Jazzwise Editor’s Choice: May 2022 | The best new jazz albums
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Featuring new albums from Brigitte Beraha, Tigran Hamasyan, Tord Gustavsen Trio, Ben Marc, Jason Rebello and more...
Brigitte Beraha
Blink
Let Me Out Records
Brigitte Beraha (v, elec, toys), George Crowley (ts, cl, elec), Alcyona Mick (p, syn) and Tim Giles (d, perc, elec)
Beraha’s voice is her instrument, her pipes more complex, more sensitised than any mechanical instrument; words are a bonus, and let’s face it, often get in the way of how music can mainline straight to the heart. Best of all Beraha is playful: full of fun, and in her band mates, her play pals, she has players who are happy to surrender to play-full approaches to serious living... Andy Robson
Tigran Hamasyan
StandArt
Nonesuch
Tigran Hamasyan (p), Matt Brewer (b), Justin Brown (d), plus guests Ambrose Akinmusire (tp), Joshua Redman (ts) and Mark Turner (ts)
The LA-based, Armenian pianist-composer Tigran Hamasyan continues to break new ground with his acoustic piano trio’s outside-the-box interpretations of Broadway-to-bebop standards on his new recording StandArt. It’s perhaps the most integrated example of his highly original personal language that’s evolved through a high level, action-packed career over the past decade... Selwyn Harris
Tord Gustavsen Trio
Opening
ECM Records
Tord Gustavsen (p, elec), Steinar Raknes (b, elec) and Jarle Vespestad (d)
This latest trio offering from Tord Gustavsen, which welcomes bassist Steinar Raknes into the fold, vibrates between the introspective and the dramatic in rich and singular ways. Scene-setting opener ‘The Circle’ sees Gustavsen exploring a modal melodic line of beguiling simplicity, with the trio’s sotto voce approach creating an atmosphere of hushed intimacy... Peter Quinn
Ben Marc
Glass Effect
Innovative Leisure
Ben Marc (b, b, prog), Judi Jackson, Joshua Idehen, Midnight Roban (v), Jason Yarde (bs), Ed Riches (g), Marius Alessia and Sam Jones (d)
From the off, Glass Effect feels exciting, box fresh. Deep electronic jams are at a premium, their fragmented rhythms glitching and juddering, framing sonic tapestries inside of which, on opener ‘The Way We Are’, string arrangements and folky guitar licks bob and weave with heavy basslines... Jane Cornwell
Per Møllehøj/Kirk Knuffke/Thommy Andersson
‘S Wonderful
Stunt
Per Møllehøj (g), Kirk Knuffke (c) and Thommy Andersson (b)
The title track swings as you might it expect it to do and I can even hear a distant reminder of our own Digby Fairweather’s clarion style. Knuffke has the necessary command and more to the point, the creative enterprise to exploit the cornet’s full expressive range, spanning across the registers, upper or lower; he emphasizes the group’s ‘very unique ensemble sound’ and he’s right. Wonderful music... Peter Vacher
Jason Rebello and Opus Anglicanum
Adorna
Ulysses Arts
Jason Rebello (p), Stephen Burrows, David de Winter, John Bowen, Roland Robertson, James Burchall (v)
Plainsong, of course, is a single line, which Rebello successfully illuminates with subtle but effective harmonic inversions, but the Anglicanums also move into simple Tudor polyphonic songs and more modern works. It imposes a considerable challenge on Rebello of remaining true to the music’s original intent, yet revealing his own musical personality which he succeeds in doing; his invention and touch are wholly sympathetic while his musical instincts are at one with his musical surroundings... Stuart Nicholson
John Scofield
ECM
John Scofield (g, looper)
Over the decades the man has done it all, jazzed it, jam banded it, rocked it, and always with the blues beneath it all. And here he has distilled his decades in this crazy business into a baker’s dozen of songs that may appear modest in ambition – only one track runs to more than five minutes, several run to barely three - yet is mighty in impact... Andy Robson
Read the reviews of these albums, and many more, in the May issue of Jazzwise magazine – subscribe today
