The best new jazz albums | Editor's Choice: December 2021 / January 2022

Adam Bałdych Quintet with Paolo Fresu

Poetry

ACT

With 10 original compositions of precisely focussed moods plus ‘Hyperballad’ by Björk, the compositions that provide the biggest spaces for improvisation – ‘I Remember’ and ‘Open Sky’ – number among the album highlights, together with pieces such as ‘Grace’ using a Renaissance violin (almost a 7th below a violin, whereas a viola is a fifth below) whose tone adds a sense of gravitas and profundity in Bałdych’s hands. Stuart Nicholson

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Chick Corea Akoustic Band with John Patitucci & Dave Weckl

Live

Concord Jazz

This album was already in the works at the time of Corea’s sudden and unexpected death on 9 February 2021. On it, Corea contributes liner notes where he refers to a two day whirlwind when the trio was reconvened in January 2018 after a long break for a quick rehearsal and two shows the following evening. This two-CD set is the result. Stuart Nicholson

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Abdullah Ibrahim

Solotude: My Journey My Vision

Gearbox

This is a record to hear in one long sitting, tracing his journey in all its detail, and remembering each of the themes that he weaves past us, as they will surely reappear, changed and rethought, as the journey progresses. A masterly achievement. Alyn Shipton

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Ill Considered

Liminal Space

New Soil 

Ill Considered have pursued an underground course, releasing nine raw improvised albums – including a Christmas LP, natch – in three years. With new bassist Liran Donin (Led Bib and his own 1000 Boats project), Liminal Space is a studio leap forward, with the trio’s wild improv now the basis for added arrangements and musicians. Drummer Emre Ramazanoglu’s production simmers down thickly layered arrangements till star guests such as Theon Cross and Sarathy Korwar become mere ingredients in a multitudinous ferment; yet the sense of space is still sharply defined, like claustrophobic dub. Nick Hasted

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David Linx

Be My Guest: The Duos Project

Cristal Records

By turns visceral, touching, transporting and illuminating, this set of 15 duets featuring the Brussels-born, Paris-based vocalist, composer and multi-instrumentalist David Linx is a collection that stays with you long after the final bar of the extraordinarily powerful ‘Como La Cigarra’ fades away. Penned by the Argentinean writer and composer, Maria Elena Walsh, Linx is accompanied on this particular song by the gorgeous playing of pianist Gustavo Beytelmann. Peter Quinn

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Christian McBride & Inside Straight

Live at the Village Vanguard

Mack Avenue

As well as demonstrating the continuing vitality of the tradition in the right hands, this album also celebrates Inside Straight’s longevity, proudly underlining their annual appearances at the Vanguard since 2007 – a run only interrupted in 2020. McBride only solos a couple of times, but the strength of the other soloists (including Allen) is such that you’re hardly aware of the head-solos-head structure of these vibrant originals. Brian Priestley

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