Sylvia Brooks: Restless

A Florida-based self-styled jazz noir chanteuse sings smoky-tinged standards with MOR orchestral backing....

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: November/2012

BJ Cole with Guy Jackson: Transparent Music 2

BJ Cole | Michael Messer | Davy Spillane | Mo Foster | Guy Jackson | Arve Henriksen

Describing Cole as a pedal steel guitarist is like calling Turner a ‘watercolourist’. The art is all that matters, not...

Reviewed by Andy Robson in issue: November/2012

Egba

Ahmadu Jarr | Harald Svensson | Stefan Brolund | Jan Tolf | Claes Wang | Ulf Adåker | Ulf Andersson

The two Ulfs – trumpeter Adåker and saxophonist Andersson – were veterans of the Swedish 1960s jazz scene who, in...

Reviewed by Daniel Spicer in issue: November/2012

Jimmy Heath Sextet: The Thumper/The Quota

Jimmy Heath | Percy Heath | Freddie Hubbard | Wynton Kelly | Julius Watkins | Curtis Fuller | Nat Adderley | Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath | Paul Chambers | Cedar Walton

The middle Heath brother has been on the scene since the late-1940s, starting out with trumpeter Howard McGhee (their group...

Reviewed by Tony Hall in issue: November/2012

Michael Feinberg: The Elvin Jones Project

Billy Hart | Tim Hagans | George Garzone | Michael Feinberg | Leo Genovese

Michael Feinberg's Elvin Jones project is more of a celebration of the bass players that played with Elvin Jones than...

Reviewed by Mike Hobart in issue: November/2012

Sekou Keita: Miro

Adama Bilorou Dembele | Suntou Susso | Michel ‘Pata’ Salazar | Binta Suso | Sekou Keita | Moustapha Gaye | Mariama Kouyate

Seckou Keita is a gifted singer, percussionist and kora player; a Senegalese griot literally born to play music, a man...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwel in issue: November/2012

Jacky Terrasson: Gouache

Cecile McLorin Salvant | Burniss Earl Travis | Justin Faulkner | Minino Garay | Michel Portal | Stephane Belmondo | Jacky Terrason

Is this the first jazz album to cover a song by Justin Bieber? And do I really care? Probably not,...

Reviewed by Brian Priestley in issue: November/2012

The Bad Plus: Made Possible

Ethan Iverson | David King | Reid Anderson

Apart from final track, the understatedly elegiac ‘Victoria’ by Paul Motian, it's all originals here, and they feel very good...

Reviewed by Stephen Graham in issue: November/2012

Jimmy Smith: Sit On It

Stanley Behrens | Kevin Brandon | Buck Clarke | Stephanie Spruill | Nolan Phillips | Kenny Dixon | Ray Crawford | Jimmy Smith

A late-vintage Smith twofer, which won't have fans of Groovin' At Smalls' Paradise rushing to buy it, but if you're...

Reviewed by Andy Robson in issue: November/2012

Fiium Shaarrk: No Fiction Now!

Berlin-based drummer Rudi Fischerlehner, percussionist Maurizio Ravalico and electronics wizard Sam Britten hit the right spot in their experiments with...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: November/2012