Editor’s Choice: October 2022 | The best new jazz albums
Thursday, September 15, 2022
Great new albums from Joshua Redman Quartet, Michael Wollny Trio, Samara Joy, Anteloper and more
Anteloper
Pink Dolphins
International Anthem
Jaimie Branch (t, elec, perc, v), Jason Nazry (d, syn), Jeff Parker (el g, el b, perc, syn) and Chad Taylor (mbira)
Now, especially, Pink Dolphins is a disconcerting experience, difficult to describe, as it constantly moves in unexpected directions (sometimes unexpectedly catchy, as on the single ‘Earthlings’). One can't help thinking how much more this force of nature had to give. Judging from this compelling album, a whole lot more. Kevin Whitlock
Chris Byars
Rhythm and Blues of the 20s
SteepleChase
Chris Byars (ts), John Mosca (tb), Zaid Nasser (as), Stefano Doglioni (bcl), Ari Roland (b) and Phil Stewart (d)
New Yorker Byars says this isn’t old style R&B that he is offering here, rather it’s a series of his distinctive originals which happen to use ‘Rhythm’ changes or which echo the blues. And by ‘the 20s’, he means the 2020s. Peter Vacher
Alina Bzhezhinska & HipHarp Collective
Reflections
BBE
Alina Bzhezhinska (h), Jay Phelps (t), Tony Kofi (ts), Michele Montolli, Julie Walkington (db), Ying Xue (v, vla), Joel Prime (perc), Adam Teixeira (d), Vimala Rowe, Sanity and Tom theythem (v)
On this, her muchanticipated sophomore album, Ukrainian born, London-based harp player and composer Alina Bzhezhinska forges ahead with a mission to re-imagine the harp in a jazz context and develop her own language in the process. Jane Cornwell
John Escreet
Seismic Shift
Whirlwind Recordings
John Escreet (p), Eric Revis (b) and Damion Reid (d)
Escreet has a strikingly unique approach to jazz that’s largely both highly percussive, dense harmonically and full of tension, and Seismic Shift is no exception. Selwyn Harris
Samara Joy
Linger Awhile
Verve Records
Samara Joy McLendon (v), Pasquale Grasso (g), Ben Paterson (p), David Wong (b) and Kenny Washington (d)
The singer’s incredibly beautiful timbre is heard to best effect in the Gershwins’ ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’, which brings this staggeringly fine album to a close. Peter Quinn
Enrico Rava/Fred Hersch
The Song Is You
ECM
Enrico Rava (t) and Fred Hersch (p)
The album they have created plays brilliantly to the strengths of both musicians. The opening ‘Retrato Em Banca E Preto’ takes the Jobim composition and probes at it sensitively and co-operatively, so that Rava’s stabbing phrases are countered by Hersch’s sense of texture. Alyn Shipton
Joshua Redman Quartet
Long Gone
Nonesuch
Joshua Redman (ts, ss), Brad Mehldau (p), Christian McBride (b) and Brian Blade (d)
It's the closing 12-minute live take, 'Rejoice', that steals the show in its cryptically telling tenor blurts, hustling Mehldau-shadowed countermelodies, one-touch call-and-response and hurtling time-playing. John Fordham
Michael Wollny Trio
Ghosts
ACT Music
Michael Wollny (p), Tim Lefebvre (b) and Eric Schaefer (d)
For Wollny, songs are like ghosts, and over a period of months he has assembled a selection of music that regularly haunts him – from Franz Schubert’s ‘Erlkönig’ to jazz standards. Stuart Nicholson
Read the reviews of all of these albums – and many more – in the October 2022 issue of Jazzwise magazine. Never miss an issue – subscribe today
