Jeff Baker: Phrases

Blaise Magniere | Darrell Grant | Jeff Baker | Clark Sommers | Marquis Hill | Brian Blade | Steve Wilson | Cheng-Hou Lee | Geof Bradfield | Marie Wang

“The musical side of composing – creating melodies, reharmonising music – has always come pretty easy to me,” says Jeff...

Reviewed by Robert Shore in issue: May/2018

Noah Preminger: Genuinity

Noah Preminger | Dan Weiss | Kim Cass | Jason Palmer

Noah Preminger's last album was a set of protest-themed originals and covers timed to coincide with the inauguration of President...

Reviewed by Mike Hobart in issue: May/2018

Thiefs: Graft

Gaël Faye | Aaron Parks | Guillermo E Brown | Mike Ladd | Edgar Sekola | Keith Witty | Grey Santiago | David Frazier | Christophe Panzini

Thiefs (sic) is led by the New York avant-jazz bassist Keith Witty and in-demand French saxophonist Christophe Panzini, who's been...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: May/2018

Ivo Neame: Moksha

Tom Farmer | James Maddren | George Crowley | Ivo Neame

Known on the international circuit for being one third of Jasper Høiby's Phronesis, the pianist Ivo Neame has also shown...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: May/2018

Arild Andersen/Paolo Vinaccia/Tommy Smith: In-House Science

Tommy Smith | Paolo Vinaccia | Arild Andersen

If ever there was an ensemble whose essence is captured in live performance, then it is Andersen's trio with Tommy...

Reviewed by Stuart Nicholson in issue: May/2018

Daryl Runswick Quartet: Playdreaming

Mick Pyne | Daryl Runswick | Ray Warleigh | Spike Wells

Here's more jazz exhumation, this time courtesy of Spike Wells' ghetto-blaster, lately re-vivified and well worth the effort. Runswick (born...

Reviewed by Peter Vacher in issue: May/2018

ENEMY: Enemy

Kit Downes | James Maddren | Petter Eldh

ENEMY's music fills me with a mix of wonder and fear. The compositions on this, their debut release as a...

Reviewed by Thomas Rees in issue: May/2018

Dead Composers Club: Chopin Project

If they could hear this straight non-classical jazz quartet, co-led by saxophonist Noah Preminger and drummer Rob Garcia, certain dead...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: May/2018

Alan Barnes/David Newton: Ask Me Now

Alan Barnes | David Newton

These two are old hands at this. Ever since they met at Leeds School of Music four decades ago, Barnes...

Reviewed by Peter Vacher in issue: May/2018

XPQ – Vasilis Xenopoulos/Nigel Price Quintet: Sidekicks

Dario Di Lecce | Vasilis Xenopoulos | Nigel Price | Steve Brown

The co-leaders work well together, their respective styles each the ideal match for the other. Price is a supple player,...

Reviewed by Peter Vacher in issue: May/2018