Category: Jazz
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Caravan Palace: Chronologic
Caravan Palace is a French electronic music band based in Paris. They play electro-swing, which is as it sounds; possibly more popular on the Continent than this side of La Manche. Electro-swing combines swing and jazz mixed with modern dance. It can be an acquired taste; Mr Scruff and Jurassic 5 have written electro-swing tracks.…
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David Helbock: Playing John Williams
Austrian jazz pianist David Helbock loves John Williams, as do we all (even if we don’t know it). Helbock’s problem is to make the music we know inside out sound fresh, and the music we don’t know sound interesting. As Helbock says, the music in the films is often “magnified onto a grand scale”, and…
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Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano, Jan Lundgren: Mare Nostrum III
Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren and French accordionist Richard Galliano have joined together for a third album. Online reviews suggest vol one was better but we wouldn’t know; this is still good. The combination of instruments is unusual, which makes this hard to categorise. It’s calming and relaxing but we struggle with what we call the…
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Miguel Gorodi: Nonet Apophenia
Some of these reviews might ramble a bit but the PR that comes with them struggles even more, and this is a case in point. The apophenia of the title is erroneously making connections or meaning with unrelated things — a failing that can be seen all over social media — and one track was…
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Alex Hitchcock: All Good Things
This is one of those albums that’s hard to write about because you’re so into its meaty and interesting sound (and want to use words like hep and cats) that you can never write anything down. If you Google Hitchcock, he’s a man who loves his jazz, whether playing it or supporting other bands, and…
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Various Artists: Jazz At Berlin Philharmonic IX: Pannonica
Most definitely a CD for fans of class jazz, this is an enjoyable live set from some of the top European jazz players. The backstory is interesting: the concert paid tribute to the baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter. The concert was held on 6th February this year, 30 years after her death, and focused on pieces…
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Adam Baldych: Sacrum Profanum
Brexit, traffic noise, that shouty boss, arguing neighbours: if anything’s doing your head in, this may well be the answer; even the first few seconds rinse out the space between your ears. Polish violinist Baldych was once (say the release notes) hailed by a German newspaper as having “the finest technique among all living violinists…
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Gwilym Simcock: Near and Now
If you like piano and you like the late-night end of jazz, there’s nothing to dislike about this. Simcock is a world-class musician — his day job while he did this was touring with Pat Metheny’s quartet. He’s also playing a world-class instrument: for you piano-heads it’s a Steinway B from 1900, custom-rebuilt by Germans…
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Nils Landgren: 4 Wheel Drive
Landgren is part of the Funk Unit, and this CD sees three equally famous players join him: Landgren on trombone and vocals, plus Michael Wollny on piano, Lars Danielsson on bass and cello, and Wolfgang Haffner drums. It’s mostly covers, the fi rst being Another Day In Paradise from Phil Collins. Landgren’s vocals are gentle…
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Daniel Garcia Trio: Travesuras
Pianist Daniel García’s playing dominates this album of meaty jazz, though double-bassist Reinier Elizarde and drummer Michael Olivera do not go unnoticed. The release notes talk about flamenco and jazz being brothers; you’d not automatically think of flamenco listening to this (though there are some exotic sounds down there in the rhythm section); he’s more…
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