Sasha Berliner

Fantome

Outside in Music

Sasha Berliner (vb), Taylor Eigsti (p), Harish Raghavan (b), Jongkuk Kim (d), Rico Jones (s) and Lex Korten (p). Rec. date not stated

The third album for star vibraphonist Sasha Berliner is a through-a-glass-darkly affair that reinforces her signature sound, an ambitious yet accessible blend of pattern-based experimentalism and a vibe that shapeshifts from visceral melancholy to a fragile, haunting ethereality.

With her vision deftly supported by an ensemble of three distinguished players on piano, bass and drums, Berliner is both leader and collaborator, pulling emotion and ideas from kaleidoscopic swirls and pedal-to-the-metal effects. As she did on 2022’s Onyx – which had two versions of ‘My Funny Valentine’ – Berliner likes to break down and rebuild; Billy Strayhorn’s ‘Upper Manhattan Medical Group’ is here, colourful and leftfield, while ‘Construction’ is a master class in redesign, a cut-and-paste of melodic and rhythmic possibilities. There’s a fitting poignant beauty to be found in ‘Khan Younis’, an anthemic and even cinematic track titled for the Palestinian city of the same name. Sound engineer Ben Kane keeps the whole thing bass smooth yet edgy as Berliner weaves a cats-cradle of silver threads with her mallets. Absorbing, hugely recommended listening. Jane Cornwell

Anouar Brahem

After the Last Sky

ECM 

Anouar Brahem (oud), Django Bates (p), Anja Lechner (clo) and Dave Holland (b). Rec. date not stated

Brahem began this project before the horrors of Gaza unfolded. But it remains a powerful response to the tragedy of the Middle East – or indeed Ukraine, or anywhere where you may look up and see your last sky as a drone or bomber appears above you.

The ensemble is that of Brahem’s sublime Blue Maquams but now with Lechner’s cello recruited. Brahem always strives to bring together different cultures, not to homogenise them but to celebrate what he describes a ‘collective inspiration’.

It’s hard to imagine a more poignant sound than an oud with its yawing bass bends as on ‘Never Forget’, with Bates, sparingly, bluesily, singing around Brahem’s lament. ‘The Sweet Oranges of Jaffa’ is a fantastical yet melancholic remembrance of an Eden that probably never existed, yet somehow the oud and cello yearn to conjure it into existence. ‘Endlessly Wandering’ by contrast summons the tumultuous to and fro of displaced peoples, be they Palestinian, Jewish or whoever has their home, school, hospital, playground ripped from them.

The spirit of the American-Palestinian Edward Said, co-founder of the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, underwrites much of this music which refuses to yield truth and beauty, to horror and brutality. Name checked in ‘Edward Said’s Reverie’, oh, that such voices of reason could be heard now. Significantly, Brahem doesn’t appear on the last track, ‘Vague’. It’s as though nothing more can be said. But the cello sings out. Andy Robson

Sylvie Courvoisier / Mary Halvorson

Bone Bells

Pyroclastic Records

Sylvie Courvoisier (p) and Mary Halvorson (g) Rec. May 2024

Formed in 2017 and making their debut recording that year with Crop Circles, the idiosyncratic duo of Brooklyn-based Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson combined again in 2021 for the highly impressive album Searching for the Disappeared Hour. In spite of another four-year gap, the new release Bone Bells, on pianist Kris Davis’ cutting-edge jazz label Pyroclastic, has been well worth the wait. On close listening, the duo’s tight-knit, simpatico union seems to have evolved even further playing on a striking set of shared compositions. A purposeful, gripping dialogue is heightened by both the flexibility and inventive responsiveness of their dual roles. Halvorson’s opener ‘Bone Bells’ could be a soundtrack for an offbeat 1960s spy B-movie. Halvorson has perhaps her most conventional storytelling hat on when soloing, but with koto and dulcimer music coming to mind as much as any school of jazz guitar. Courvoisier, in her solo, seamlessly merges a hip avant-blues jazz riffage with tense chordal chromaticism and waves of harp-like glissandi.

In contrast, ‘Esmeralda’ with its dramatic percussive motifs and creative use of space is more like abstract chamber concert music than jazz but isn’t only for avant-improv aficionados. On Halvorson’s ‘Beclouded’ the guitarist solos something like Django Reinhardt had he come from modern-day downtown New York. Bone Bells isn’t only their strongest duo offering to date but one of the most inspired and kaleidoscopic contemporary jazz pairings in recent times. Selwyn Harris

Vijay Iyer / Wadada Leo Smith

Defiant Life

ECM 

Vijay Iyer (p, el p, elec) and Wadada Leo Smith (t). Rec. July 2024

As the title suggests, this is a work inspired by struggle and challenge, despair at the state of the world and belief in humankind’s capacity for redemption. As they have shown when both leading their own groups and working together, Wadada Leo Smith and Vijay Iyer are able to lend to such themes the necessary emotional depth as well as musical invention.

The soundscape fashioned on ‘Sumud’ makes the point in no uncertain terms. Trailing electronic hiss, like the flicker of a faulty generator, unsettles yet somehow soothes while Smith’s muted trumpet creates vaporous phrases, some long held, some spiraled downwards with mild force supported by Iyer’s acoustic and electric tremolos, which slowly and purposefully build to a measured yet powerful conclusion.

If the net result is a deeply affecting lament, then ‘Floating River Requiem (For Patrice Lumumba)’ is heart stopping for the understated gospel implications of Iyer’s chords and the wry blues of Smith’s melodies, tracing a line from Armstrong to Eldridge to Cherry.

Nothing could be more appropriate for the subject of the Congolese leader eliminated by western forces at a time when neo-imperialism in league with corporate greed rears its ugly head again. Elsewhere digital effects are almost like a distant purr of cellos, and when the brass phrases fragment against the faintest of loops or the gentle hammering of a single icy high note on the keyboard the result is intense. Disciplined, solemn music by two masters of communication that provides a serious response to serious issues. Kevin Le Gendre

Branford Marsalis Quartet

Belonging

Blue Note

Branford Marsalis (ts), Joey Calderazzo (p), Eric Revis (b) and Justin Faulkner (d). Rec. 2024

Belonging is Marsalis’ first recording since 2019 and is described as “A full album interpretation of Keith Jarrett’s 1974 album of the same name which introduced his European Quartet.”

Actually, it was producer Manfred Eicher’s idea for a collaboration between Jarrett and Garbarek using the Jan Garbarek/Bobo Stenson Quartet (which had already released Witchi-Tai-To the previous year) with Jarrett in Stenson’s stead, that introduced 'The European Quartet'. The compositions on Belonging were written by Jarrett with Garbarek in mind, consciously breaking the umbilical link with contemporary hard bop.

The Branford Marsalis Quartet is the first major American ensemble to explore the potential of the European Quartet’s groundbreaking album of half a century ago, and by placing their own collective identity upon it, emerges as possibly the Marsalis Quartet’s defining album. ‘Spiral Dance’ suggests their deep engagement with the composition, (originally conceived by Jarrett in a way that allowed Garbarek’s solo to grow organically from the melody line, an intention that broadly applied to all his compositions). These were not simply 'themes' as vehicles for improvisations that could spin-off in any direction at the improvisors will, but instead challenged the improvisor to find a voice within the composition that respected the thematic content. In this the Marsalis Quartet is broadly successful. Perhaps the most famous track from Belonging was ‘Long As You Know You’re Living Yours,’ a longtime theme on CBS TV and the subject of a lawsuit (over the song 'Gaucho') between Jarrett and Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, which emerges here as a highlight for Marsalis' Quartet, along with ‘The Windup.’ Stuart Nicholson

Nicolas Masson

Renaissance

ECM 

Nicolas Masson (ts, ss), Colin Vallon (p), Patrice Moret (b) and Lionel Friedli (d). Rec. 2024

Since the millennium, when he graduated from music school in Geneva and travelled to New York to find Cecil Taylor and Chris Potter among his first musical contacts there, the Swiss saxophonist Nicolas Masson has demonstrated how open he is to music-making from all angles. Renaissance is his second release for ECM, accompanied by the partners who have been by his side for two decades (pianist Colin Vallon, bassist Patrice Moret and drummer Lionel Friedli) and showing – so far without any apparent downsides of comfortable repetition – even more lyrical expressiveness with this engrossing set.

The nine tracks here are all originals (Masson’s, except for one collective improvisation), and reflect his recent inclinations to let early interests in free jazz bloom again, and cherish the insights of his major role model, Paul Motian. A rolling low-end piano figure and lustrous bass intro leads to dreamily humming sax ruminations on the opening ‘Tremolo’, while the slow paired-note ascents, whispered cymbal sounds and bass nudges of the title track come close to hinting at Thelonious Monk’s ‘Misterioso’ before the leader’s twisting improv draw the others into his wake for the conclusion.

Masson’s ability to write the simplest horn melodies that invite fascinatingly intertwined conversations is evident on the pulsating, percussion-pattering ‘Anemona’; ‘Subversive Dreamers’ sparks a captivating group-empathy out of a whispered funk groove; the improvised ‘Practicing the Unknown’ spotlights how effectively Lionel Friedli’s drumming can be both emphatic and barely perceptible; ’Spirits’ emphasises the richness of nuance Masson invests in the slightest sound; ‘Moving On’ is a succinct bass/sax duo; and ‘Langsam’ a meditation for the whole band. Renaissance sounds like a standout of the year so far. John Fordham

John Patitucci

Spirit Fall

Edition Records 

John Patitucci (b, el b), Chris Potter (ts, ss, bcl) and Brian Blade (d, perc). Rec. August 2024

Being his first album as leader since 2019’s mainly solo Soul of the Bass, the esteemed heavyweight veteran bassist John Patitucci flies out of the traps with a new sax-bass-drums trio release Spirit Fall on the UK’s Edition Records.

It’s a reflection on Patitucci’s unique musical journey that has included long stints with late 20th century jazz giants Wayne Shorter and Chick Corea. Sounding at once both spontaneous and refined – something only the highest quality jazz musicians can deliver when in the mood – the saxophonist Chris Potter is at his very best, matching Patitucci’s strident bass for bold, athletic, sinewy expression alongside Brian Blade’s organic, agile responsive beats.

‘Think Fast’ is a high-octane opener in the spirit perhaps of Sonny Rollins’ trio on Freedom Suite but with a contemporary fusion-like thrust. Next up is the more spacious but equally strong ‘Pole Star’ its theme reminiscent of the late Wayne Shorter whose superlative post-millennium quartet of course featured the Patitucci-Blade rhythm right up until his death in 2023. ‘Deluge on 7th Avenue’ is a musical commentary on the turbulent weather outside the Village Vanguard during a monthly residence but surely reflects the stormy set going on inside its hallowed walls too, although it’s actually a mid-tempo modernist blues that Potter turns inside and out, managing to make old sounds fresh with increasing bluster.

The right-on-the-money funk groove on ‘Lipim’, the enigmatic ‘Light in the Darkness’ featuring Potter on bass clarinet, and the calypso-ish ‘Sonrisa’ demonstrate the deeply-rooted yet stylistic breadth of Spirit Fall. Patitucci shifts to six-string electric on ‘Thoughts and Dreams’ and the title track, and to a more meditative space capturing a slinky old R&B-soul vibe on the former’s coda, while Potter’s searching soprano sax on the latter track signals his love of Trane. A disc supreme. Selwyn Harris

Emma Rawicz & Gwilym Simcock

Big Visit

ACT Music 

Emma Rawicz (ts) and Gwilym Simcock (p). Rec. 2024

This outstanding duet album from pianist Gwilym Simcock and saxophonist Emma Rawicz emerged from a serendipitous meeting at Simcock’s 40th birthday concert at the Royal Academy of Music in February 2023. While it captures a musical partnership almost at its genesis, the album also showcases an already remarkably deep musical connection between the two artists.

Stevie Wonder’s ‘Visions’, the first of two thoughtfully-chosen covers, opens with Simcock’s Messiaen-inspired harmonies in a contemplative prelude. The second, the gorgeous Carl Fischer ballad ‘You’ve Changed’, beautifully demonstrates the duo’s musical chemistry. The remaining four tracks are originals, with each musician writing two pieces specifically for the other. Simcock’s ‘His Great Adventure’ is an expansive, Jarrett-influenced piece that evolves from a free-flowing rhapsodic introduction into a dynamic groove. Rawicz’s ‘The Shape of a New Sun’, inspired by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Half of a Yellow Sun, carries themes of optimism and new beginnings. Her second piece, ‘The Drumbledrone’ (named after the Devonian word for bumblebee), draws from memories of her grandparents’ Exmoor farm. Simcock’s ‘Optimum Friction’ showcases his extraordinary ability to function as an entire rhythm section at the piano, with the pianist supplying ever-shifting blocks of textural detail. Balancing technical virtuosity with emotional depth, Big Visit reflects the joy and positivity that both artists consider fundamental to their musical philosophy. Peter Quinn