Steve T's CD shorts

Emma Rawicz – Chroma

Snapped this up at her recent Sage Gateshead gig ahead of its release date. I was impressed by her sound and technique and how she followed leading British jazz musicians and raised them with her own solos. I thought she had the right balance of respecting the past and creating something current and I wanted to hear how her compositions stood up to repeated listening.

I thought I’d played the wrong album when it began with a short burst of Indian konokol singing and when, a couple of tracks in, wordless vocals brought a South American flavour reminiscent of Tania Maria, I wondered whether she was ticking boxes and perhaps trying a little too hard to be ‘cool’.

Presumably so it’ll fit on an LP, it also lacks the large compositional structures in evidence live, but it’s still a decent album for admirers of the current crop of young British jazz artists.

 

Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edger Meyer and featuring Rakesh Chaurasia – As We Speak

 

And this is the album I thought I’d played by mistake. Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain has been one of my favourite musicians  for many years but it took some time for me to succumb to this because of the banjo, courtesy leader and producer Bela Fleck. The other instruments featured are cello and Indian flute.

All fears proved unfounded as the banjo remains tasteful and relatively low key throughout and is not even over- bearing during his sparse soloing. Anybody into this neo Indo Fusion type stuff ought not to hesitate.

 

Hiromi – Silver Lining Suite

 

I bought this album because I’m fascinated by Japanese jazz, going back to my hatred of it when – under its now politically incorrect term (since replaced by J-Jazz) – it infiltrated the jazz-funk slipping towards smooth jazz scene at the turn of the 1980s. Also she’s appearing at the EFG London Jazz Festival in November and I’m looking for a shoe-in.

This album features a string quartet and is predominantly classical music with occasional and remarkable flurries of jazz piano improvisation. On the final track the strings stray more into jazz territory giving it a bit of a gypsy jazz feel but for me it’s too much classical and not enough jazz.

 

Martin Speake, Mathew Forbes, Phelon Burgoyne – Duos for Trio: The Music of Bela Bartok

 

Bartok is one of two hands full of classical musicians who interest me and perhaps the most recent I actually like. This achieves a greater balance of jazz with classical music in my view but – for anyone who likes to mix and match – it depends on how much jazz you like in your classical music, or vice versa.    

Speake’s alto sax is a recent visitor to the north east – twice – and Forbes and Burgoyne play cello and drums respectively.

 

Pat Metheny – Side Eye NYC

 

I’ve heard many Metheny albums but nowhere near all he’s played on. The main appeal for this one was that he fronts a classic organ trio - one of jazz’s finest creations in my view – but in truth, James Francies seems to play more piano and synths than organ (Marcus Gilmore plays drums) and the use of organ is comparatively low-key. Nevertheless it’s amongst the best albums I’ve heard by him and can recommend it unreservedly to any admirers adopting a more selective approach to buying his albums.

 

Artemis – In Real Time

 

I love this band and love this album. Reminiscent of my favourite jazz act – Miles’ 'second great quintet' – (with added alto and contemporary freshness) just as they were turning when Chick Corea was replacing Herbie Hancock and using Fender Rhodes on some tracks as an alternative to acoustic piano.  

Ostensibly the lady behind the keyboards (piano and Rhodes) – Renee Rosnes - is the leader of this all-lady virtuoso sextet, but inevitably Ingrid Jenson’s formidable trumpet playing often dominates.