CD REVIEWS// The UK’s most definitive review section – JAZZ AND BEYOND NEW RELEASES //A-Z

Acoustic Triangle 3 Dimensions Audio-b ABCD 5024 | ★★★★

Malcolm Creese (b), Tim Garland (ts, ss, b cl, perc), Gwilym Simcock (p, Fr h), Emma Parker, Hannah Dawson, Ben Hancox, Charlotte Scott (vln), Robin Ashwell (vla) and Cara Berridge (clo). Rec. 2008

On this, their fourth album, Acoustic Triangle have broadened their musical palette with the inclusion of six strings: Ben Hancox’s Sacconi Quartet plus Charlotte Scott on violin and Cara Berridge on cello. Tim Garland and Gwilym Simcock have been commissioned to provide a new repertoire, and the result is one of the most imaginative and perfectly realised albums in contemporary music in a long while. Garland’s two suites, ‘Sanctuary For a Living Memory’ and ‘Singing Stones’ are inspired pieces of writing while Simcock’s three-part ‘Red Sky’ sweeps you along with its imaginative programmatic themes – the pizzicato string episode a special delight. Both aesthetically and conceptually this ensemble is sui generis, and has it within them to make a significant contribution to contemporary music in this country.

Stuart Nicholson

Michael Adkins Quartet Rotator hatOLOGY660 | ★★★

Michael Adkins (ts), Russ Lossing (p), John Héébert (b) and Paul Motian (d). Rec. 17 January 2007

It’s a shock to discover that this is only Adkins’ second CD as a leader because it’s a remarkably mature and confident set featuring eight self-penned tunes, all of which confirm the saxophonist as a jazz composer to watch. The two slower tracks – ‘Forena’ and the closing ‘Reflection’ – are, indeed for me, quite staggeringly haunting. If you want to know where this record sits within the genre, then think David S. Ware, Ellery Eskelin or even Branford Marsalis at his most open and free-flowing. There’s a strength and looseness to this album that’s highly effective but also notice the little intricacies of texture or brief rhythmic fills that seem just perfect. Motian is outstanding and vigorous inside the sound but neither the less experienced Héébert or Lossing seem in awe of him. Adkins has an exceptional, magisterial, tone that recalls something of the grandeur of the great Joe Henderson. A fine album. Duncan Heining

Mina Agossi Simple Things Candid Records CCD 78964 | ★★★

Mina Agossi (v), Fred Dupont (ky), Eric Jacot (b), Ichiro Onoe (d), Manolo Badrena (perc) and Racos (rap). Rec. October 2007

If, as the late writer and critic Whitney Balliett put it, jazz is the sound of surprise, then vocalist Mina Agossi is one of the music’s pre-eminent conjurers. Simple Thingsis the third Candid trip to her singular sound-world. If you’re yet to visit planet Agossi then let me elucidate three of the singer’s cardinal ground rules: no hiding behind your instrumentalists (this is a guitar and piano-free zone), no breathy jazz chanteuse affectations, and absolutely no saccharine-coated covers of tired standards. Seen in instrumental terms, Agossi is an island of Miles Davis in an ocean of Kenny G. The 13-track collection includes Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’, careening between free time and a breakneck drum and bass groove before settling into a walking pace, an outréé account of ‘Twisted’, the magnificent selfpenned ‘Brittany’ whose introduction finds the singer in full-on medieval troubadour mode, the obligatory Hendrix homage (‘1983’) and a trademark deconstruction of ‘Aquellos ojos verdes’. Peter Quinn

Monty Alexander The Good Life Chesky SACD340 | ★★★

Monty Alexander (p), Lorin Cohen (b) and George Fludas (d). Rec. date not stated

An established piano star, Alexander needs little endorsement here, except to say that this beautifully-recorded session was conducted without any reference to his Jamaican heritage. Instead, this is a straightahead piano trio album, Alexander doing what he does best, working on good songs, standards if you like, but not overdone, all of them associated with singer Tony Bennett. Opening with ‘That Old Devil Moon’, Monty digs in with what sleeve note writer Ira Gitler calls his “infectious, rhythmic style, containing a formidable technique”. Working with a pair of Chicagoans rather than his trio regulars, Alexander seems determined to extend himself, taking the title track for a lively romp, chording like Erroll Garner, before opening up in mainstream bop style. He even makes me like the usually saccharine ‘Smile’ by infusing it with swing. According to Gitler, all you have to do is “just relax and let the music come to you”, and that seems about right. Take ‘Emily’ as an example: a pretty tune handled with care or the sprightly ‘Put On AHappy Face’. Twelve tunes then, all decent, a fair reflection of Bennett’s own good taste, selected by Alexander for their value to him as an improviser. It’s good to have him back on this kind of form. Peter Vacher

Django Bates and StoRMChaser Spring Is Here (Shall We Dance?) Lost Marble LM003 | ★★★★

Django Bates (ky, Eb horn, v), Stuart Hall (g), Michael Mondesir (b), Martin France (d), RMC International Choir (v), Josephine Lindstrand, Elena Setien, Yeregui (v) and StoRMChaser: Julie Kjaer (fl, picc), Bo Skold Christensen, Clars Anders, Aske Drasbek, Marius Neset, Martin Stender, Johann Bylling Lang (s, fl), Jimmy Nyborg, Ulrik Kofoed, Kevin Christensen, Andre Jensen, Daniel Herskedal (brass), Christian Bluhme (g), Petter Eldh (b), Anton Eger (d) and Mikkel Schnettler (perc). Rec. Dec. 2007

It’s a good couple of years since Django became Professor Bates, big chief at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Denmark. This album is largely the fruits of those years – the majority of the band are students at the conservatory, while Bates happily confesses that he’s learned much himself, not least to hear his music from the punters’ point of view. The result is in many ways the most accessible and most artless of all his albums. Every track has a vocal of some description, giving a breath of humanity to what can be devilishly knotty arrangements, and indeed, in a new direction for Bates, there are two choral pieces which bring

not only fresh colour, but are welcome still points amid the whirling worlds of the other material. Also new are intimations of allowing his soloists a little more space to express themselves, although most of the songs have that Bates signature of extensively through-written parts. Critics might insist that much is overwritten, the harmonies over-egged, the production brim to bursting point; but although Bates obviously still loves a musical joke and springs jack-in-theboxes from each chorus, there’s not quite the smart alec-y tone that sometimes blighted earlier material. Instead, the emphasis is on unalloyed joy, an earthiness appropriate to spring themes and new beginnings, and, for perhaps the first time, there’s a sense that Bates has the confidence to let his music breathe on its own terms. Springis most certainly sprung: Prof Bates has been listening to that Copenhagen mermaid, methinks. Andy Robson

Belmondo and Milton Nascimento Belmondo and Milton Nascimento B Flat 2008 LC14845 | ★★★★

Milton Nascimento (g, v), Stephanéé Belmondo (t) and saxophonist Lionel Belmondo (s) plus others. Rec. date not stated

ABrazilian legend often mentioned in the same breath as his peers Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento has been fusing samba, jazz and funk for four decades. Along the way he’s put his soaring, slightly spooky falsetto to use alongside the top drawer jazz of Wayne Shorter, Pat Metheny and Herbie Hancock. This latest album sees him collaborating with the French Belmondo brothers, whose previous albums include homages to Stevie Wonder and Yusef Lateef and who apparently sought Nascimento out, professing their fascination for his compositions. The result is a deft reworking of some of Nascimento’s greatest songs: ‘Travessia’, ‘Milagre dos Peixes’ and ‘Cancao do Sal’ among them. String and wind arrangements come stripped down, Gil Evans-style, exposing foundations then rebuilt with touches of brass and wood. It’s Nascimento’s voice, however, that gives this an extra star. Jane Cornwell

Massimo Biolcati Persona Obliqsound 823889950927 | ★★★

Massimo Biolcati (b), Lionel Loueke (g, v), Peter Rende (p, acc, vcl), Jeff Ballard (d, perc), Gretchen Parlato and Lizz Wright (v). Rec. date not stated

Biolcati, whose origins are ItalianSwedish, is the double bassist in Beninese guitarist Lionel Loueke’s band and has toured with both Terence Blanchard and Lizz Wright. He comes out of the shadows of these credible artists as a leader in his own right on this

42 JULY2008 //Jazzwise
★★★★★ landmark recording ★★★★ excellent ★★★ good ★★ average ★ disappointing

fantastic debut. Loueke has the habit of stamping his fascinatingly unique identity over everything he plays on and this is no exception; he demonstrates a liberating rhythmic and harmonic approach to jazz with some inspired, thrilling improvisatory spins on the bassist’s uplifting original tunes that reveal the influence of giants Pat Metheny, Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul. Throughout, pianist Peter Rende has a dynamic chemistry and perceptive sense of give-and-take with Loeuke. The fact the CD is named after one of the legendary Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman’s more sombre films could be misleading as this album has a real feel-good mood about it. But it’s the sense of duality conveyed in the film that Biolcati looks to reflect by splitting the album into two sections marked ‘Motion’ and ‘Stillness’. The second half ‘Stillness’ is more inward-looking, though never downbeat, and contains traits of Biolcati’s folkish partScandinavian background. Selwyn Harris

Chris Botti Italia Decca 478 0029 | ★★

Chris Botti (t) Paula Cole, Andrea Bocelli and Dean Martin (v) plus orchestra. Rec. date not given

By his own admission, this recording is the furthest even Botti has travelled from improvisational music. Italia, supposedly an evocation of all things Italian, is indeed the perfect hybrid of pop classical yoked with lounge bar “jazz”. Classic FM would love it. The tone is set by the opening title track with Bocelli’s sentimental vocals weeping over lush strings and Botti’s even lusher trumpet. This turgid, opportunistic music is Italian as far as Machiavelli was Italian in that it schemes and exploits the most sentimental and commercial notions of what Italian culture is about. It doubtless fills a niche and the record company coffers but this is crossover music of the most fatuous kind. Botti has the skills and intelligence to make albums way beyond this confection but instead he happily covers ‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Nessun Dorma’ and, most bizarrely, ‘I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face’ with a digitally revived Dean Martin. Presumably as Botti is also halfScottish, we can look forward to the sequel, featuring Botti playing ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ with a Chet Baker intonation or how about grave robbing Sir Harry Lauder for a tear-jerking ‘Skye Boat Song’? Italiawouldn’t provoke such ire if Botti wasn’t such a good trumpet player gifted with a seductive, buttery tone, best heard on the cinematic vistas of ‘Deborah’s Theme’. Andy Robson

Trio Braam DeJoode Vatcher Change This Song VPRO CDBBB8 | ★★★

Michiel Braam (p), Wilbert de Joode (b) and Michael Vatcher (d). Rec. date not stated

Recorded live on the occasion of the opening of the “new” Bimhuis, with its spectacular view across Amsterdam harbour that forms the backdrop of the

stage, Trio Braam De Joode Vatcher have the jaunty poise of a hyperenergetic Thelonious Monk. On ‘Angsts, Once High’ they open with a Monk-like theme and move into a more freeflowing dialogue that subverts into a bowed bass solo against the fractured rhythms of Vatcher. ‘Hotch as Ginseng’ is a repeated four-bar motive that is shifted up and down various intervals against Vatcher’s limping rhythm. De Joode prefers arco solos for the most part, and steps in before the theme is repeated, this time sans interval shifts, but taken through an accelerando passage, all the while with Monk-ish allusions. Braam is an accomplished pianist, whose playing, although centred in Monk, seems to yearn for a less mannered style, as passages in ‘Gosh, Ethnics Gan’ suggest. Stuart Nicholson

Alison Burns and Martin Taylor 1am P3 | ★★★

Alison Burns (v) and Martin Taylor (g). Rec. date not stated

From its very opening bar, Martin Taylor’s languid introduction to ‘Again’, this duo album with vocalist Alison Burns is one of the most delightfully intimate recordings you’ll hear this year. Conceived in part as an affectionate homage to the great partnership of Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass, the singer’s thoughtfully dramatic interpretations find their perfect match in Taylor’s unfailingly refined accompaniments. The 14-track collection includes playfully swinging takes on ‘He’s ATramp’, ‘The Man Who Got Away’ and ‘Drop Me ALine’, although Burns generally favours tempos at the slower end of the spectrum. Standouts include the selfpenned ‘True’, a heart-melting tribute to her brother, an affecting take on Stevie Wonder’s ‘If It’s Magic’ and a lovingly crafted ‘I Haven’t Got Anything Better To Do’. Peter Quinn

Caribbean Jazz Project Afro Bop Alliance Heads Up | ★★★

Dave Samuels (vib, mba), Steve Williams (as), Luis Hernandez (ts), Chris Walter, Tim Stanley (t), Dan Drew (tb), Harry Appelman (p), Max Murray (b), Joe McCarthy (d, perc) and Roberto Quintero (perc). Rec. date not given

Acurious yoking together of differences, but no less satisfying for that. The idea was to mix the Caribbean Jazz Project and classic modern material and beef it out with big band arrangements. Which is something of a contradiction in terms as the original CJPwith Samuels’ marimba, Narell’s pans and d’Rivera’s sax had an airy lightness, a mix of space and intimacy and just pure sunshine that you wouldn’t want to crush under a ton of brass and insistent drums. But any fears are largely misplaced, if rather cruelly because Samuels is the only CJPsurvivor here, with no attempt to recreate the band’s unique vibe. That said, Samuels is in fine form throughout. Deserving of repeated playing, no matter how familiar the material. Andy Robson

Philip Catherine Guitars Two Dreyfus Jazz CD-36915 | ★★★

Philip Catherine (g). Rec. 2008

Given the wide variety of jazz settings he has chosen during his long career, it’s surprising that this is 65-year-old Philip Catherine’s first solo-guitar album. It surely won’t be his last, for this English-born Belgian’s eclectic style is tailor-made for double-tracking projects like this. Guitarists try harder than most to cover all the bases, and Catherine’s all-round skills, a hard won blend of mainstream, bossa-nova, gypsy, flamenco and classical techniques, are versatile enough to hold most people’s attention. The pace of this album is gentle without being bland and soporific in the depressingly purpose-built way of smooth jazz. There’s more than enough harmonic and melodic interest for deeper listeners, but those who like background music while multi-tasking will also enjoy it. This particularly applies to passages where a leisurely guitar line, played either in octaves or single-string notes trembling with gypsy vibrato, are laid over a warm blanket of ooze-articulated synth-guitar chords. This music is always pleasant and sometimes more than that. Certain artists, including Art Tatum, Erroll Garner and Bill Evans, did some of their best work alone. It could be that, late in life, Philip Catherine has discovered himself to be among them. Jack Massarik

John Chin Blackout Conception Fresh Sound/New Talent 292 | ★★★

John Chin (p), Bill Campbell (d), Mark Turner (ts), Alexis Cuadrado (b) and Chris Higgins (b). Rec. 4-5 May, 11 July and 10 August 2005

This debut release from Seoul-born, New York-based pianist Chin is a pleasantly mainstream mixture of standards and originals. The seven numbers are performed by a barebones trio, augmented on four of the tracks by saxophonist Turner. Two of the nonoriginals are lesser-known compositions by Chin’s former teacher Kenny Barron. Besides Barron, Chin has obviously listened carefully to Bill Evans, but there are signs of an original talent here too. Chin’s soloing is characteristically deliberate – there’s a strong emphasis on melody throughout – and intelligently argued, and his witty, literate lines find a pleasing counterpoint in lyrical tenorist Turner’s slightly darker tone. As a writer Chin isn’t afraid to let his sentimental

side show: the ballads ‘After Crash’ and ‘I Won’t Argue with You’ are both lovely, the latter building with exquisite understatement from a minimalist statement of its theme and hypnotically repeated, gently dissonant chords. The tracks are long but there’s enough invention to justify the extended running times. Robert Shore

Billy Cobham and Asere De Cuba Y De Panamáá Astar-MwldanCD01 | ★★★

Billy Cobham (d, bongos), Vicente Arencibia (cgas, perc), Michel Padron (t, chorus), David Echevarria (v, perc), Juan ‘Luz Brillante’ Alarcon (bongos, perc), Michel Salazar (b, chorus), Alejandro ‘El Flecha’ Albar (steel g, chorus, Spanish g) and Andres Valdes (Spanish g). Rec. May 2007

Although he’s renowned the world over as a jazz-rock powerhouse, Billy Cobham can also be a drummer of great sensitivity and nuance. Here on the exMahavishnu’s first full recording collaboration with the young Havana acoustic septet Asere we have a perfect example of this. This for Cobham is very much a roots project; while his ongoing steel pan-coloured band, Culture Mix explores his family’s Afro-Caribbean background, this is the missing link on the Central American side. Initially teaming up at a WOMAD Festival in Spain six years ago, Asere tap into Cobham’s latin heritage via his birthplace in Panama. Recorded at Real World Studios, Cobham adds a Western musical dimension to the recording but perfectly judges the subtle ebb and flow of percussive dialogue, without ever overasserting himself. It is a role that he plays extremely well and it provides a solid yet supple groove to an enjoyable, soulful mix of Buena Vista-like son, slinky latin jazz and more upbeat 1970s-style salsa. It’s music for those lazy, hazy days of summer and not an over-cooked latin jazz-dance track in sight. Selwyn Harris

Mirio Cosottini / Tonino Miano The Curvature of Pace Impressus | ★★

Mirio Cosottini (t) and Tonino Miano (p). Rec. date not given

There’s an awful lot of people who think that improv just sounds like a lot of mucking about. Anyone of that opinion would probably be better off avoiding this Italian missive from the further reaches of the avant-garde. Cosottini and Miano specialise in urgent, scrabbling improvisation, packed with synapse-fast interplay as the two turn the heat up and

Alison Burns and Martin Taylor

Jazzwise\\JULY2008

43