Aki Takase Japanic: Thema Prima

Aki Takase | Dag Magnus Narvesen | Daniel Erdmann | DJ Illvibe | Johannes Fink

A long-time Berlin resident, the pianist-composer Aki Takase went into a Budapest recording studio with new band Japanic for her...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: June/2019

Maynard Ferguson: Birdland Dream Band

Despite a small amount of distortion on the original 1956 recordings, this is one of Ferguson's finest bands, with exemplary...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: June/2017

Tom Harrell: Oak Tree

Adam Cruz | Luis Perdomo | Tom Harrell | Ugonna Okegwo

Tom Harrell’s latest in a long line of releases finds the trumpeter the sole lead on a set of 11...

Reviewed by Mike Hobart in issue: September/2022

Iiro Rantala: Potsdam

Iiro Rantala

With memories of Rantala's Trio Töykeät (a group which in the early 2000s was picked up by Blue Note) now...

Reviewed by Stuart Nicholson in issue: April/2022

Darwish: Reclamation

Ben Somers | Darwish | Hamish Balfour | Wes Gibbens | Yazz Ahmed

There might well be lively debate on where this album belongs on the genre exchequer. To all intents and purposes...

Reviewed by Kevin Le Gendre in issue: February/2018

Abdullah Ibrahim: The Balance

Abdullah Ibrahim | Adam Glasser | Alec Dankworth | Andrae Murchison | Cleave Guyton | Lance Bryant | Marshall McDonald | Noah Jackson | Will Terrill

If your back catalogue with Ekaya includes such essential albums as The Mountain and Water From An Ancient Well, then...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: August/2019

Adam Palma: Meets Chopin

Adam Palma

By the age of 39, Frédéric Chopin was dead, but he left behind a remarkable legacy of compositions for solo...

Reviewed by Stuart Nicholson in issue: March/2020

Confluence: Chroniques Terrestres

André Jaume | Christian Lete | Denis Van Hecke | Didier Levallet | Jean Guérin | Jean Querlier | Philippe Petit | Yves Herwan-Chotard

If you had to take a blindfold test, how often could you identify which side of the Atlantic a piece...

Reviewed by Daniel Spicer in issue: June/2016

Tony Bennett & Dave Brubeck: The White House Sessions, Live

Dave Brubeck | Tony Bennett

While one track from this 1962 Bennett/Brubeck White House summit (‘That Old Black Magic’) had previously been issued on record,...

Reviewed by Peter Quinn in issue: July/2013

Return To Forever: The Complete Columbia Albums Collection

Billy Cobham | Jan Hammer | Jerry Goodman | John McLaughlin | Rick Laird

The Columbia years were curious ones for RTF: Romantic Warrior remains the apogee of grandiloquent fusion statements, with all members...

Reviewed by Andy Robson in issue: August/2013