Joanna Strand: Cloud Illusions

With her background in UK musical theatre, the vocalist Joanna Strand brings an attractive tonal purity to a selection of...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: February/2022

Carlos Franzetti: Wee Small Hours

An American-Argentinian pianist’s serenely straight ahead trio turns to a set of ‘optimistic torch songs of the 1940s and 1950s’...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: February/2022

Kevin Figes: Wallpaper Music

Brigitte Beraha | Jim Blomfield | Kevin Figes | Ashley John Long | Mark Whitlam

The clues were there long ago that Kevin Figes, the Bristol-based reeds player and composer, might move toward more implacably...

Reviewed by John Fordham in issue: February/2022

Fred Hersch Trio and the Crosby Street String Quartet: Breath By Breath

Lois Martin | Drew Gress | Laura Seaton | Jody Redhage Ferber | Jochen Rueckert | Fred Hersch | Joyce Hammann

Integrating strings within any jazz context presents a challenge that many jazz musicians feel drawn towards, rather like a moth...

Reviewed by Stuart Nicholson in issue: February/2022

Wadada Leo Smith/Jack DeJohnette/Vijay Iyer: A Love Sonnet For Billie Holiday

Jack DeJohnette | Vijay Iyer | Wadada Leo Smith

As he stated himself in the pages of Jazzwise last year, Wadada Leo Smith’s productivity has only increased amid the...

Reviewed by Kevin Le Gendre in issue: February/2022

Fabrizio Savino Trio: Rising Son

This Italian guitarist doesn’t grab you by the scruff or wow you with his original ideas but with the trio...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: February/2022

Jane Ira Bloom/Allison Miller: Tues Days

Allison Miller | Jane Ira Bloom

I’ve written before in praise of Bloom's soprano work – for instance, when reviewing the album Some Kind Of Tomorrow...

Reviewed by Brian Priestley in issue: February/2022

Jerzy Mączyński with Waclaw Zimpel: Sariani

Olga Kozieł | Wiktoria Jakubowska | Waclaw Zimpel | Jerzy Mączyński | Szymon Wójcik

The year before wowing the 2020 EFG London Jazz Festival with Jerry & the Pelican System’s Virtual Tour Project (a...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: February/2022

Jo Berger Myhre: Unheimlich Manoeuvre

Morten Qvenild | Jana Anisimova | Jo Berger Myrhe | Jo David Lysne | Olatur Bjorn Olaffson | Kaven Mahmudiyan | Vivian Wang

Pour a sloe gin slowly as you savour your slow-cooked supper, because you are about to enter the oh so...

Reviewed by Andy Robson in issue: February/2022

Helge Lien Trio: Revisited

Helge Lien | Johannes Eick | Knut Aalefjær | Knut Aalefjaer

Older and wiser, Helge Lien returns with a new trio doing what he does best, working with bass and drums...

Reviewed by Stuart Nicholson in issue: February/2022