all added to this mix. The title track here opens with pensive harmonies that accelerate into thumping hooks slashed through by Smith’s whooping sax; ‘Speedboat In Trouble’ snaps and twists as emphatically as an old-school Thad Jones/Mel Lewis classic before skewing into wild free-brass improv excursions; ‘Breathe’ is a slow chord-chime wrapped by deep horn harmonies, emerging into Jamie McCredie’s ringing guitar swoops; while ‘We’re Being Watched’ catapults you out of your seat with it’s raw, blasting opening sequence. The racing brass parts of ‘Aplomb’ and the subsequent alto solo testify to Smith’s deep grasp of bebop, ‘Somewhere Far From Here’ is a churchy slow-burn, and ‘Swansea Uproar’ rocks the show out with blisteringly-riffy swinger. He may not be out of his twenties yet, but the hyper-savvy Tom Smith sounds as if he’s eagerly lived plenty of diverse jazz lives already. John Fordham

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