AKA Trio: Joy

Seckou Keita | Adriano Adewale | Antonio Forcione

What with all the misery going on in the world, it's heartening to see the concept of joy being presented...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: June/2019

Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society: Mandatory Reality

Mikel Avery | Nick Mazzarela | Ben Boye | Jason Stein | Ben LaMar Gay | Lisa Alvarado | Hamid Drake | Joshua Abrams | Ben Lamar Gay

Natural Information Society's fifth album since forming in 2010 – and its second double-album, following 2015's equally expansive Magnetoception –...

Reviewed by Daniel Spicer in issue: June/2019

Lee Ranaldo/Jim Jarmusch/Marc Urselli/Balázs Pándi

Lee Ranaldo | Balázs Pándi | Jim Jarmusch | Marc Urselli

Night falls in the New York underground, as Sonic Youth founder Ranaldo and offbeat filmmaker Jarmusch attend a nocturnal studio...

Reviewed by Nick Hasted in issue: June/2019

Ståle Storløkken: The Haze Of Sleeplessness

Ståle Storløkken

While Storløkken's iconic status as the keyboards' headbanging wild man is reaffirmed on Elephant9's Psychedelic Backfire – an imminent double...

Reviewed by Nick Hasted in issue: June/2019

Bill Mays Trio: Live At COTA

Bill Mays | Martin Wind | Matt Wilson

Like his near-contemporary Alan Broadbent, or from an earlier generation Clare Fischer, New York-based Mays' reputation as a composer-arranger makes...

Reviewed by Brian Priestley in issue: June/2019

Ahmad Jamal Trio: Complete Live at the Pershing Lounge 1958

Ahmad Jamal | Israel Crosby | Ray Crawford | Vernell Fournier

The overworked word ‘iconic’ is often used to describe Jamal's Pershing albums, so this chance to hear volumes one and...

Reviewed by Peter Vacher in issue: June/2019

Exoterm: Exits Into A Corridor

Rune Nergaard | Jim Black | Kristoffer Berre Alberts | Nels Cline

For a band with no shortage of trapped-animal screams, Exoterm stay remarkably lucid. Though fierce improv abounds, cacophony never arrives....

Reviewed by Nick Hasted in issue: June/2019

Steve Haines and the Third Floor Orchestra

Canadian double-bassist Haines' touching folky orchestrations pay tribute to the songwriters of his homeland including Neil Young (an unexpectedly likeable...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: June/2019

Miguel Gorodi Nonet: Apophenia

Dave Hamblett | Ralph Wyld | Ray Hearne | Michael Chillingworth | Kieran McLeod | Miguel Gorodi | Gareth Lockrane | George Crowley | Conor Chaplin

The young Spanish-born trumpeter Miguel Gorodi is a fairly recent ex-Guildhall graduate whose initial efforts have sent him mostly in...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: June/2019

Album Interview: Shez Raja: Journey to Shambhala

Pascal Roggen | Shez Raja | Wayne Krantz | Monika Lidke | Vasilis Xenopoulos | Alex Stanford | Trilok Gurtu

The son of a British mum and Asian dad, deeply influenced by classic ‘fusion’ artists like Mahavishnu and Jaco Pastorius,...

Reviewed by Andy Robson in issue: June/2019