Robert Glasper review – genre-blending jazz keeps chaos at bay
The pianist and session musician for Erykah Badu, Kendrick Lamar and others delivers an eclectic jumble of sounds that lets his brilliance shine through
Carla Bley Trio: Life Goes On review – warm, spirited and even funny
This set begins with the piano laying down the bass line for a simple blues. Before the last note of each phrase there is a tiny hesitation, just long enough for you to anticipate what the note might or might … Continue reading
Pat Metheny: From This Place review – wide-horizons music with freewheeling relish
Metheny’s superb band crack through his postbop experiments, unrehearsed, and the addition of orchestral arrangements broadens the appeal
Moses Sumney: Græ review – double album’s stunning first instalment
Moses Sumney’s arresting debut, Aromanticism (2017), introduced a soaring new voice, and an artist keen to resist habitual assumptions about love and genre. This first instalment of a follow-up double album finds this erstwhile poet and US star-in-waiting interrogating grey … Continue reading
Moses Boyd: Dark Matter review – party-facing solo debut
Moses Boyd is a drummer in the same way Questlove from the Roots is a drummer, which is to say that the twice Mobo-winning 28-year-old Londoner is a producer-composer-collaborator-influencer not bound by the kit surrounding him. A progenitor of the … Continue reading
Moses Boyd: Dark Matter review – dancefloor-friendly kaleidoscopic jazz from UK drummer
(Exodus)He’s known as a jazz stalwart but this album brings Boyd’s nuanced production skills to the fore in artfully spliced, stylish tracks
Karen Sharp Trio: Another Place review – three is the magic number
Britain’s professional jazz musicians, even those such as saxophonist-composer Karen Sharp who are voted top in magazine polls, don’t spend all their days in recording studios and all their nights on stage at Ronnie Scott’s. For the most part it’s … Continue reading
Makaya McCraven and Gil Scott-Heron: We’re New Again review – a modern classic revived
Jazz drummer and beat-maker McCraven beautifully reworks Scott-Heron’s 10-year-old album I’m New Here, resituating the poet in the improvisatory tradition
Issie Barratt’s Interchange: Donna’s Secret review – big-band visions
The all-female Interchange band brings together jazz luminaries under Barratt’s assured leadership on this powerful album
Landgren & Lundgren: Kristallen review – tranquil Nordic jazz
My only difficulty with this Swedish duo is in remembering which is which. Nils Landgren is the trombonist, Jan Lundgren is the pianist and they’re both brilliant. Between them, they are masters of many styles, from funk and R&B to … Continue reading
Anthony Braxton Standard Quartet review – melodies twisted into unfamiliar territory
The indefatigable saxophonist breathes endless life into the standards, straddling the line between tension and release
Vijay Iyer: Ritual Ensemble review – thrilling curveballs from Harvard’s best
Pianist Iyer’s postgrad arts course brought Ritual Ensemble together – and this was an uplifting evening, with a star performance from vocalist Ganavya
Sulzmann/ Iles/ Holland: Lush Life review – a joyous meeting of minds
(Jellymould Jazz)
Elliot Galvin Live in Paris, at Fondation Louis Vuitton review – pianist of a mercurial mind
Unaccompanied, Galvin brings surprising runs and whiplash sounds from his instrument, recorded at a new Paris museum