Leszek Mozdzer & Friends: Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic III

Zohar Fresco | the Atom String Quartet | Leszek Mozdzer | Lars Danielsson

The recordings under the Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic imprimatur represent highlights from the annual season of concerts held at the...

Reviewed in issue June/2015

Tore Brunborg: Slow Snow

Tore Brunborg | Per Oddvar Johansen | Steinar Raknes | Eivind Aarset

Although the liner notes do not mention it, Brunborg was a member of the ground breaking Norwegian band Masqualero that...

Reviewed in issue June/2015

Jan Prax Quartet: Keepin' A Style Alive

Part of this prominent Euro jazz label's ‘Young German Jazz’ series, this is one of the better showcases of young...

Reviewed in issue June/2015

Ida Sand: Young At Heart

Ola Gustafsson | Dan Berglund | Jesper Nordenström | Ida Sand | Christer Jansson

Following her 2011 ACT release The Gospel Truth, which paid fulsome homage to the dual influences of gospel and soul...

Reviewed in issue June/2015

Natalia Mateo: Heart of Darkness

The fact she's Polish and attended a nun's school sounds like something out of recent Oscar-winning film Ida. But a...

Reviewed in issue June/2015

Wolfgang Haffner: Kind of Cool

Frank Chastenier | Jukka Perko | Wolfgang Haffner | Christopher Dell | Nils Landgren | Dusko Goykovich | Christian von Kaphengst | Jan Lungdren | Max Mutzke | Dan Berglund

In 2008 Haffner came up with a minor masterpiece for the ACT label in Acoustic Shapes that seemed to capture...

Reviewed in issue April/2015

Vincent Peirani: Living Being

Yoann Serra | Emile Parisien | Vincent Peirani | Tony Paeleman | Julien Herné

Every so often, and it's getting more often these days, the ACT label succeeds in coming up with a real...

Reviewed in issue March/2015

Rudresh Mahanthappa: Bird Calls

François Moutin | Matt Mitchell | Rudresh Mahanthappa | Rudy Royston | Adam O'Farrill

This is Mahanthappa's third CD for the ACT label, and easily his best. He is on home territory, exploring the...

Reviewed in issue March/2015

Dieter Ilg: Mein Beethoven

Dieter Ilg | Patrice Héral | Rainer Böhm

Having done Verdi for 2010's Otello and Wagner for 2013's Parsifal, bandleader/bassist Dieter Ilg was probably faced with a stark...

Reviewed in issue March/2015

Marius Neset Quintet: Pinball

Anton Eger | Andreas Brantelid | Marius Neset | Jim Hart | Petter Eldh | Ivo Neame

Such are the superlatives surrounding Neset that's it's hard to place him: precocious yoof? Harbinger of a new generation? Or,...

Reviewed in issue February/2015