Barney Wilen: French Ballads

Riccardo Del Fra | Barney Wilen | Michel Graillier | Sangoma Everett

Ashley Kahn’s booklet commentary to this deluxe – one might even say slightly overcooked – reissue notes how different was...

Reviewed by Simon Spillett in issue: December/January/2021/2022

Bex Burch & Leafcutter John: Boing!

Fasten your sonic seatbelts for this series of divertingly trippy improv jams recorded online during the first lockdown in 2020...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: December/January/2021/2022

Harold Mabern: Mabern Plays Coltrane

Joe Farnsworth | John Webber | Eric Alexander | Harold Mabern | Steve Davis | Vincent Herring

Mabern’s connection with Smoke, the New York club at 2751 Broadway, dates back to 1999 when he played its opening...

Reviewed by Peter Vacher in issue: December/January/2021/2022

David Linx: Be My Guest: The Duos Project

Tigran Hamasyan | David Linx | Gustavo Beytelmann | Nguyên Lê | Magic Malik | Ran Blake | Theo Bleckmann

By turns visceral, touching, transporting and illuminating, this set of 15 duets featuring the Brussels-born, Paris-based vocalist, composer and multi-instrumentalist...

Reviewed by Peter Quinn in issue: December/January/2021/2022

Gerry Mulligan: Night Lights

Bill Crow | Jimmy Bond | Jim Hall | Art Farmer | Pete Jolly | Bob Brookmeyer | Dave Bailey | Gerry Mulligan | Hal Blaine

Released at the peak of the bossa-nova boom of the early 1960s, on the face of it this album might...

Reviewed by Simon Spillett in issue: December/January/2021/2022

Oscar Peterson Quartet: A Time For Love – Live In Helsinki, 1987

Dave Young | Joe Pass | Oscar Peterson | Martin Drew

It probably helps to think of Peterson as the Buddy Rich of the keyboard – with absolute technical mastery of...

Reviewed by Brian Priestley in issue: December/January/2021/2022

Lis Wessberg: Yellow Map

The Danish trombonist’s breathy, coolly ambient sound is her unique attribute, but it becomes pretty one-dimensional after listening through an...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: December/January/2021/2022

Burak Bedikyan: Introspection

This experienced New York-based pianist’s solo set is Keith Jarrett-esque in its embrace of a ‘romantic’ classical as well as...

Reviewed by Selwyn Harris in issue: December/January/2021/2022

Ohad Talmor Trio: Mise En Place

Dan Weiss | Ohad Talmor | Miles Okazaki

One half of the Ohad Talmor Newsreel sextet, this trio is a classic case of a band emerging from a...

Reviewed by Kevin Le Gendre in issue: December/January/2021/2022

JJ Johnson & Kai Winding: Trombones For Two – The Classic Collaborations 1953-56

Paul Chambers Pierre Michelot | Jon Hendricks | Kenny Clarke | Hank Jones | JJ Johnson | Quincy Jones | Urbie Green | Charles Mingus | Tom Mitchell | Lucky Thompson

Seeing Johnson and Winding side by side on their sole UK appearance together in September 1958, as part of the...

Reviewed by Peter Vacher in issue: December/January/2021/2022