Mulatu Astatke: Mulatu Of Ethiopia

Mulatu Astatke |

Mulatu's title is no hollow hype. More than any artist he embodied the ‘Ethiopiques’ phenomenon, the ‘golden age’ of ‘swinging’...

Reviewed by Kevin Le Gendre in issue: July/2017

Amir Elsaffar Rivers Of Sound: Not Two

Ole Mathisen | George Ziadeh | Nasheet Waits | Amir Elsaffar | Tim Moore | Naseem Alatrash | Fabrizio Cassol | Tareq Abboushi | Dena Elsaffar | Rajna Swaminathan

Iraqi-American multi-instrumentalist Elsaffar expands his renowned sextet Two Rivers into a 17-piece orchestra, Rivers Of Sound, and the result is...

Reviewed by Kevin Le Gendre in issue: July/2017

New Simplicity Trio: Common Spaces

Bruno Heinen | Henrik Jensen | Antonio Fusco

Formed in 2014, the moniker New Simplicity Trio is inspired by the breed of late 1970s German contemporary music composers...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: July/2017

Paul Desmond: Glad to be Unhappy

Paul Desmond | Gene Cherico | Jim Hall | Connie Kay | Gene Wright

Today, for the majority of younger jazz fans/jazz students/musicians, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond is gone (he died in 1977) and...

Reviewed by Stuart Nicholson in issue: July/2017

Richie Beirach & Gregor Huebner: Live at Birdland New York

Billy Hart | Randy Brecker | Richie Beirach | Gregor Huebner | George Mraz

Opener, ‘You Don't Know What Love Is’, is taken, rather disconcertingly, at a cracking pace with something of a latin...

Reviewed by Peter Bacon in issue: July/2017

Rob Mazurek: Chants and Corners

Chicago Underground experimenter Rob Mazurek spikes his blustery cornet with volatile avant-electronica and rock elements on a new CD for...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: July/2017

Tony Allen: A Tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

Tony Allen | Yann Jankielewicz | Nicolas Giraud | Mathias Allamane | Jean-Phillip Dary | Rémi Sciuto

It took a couple of plays to adjust to the stripped down harmonic structures and changed rhythmic emphasis of Tony...

Reviewed by Mike Hobart in issue: July/2017

Lee Konitz: Lee Konitz Plays

Don Bagley | Lee Konitz | Henri Renaud | Jimmy Gourley | Stan Levey

It's tempting to compare Konitz's newest release Frescalalto (Jazzwise 217) and, since the above was recorded in Paris, to conclude...

Reviewed by Brian Priestley in issue: July/2017

Preservation Hall Jazz Band: So It Is

Ronell Johnson | Ben Jaffe | Stephen Lands | Charlie Gabriel | Clint Maedgen | Branden Lewis | Walter Harris | Kyle Roussel

Since the beginning of the 1960s, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, as its name suggests, has been about preserving the...

Reviewed by Alyn Shipton in issue: July/2017

Quinsin Nachoff/Mark Helias/Dan Weiss: Ethereal Trio

Quinsin Nachoff | Mark Helias | Dan Weiss

This is a quintessential modern saxophone trio album. The instrumental mastery of all three players is beyond doubt and they...

Reviewed by Peter Bacon in issue: July/2017