New albums from Nubya Garcia, esperanza spalding and Alice Zawadzki are among the Editor's Choice recordings reviewed in the October 2024 issue of Jazzwise.

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Alan Barnes & David Newton

‘Tis Autumn

Woodville 

Alan Barnes (as, ts, bar s, cl, bcl), David Newton (p). Rec. 5 November 2023

I make this the fifth duo album from these two. Their first, Like Minds, appeared back in 1993 on the Fret label (with a booklet note by your correspondent), followed by Summertime on Concord in 2000. Now comes this elegiac, reflective collaboration, their third on Barnes’ own Woodville imprint, these pared-down performances representing just one aspect of their ongoing musical friendship which began at Leeds College in 1977.

Where many of their joint activities concentrate on the realisation of complex compositions or full-on bebop interpretations, the overall mood here is one of unhurried secular interplay, nothing fevered or overly clever, the tempos modest, Barnes concentrating on thoughtful expositions of these varied pieces, his clarinet on the opening Jobim composition measured and deeply felt, the fireworks dampened down. Momentarily, one is reminded of those classic Ruby Braff/Ellis Larkins duets, both in the overall grace of the playing as well as in the trust the two men place in each other, their various musical prompts slipped in without artifice.

Take Newton’s gorgeous re-harmonising of ‘You’re My Thrill', his piano understated but sinewy, or Barnes’ clarinet on ‘London By Night’, pure-toned and solemn. Bernstein’s ‘Lucky To Be Me’ has him in classic tenor ballad mode, agile and beguiling, while it’s his sonorous bass-clarinet on Henry Nemo’s title track, the exposition calmly stated, Newton picking up the rhythm. Ellington’s beautiful ‘Tonight I Shall Sleep With A Smile On My Face’ features Temperley-like baritone, the album closing with ‘A Bientôt’ by Peanuts Hucko, its twilight feel enhanced by Barnes’s bass-clarinet. So, nine themes, none hackneyed, Barnes sure-footed on all five horns, Newton as ever the perfect companion. Still like-minded? For sure. Peter Vacher

Emmet Cohen

Vibe Provider

Mack Avenue 

Emmet Cohen (p), Bruce Harris (t), Frank Lacy (tb), Tivon Pennicott (ts), Philip Norris (b), Kyle Poole, Joe Farnsworth (d) and Cecily Petrarca (koshkah). Rec. 2024

During lockdown, Emmet Cohen established one of the world’s most regularly watched online jazz shows, with the encouragement of ‘vibe provider’ Michael Funmi Ononaiye, the producer and A&R man, one-time programmer at New York’s Dizzy’s Club. Funmi died in January 2024, so this album is a tribute, but it’s also a fine collection of tracks by Cohen’s trio, as well as three pieces for larger forces.

Both elements of the record work well, with the octet arrangements being both neat and exciting. On the title track there’s some fine playing from Pennicott, and Cohen’s following solo neatly picks up some of the lines from the tenor choruses.

But the trio tracks are what make the album, and whereas I have been critical of some ‘historical’ aspects of Cohen’s earlier work, there are no such scruples here: this is a mature, beautifully-balanced small group. The leap into a headlong tempo on ‘If This Isn’t Love’ is brilliantly handled, while the opening ‘Lion Song’ combines a slightly wistful quality with underlying strength. Similarly ‘Time on My Hands’ runs through some interesting ideas in the set-up until it settles into a fulfilling, elegant mid-tempo performance.

The record winds up with the larger band back for a blues, with some natty opening riffs leading into Harris on fine solo form, and Lacy following on, maybe displaying less extrovert form than he sometimes does, but leading well into the tenor and piano choruses, before some stimulating exchanges with Farnsworth’s drums. Overall a polished and rewarding album, that looks back at the tradition through contemporary eyes. Alyn Shipton

Nubya Garcia

Odyssey

Concord Jazz 

Nubya Garcia (ts) plus various personnel including Joe Armon-Jones (ky), Daniel Casimir (b), Sam Jones (d), plus strings. Rec. date not stated

This new album from the multi-award-winning tenorist, bandleader and composer, Nubya Garcia, which follows her 2020 release on Concord Jazz, Source, represents an inspiring sonic leap forward. As well as pulsating modal workouts (‘The Seer’), there’s real melodic beauty, too, from ‘Set It Free’ (featuring London-based vocalist and trombonist Richie Seivwright) and ‘We Walk In Gold’ (featuring US vocalist, producer, and songwriter Georgia Anne Muldrow) to the ethereal beauty of the instrumental ‘Clarity’. Garcia also reveals some lovely arranging touches – the way in which the Chineke! strings and guest vocalist esperanza spalding introduce album opener ‘Dawn’ in free time, while the core trio of Joe Armon-Jones, Daniel Casimir and Sam Jones slowly introduce pulse in a gradual fade in; the dramatic strings only coda appended to the epic title track; the fabulously rich string pizzicati which drive ‘Water’s Path’ ever onwards; plus strings and sax ascending together in the all-too-brief ‘Clarity (Outerlude)’. Peter Quinn

Lux Quartet

Tomorrowland

Enja/Yellowbird

Myra Melford (p), Dayna Stephens (saxes), Scott Colley (b) and Allison Miller (d). Rec. date not stated

Myra Melford and Allison Miller have a history together. Melford may seem to have the more heavyweight avant-garde credentials – study with Jaki Byard and Don Pullen, recording with Henry Threadgill, Leroy Jenkins, Marty Ehrlich and Hans Bennink, and a mantelpiece-full of honours, awards and fellowships including a Guggenheim – while Miller’s discography includes the more accessible likes of Natalie Merchant and Brandi Carlisle.

But their series of recordings together under various guises shows that they are supremely compatible musicians, both equally able to command the space between tightly plotted complexity and gestural freedom, with Melford’s awesome chops alternately grounded and lifted aloft by Miller’s superbly inventive drumming. Lux Quartet is their first jointly-led project (Melford has contributed to several iterations of Miller’s highly rated Boom Tic Boom band) and they’ve called in another pair of simpatico freebop-friendly heavyweights to complete the classic horn-plus-rhythm quartet format.

Proceedings commence straight in the deep end with the intricate odd-metre atonality of ‘Intricate Drift’ allowing the band to display their complete command of the contemporary idiom: ’23 Januarys’ underpins the same atonality with a woozy swing feel reminiscent of early 1970s Braxton; and the aptly-named ‘The Wayward Line’ is a powerfully committed exercise in total freedom. But the leaders are just as likely to head in the opposite direction, so that ‘Congratulations And Condolences’ gives us a slice of uptempo minor-modal swing; ’Speak Eddie’ supplies a quirkily swaggering backing to Melford’s most Geri Allenesque solo; and the title track is a hushed, contemplative ballad that builds to a dramatic climax. Stephens’ tone on both alto and soprano is at once sharp and full-bodied, Colley is simply a monster, and the two leaders sound utterly committed throughout. High level music making. Eddie Myer

Milton Nascimento & esperanza spalding

Milton + esperanza

Concord Records 

Milton Nascimento (v), esperanza spalding (v, b), plus various personnel incl Matthew Stevens (g), Leo Genovese, Corey D King (ky), Justin Tyson (ky, d, v) and Eric Doob (d, perc). Rec. 2023

Sumptuous arrangements, sparkling duets, an alluringly structured song list, with playing and singing that immediately takes up residence in your heart, Milton + esperanza is an unforgettable, life-affirming album and a loving paean to musical communion.

Produced and arranged by spalding, the album presents 16 tracks that bridge generations and musical worlds. Five classic Nascimento songs include the transporting ‘Outubro’ and the utterly gorgeous ‘Morro Velho’, both excerpted from his 1969 album Courage, while Nascimento’s consummate 1972 double album recorded with Lô Borges, Clube Da Esquina, is represented by the affecting ‘Cais’. spalding originals including the effervescent ‘Wings for the Thought Bird’ featuring flautist Elena Pinderhughes and the superb Orquestra Ouro Preto, the aphoristic ‘Late September’ (“It is time/This is the way”) featuring Shabaka Hutchings on sax, plus the supremely catchy ‘Get It By Now’ showcase her evolving artistry.

We’re also treated to inspired interpretations of The Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Earth Song’, the latter performed by the mighty Dianne Reeves. Alongside spalding’s core US band plus Brazilian musicians including percussionists Kainã Do Jêje and Ronaldinho Silva, and guitarist Lula Galvão, the album’s impressive roster of guests also includes Paul Simon, Lianne La Havas, Maria Gadú, Tim Bernardes and Guinga.

A musical collaboration which began more than a decade ago with the Brazilian legend guesting on spalding’s 2010 album Chamber Music Society, this remarkable, full-length work concludes with Wayne Shorter’s ‘When You Dream’, featuring Wayne's widow Carolina Shorter, which pays moving tribute to spalding’s late mentor and collaborator. Peter Quinn

Nala Sinephro

Endlessness

Warp Records

Nala Sinephro (hp, syn, p), James Mollison (ts), Morgan Simpson (d), Sheila Maurice-Grey (t, flhn), Nubya Garcia (ts), Lyle Barton (syn), Natcyet Wakili (d), Dwayne Kilvington (syn b) and Orchestrate (strings)

In 2018, Nala Sinephro set the music world alight with her debut studio album, Space 1.8. It featured a cast of London’s top jazz musicians, including Nubya Garcia, Shirley Tetteh, and Jake Long, but was a complete aesthetic departure from the music so far released by these collaborators.

Her new album, Endlessness, inhabits a similar realm to Space 1.8, deftly balancing the open space and timelessness of ambient music with the ecstatic quality of jazz. All 10 tracks, each titled ‘Continuum’ followed by a number, are threaded together by a continuous yet varying arpeggiated synth pattern, which evokes a feeling of blossoming or unfolding. Sinephro is a master of the build-up; serene moments, awash with harp cadenzas, gradually evolve into ambient chaos, as frenetic, Terry Riley-esque synth patterns spin above low, slow bass notes.

She’s also a master of contrasts.

Part-way through ‘Continuum 2’, a euphoric string passage emerges from a well-steeped ambient blend of electronics, saxophone, piano and drums, a sudden window of clarity and coherence. Disparate, floating sounds are suddenly pulled into one, given meaning, and sent euphorically upwards. Gail Tasker

Melinda Sullivan/Larry Goldings

Big Foot

Colorfield 

Larry Goldings (p, ky), Melinda Sullivan, Steve Gadd (foot drums), Sam Gendel (ts) CJ Camerieri (t), Daphne Chen (vn) and Karl McComas-Reichl (el b). Rec. 2023

Take the title literally. Big Foot is an album of big ideas made by the foot, and other things. Tap dancer Melinda Sullivan provides rhythms through steps that are so ingeniously miked by Pete Min that the uninformed ear would think a drum kit of sorts was deployed. The metallic clicking associated with the tradition of ‘hoofers’ is thus replaced by a wide range of percussive timbres that lends to the music a fresh electro-crunch character. With keyboardist Larry Goldings’ in vague Zawinul mode the songs evoke the more Afro-polyphonic strains of 1970s fusion while the ballads drift into strange blends of 1980s ambient noise and Tortoise-shaped 1990s post-rock.

In fact, the album really comes alive when the players frame a hefty funk backbeat with cartoonish bleeps and bassy belches that uphold a long tradition of instrumental black music predicated on high jinks as well as high skills. Even when session master drummer Steve Gadd is brought into the fold he creates a groove by stomping his soles on a cardboard box. There is absolutely no gimmickry at play though, as the delicious closer ‘Dyad’, with its whizzing, reverberating rhythm and glassy echoes, shows.

Inventive, wittily unorthodox work that takes us to the future from way back in time. Kevin Le Gendre

Alice Zawadzki/Fred Thomas/Misha Mullov-Abbado

Za Górami

ECM 

Alice Zawadzki (v, vn), Fred Thomas (p, vielle, d) and Misha Mullov-Abbado (b). Rec. June 2023

This recording by the vocal chamber trio of singer-violinist Zawadzki, double bassist Mullov-Abbado and multi-instrumentalist Thomas is a meeting of like-minded artistic spirits. Originally formed in 2017, this is their first recording together as a trio and while their previous projects as individuals have tended to hop around stylistically, their diverse specialisations are what they have musically in common.

The ensemble sound is extremely focussed, as the trio have delicately carved out their own identity over the last couple of years and it proves a perfect fit for ECM. It’s a delicately free-flowing, spacious, still-of-the-night affair with a sensitive less-is-more approach to ensemble dialogue.

This collection of poetic folk song material showcases the London-born Zawadzki’s excellent grasp of French, Polish, English, Latino-Spanish and Jewish Ladino in song, the latter making up half the repertoire. Her phrasing is sophisticated yet instinctive and she injects drama, playfulness and tenderness into the songs with an acute awareness of meaning as well as the sound and silence around her.

Standouts include the opening Ladino traditional 'Dezile a Mi Amor' which starts with medieval Vielle string drone, turns into a village-dance with an otherwise barely-used drum, before Mullov-Abbado’s succinct jazz bass solo; ‘Gentle Lady’ with its original melody written by Thomas, inspired he says, “by Gregorian Chant, the silent sound of resonant spaces, harmonically static but very free, with multiple time dimensions at play.” Set to a short verse by author James Joyce, it offers a profound message about lost love and mortality, while the iconic Venezuelan songwriter Simon Diaz’ pastoral ‘Tonada de Lune Llena’ tells of a man’s humorous wrestle with nature. An exquisite recording that penetrates a little deeper with every listen. Selwyn Harris

Miguel Zenón

Golden City

Miel Music/Bandcamp 

Miguel Zenón (as), Miles Okazaki (g), Matt Mitchell (p), Chris Tordini (b), Dan Weiss (d), Daniel Diaz (cga), Alan Ferber (tb), Diego Urcola (t) and Jacob Garchik (tb). Rec. 27-28 November 2023

Golden City is the much-lauded Puerto Rican saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón’s 16th album in just a quarter-century as a leader, and - like his last recording, 2022's Música de Las Américas - it’s a carefully researched yet freewheelingly musical rumination on the cultural and political evolution of iconic locations.

Zenón’s theme this time is San Francisco, a city he got to know well through his years with the San Francisco Jazz Collective. His own sax virtuosity and a powerful nonet (including pianist Matt Mitchell, guitarist Miles Okazaki and drummer Dan Weiss) keep this fast-moving cinematic venture bubbling.

Zenón’s beautiful alto sound opens the set alone, before a steady three-note hook, soon swept up by entwining piano and brass lines and light-footed trombone and piano solos, arrives at an astonishing stop-time passage of fast boppish horn counterpoint and then a conga-punctuated Latin groove that make you want to jump up and cheer. ‘Rush’ opens with a processional pulse that becomes an airy ensemble dance and then a hustling finale mirroring the 1848 Gold Rush’s ecstatic bedlam, and ‘Act of Exclusion’ touches on the US’ first anti-immigration legislation in 1882 (exclusion of new Chinese arrivals) as a tension between tonality and atonality, with Zenón’s dazzling alto fluency, Miles Okazaki’s brittle guitar lines, and Weiss’s drums driving it.

‘Displacement and Erasure’ (San Francisco’s later gentrification) unfolds as plaintive solos over jolting rhythms; ‘Wave of Change’ is a haunting and eventually thunderous Mingus-like march; ‘Cultural Corridor’ is a dizzying bop-like skim through a racing Puerto Rican plena rhythm.

Golden City is a startlingly imaginative set, and sometimes a breathtaking one that might well make it a standout jazz album for 2024. John Fordham

These reviews originally appeared in the October 2024 issue of Jazzwise. Never miss an issue – subscribe to Jazzwise today