Category: Album Review

1 April 2019

Album Review: Yuriy Galkin – For Its Beauty Alone

Yuriy Galkin For Its Beauty Alone (self-release) Russian bassist and composer Yuriy Galkin shows us his extreme diversity as both composer and arranger. Usually working with his nine-piece ensemble Symbiosis Orchestra, who have been present on the scene for awhile now, his latest release sees him exchange his usual nonet for a more modest quartet. […]

1 April 2019

Album Review: Snarky Puppy – Immigrance

Snarky Puppy Immigrance (GroundUP Music) The eagerly waited, much touted follow-up to 2016’s Culcha Vulcha, sees Michael League at the head of his “pop band that improvises a lot, without vocals” deploying a host of musicians in a typically wide-ranging, ambitious but accessible melange of contemporary fusion. There’s no Cory Henry this time, but Bobby […]

8 March 2019

Album Review: John Turville – Head First

John Turville Head First (Whirlwind WR4734) John Turville has spent the last decade quietly establishing himself as the go-to pianist for the kind of thoughtful, multi-faceted modern jazz whose distinctly European sensibility was developed by composers such as John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler, and continues to thrive today. His sensitivity, advanced harmonic concept and the […]

1 March 2019

Album Review: James Brandon Lewis – An Unruly Manifesto

James Brandon Lewis An Unruly Manifesto (Relative Pitch Records) Seasoned jazz veteran and tenor saxophonist, James Brandon Lewis has been an active and well-known player on the New York jazz scene for some time now, sharing stages with the likes of Ravi Coltrane and Jimmy Heath among a vast number of the many giants of […]

1 March 2019

Album Review: Patchwork Jazz Orchestra – The Adventures of Mr. Pottercakes

Patchwork Jazz Orchestra The Adventures of Mr. Pottercakes (Spark Label Spark!007) This impressive project unites some of the London jazz scene’s brightest young sparks (many of whom will be familiar to Brighton audiences from their appearances for New Generation Jazz) into a single multi-headed beast that provides a wide-ranging, ambitious showcase for everyone’s writing, arranging, […]

1 March 2019

Album Review: Sarah Tandy – Infection in the Sentence

Sarah Tandy Infection in the Sentence (Jazz Re:freshed) Sarah Tandy has quietly been positioned as one of the movement’s most credible forces, emerging from the fertile South London scene as keys player for Nu Civilisation Orchestra, Maisha, Where Pathways Meet, Camilla George, Nubya Garcia, Nerija, and many more, and earning a ringing endorsement from the […]

1 February 2019

Album Review: Helena Kay’s KIM Trio – Moon Palace

Helena Kay’s KIM Trio Moon Palace (Ubuntu UBU 0018) 2018 has been a great year for female UK jazz musicians moving further into the public eye, and this exciting debut shows that there’s plenty more to come from this quarter. Helena Kay has progressed by stages through the jazz establishment, enrolling at Guildhall in 2012 […]

1 February 2019

Album Review: Lost Organ Unit – Playing the Organ for the People

Lost Organ Unit Playing the Organ for the People Lugging a full size 1964 Hammond around the gig circuit takes a degree of commitment, and Bobby Aspey and cohort display total commitment throughout this very enjoyable recording of classic Hammond grooves. Aspey himself penned the tunes, which make creative use of the templates established by […]

1 February 2019

Album Review: Theon Cross – Fyah

Theon Cross Fyah (Gearbox GB1550) Theon Cross is something of a tuba phenomenon on the new young London jazz scene; his virtuosity, imagination and sheer stamina on the unwieldly brass monster have powered such of the pivotal outfits as Cassie Kinoshi’s Seed Ensemble, Moses Boyd’s Exodus and, of course, Shabaka Hutchings’ current Mercury-nominated, globetrotting Sons Of […]

1 February 2019

Album Review: SEED Ensemble – Driftglass

Cassie Kinoshi’s SEED Ensemble Driftglass (Jazz Re:freshed) From altoist and sometime Nérija frontliner Kinoshi, comes this big, joyous project featuring a host of luminaries from the hipper end of the young London scene. Kinoshi favours big brass fanfares over hypnotic bass ostinatos, beats drawn from club culture as much as from jazz, and an energetic, freewheeling approach […]

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