Jazz Recommends Jazz April 2023

Review: Journey in Satchidananda was the fourth solo album by Alice Coltrane and it might be her best-known work. Some of the tunes here were recorded live at the Village Gate while the rest were recorded at her home studio in Dix Hills in New York, and all of them were released in 1971. The album has grown ever more mythical in status and store since then with its transcendental spiritual jazz sounds with layered-up bells, tambourine, tanpura and more into a sound that leans heavily on Coltrane's love of Middle Eastern and North African music and culture. Earthy, bluesy, steeped in musical mantra and utterly absorbing, it's one of the most enthralling records of the era.

Review: A saxophonist at the pinnacle of his game, Shabaka Hutchings presents 'Afrikan Culture, on which he explores the rich musical traditions of the African continent and combines them with contemporary, self-affirming themes. Remarkably for how well-touted his name is, this is Hutchings' first ever solo LP, bringing it to the masses under the name Shabaka (following on the smash success of Sons Of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming). It's a stunning, existential album which not only pays tribute to the Afrofuturist greats who precede him, but which, of course, looks squarely into the eyes of Afroftuture that will come after him.

Review: Blue Note's Classic Vinyl Series turns its focus to the one and only Herbie Hancock here for another superb reissue that will keep the jazz heads happy. His long player Empyrean Isles landed in 1964 as his fourth overall. For this one Hancock linked up with his Miles Davis bandmates including Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums with Freddie Hubbard also on board with his trusty trumpet. The record works through hard bop and modal as well as plenty of soulful jazz sounds and is another standout in Hancock's discography.

Review: One of the greatest soul voices working in the US today, Billy Valentine's latest release, first plotted out in the summer of 2020, sees the artist responding to the chaos of a global pandemic and the seismic impact of George Floyd's murder via legendary works from Curtis Mayfield, Gil Scot Heron and Pharaoh Sanders. In collaboration with acclaimed producer and songwriter, Bob Thiele Jr. (son of Flying Dutchman founder, Bob Thiele), Valentine's rich, velvety vocals breathe new life into these already-powerful tracks, bringing them into the contemporary political context with renewed urgency. Released on Acid Jazz in partnership with renowned US label Flying Dutchman, Valentine's latest output marks the first new music from the label since the '70s - a momentous return for a keystone tastemaker of the American jazz world.

Review: Following up 2021's acclaimed Vulture Prince, Pakistini American singer Arooj Aftab collaborates with jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily on synths to present a striking exercise in dramatic, atmospheric composition. Aftab's voice remains the centre of a creative groupthink which began in 2018, and here the musical ornamentation is turned down to a simmer, eschewing percussion in favour of ambient pastures. There's also space for Iyer and Ismaily to stretch out on their own, but ultimately this is Aftab's vehicle and her voice goes from strength to strength on this standout record.

Review: Donald Byrd's Street Lady was released originally in 1973, and at that point the American great had already penned some 20 odd albums. But the 70s marked his move into the funkier side of things and to this day, this album remains one of his most widely loved and important. It's a rich source of samples for a wide range of artists and the opening tune was used smartly by Detroit great Theo Parrish, while tunes like 'Miss Kane' and 'Sister Love' are still huge. Street Lady is as iconic now as it was back first time around with the same going for the experimental sounds of 'Witch Hunt, while 'Woman Of The World' ends on a gentle, euphoric stride.

Review: Soulive's Turn It Out gets a first-ever reissue here. It was their second album and another super fusion of soul, jazz and funk featuring John Scofield, Oteil Burbridge and Sam Kininger. The trip of talented musicians bled majestic melodic guitar sounds with Jimmy Smith-influenced organ playing and super tight drum grooves. This version has been remastered for this reissue by Alan Evans and comes with new artwork and unseen photos from the recording sessions making it a real collectors' piece that comes on both orange and black wax.

Review: Japanese jazz great Takehiro Honda began his career with a series of classical hard-bop albums and ended it with a swathe of fine fusion sets. Sandwiched in between you'll find a series of excursions into different sides of the jazz spectrum, including this rare - and genuinely brilliant - set of instrumental and soul-jazz tracks recorded with the assistance of a big-band style 'jazz orchestra'. With Honda's killer keys-work (both on piano and organ) at the centre of the action, the assembled collective dashes between energetic run-throughs of original compositions ('Ain't Tell You A Good Way But', 'Ain't Funky Now') and some genuinely killer covers. In the latter category you'll find a thrilling rendition of Curtis Mayfield's 'Check Out Your Mind', a deep and emotive take on Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On', and a life-affirming interpretation of Otis Redding's 'Sitting on the Dock of the Bay'.

Review: Mr. Bongo takes us back to the release of Waltel Blanco's jazz-funk masterwork, 'Meu Balanco', first released in 1995. Noted for its accumulation of Blanco's various skills picked up over the course of his years as a session musician in Brazil - for the likes of Marcos Valle and Elis Regina, to name a few - this LP is a rollicking instrumental ride, just as suitable for film soundtracking as it is for home listening. Many-an electric piano, bass lick and buzzing horn cement the vibe of the boom in Latin cinema at the time of its release.

Review: Legendary jazz man and truly free spirited musical maestro Don Cherry joined up with Swiss pianist and composer George Gruntz and his group in Tunisia and Germany in May and September 1969 to record this. It brings together two powerhouses with North-African flavoured deep jazz results featuring piano, cornet, flute and celeste mixed up with various different reeds players as well as a selection of traditional instruments such as the bendir, ney, bagpipes, tabla and darbouka. It all adds up to a mesmerising and trance inducing ritual of jazz magic.

Review: It is always a pleasure to sink into the welcoming jazz waters of Sam Rivers and take a trip with him downstream. His Fuchsia Swing Sing album has had the full Classic Vinyl Series treatment here from original label Blue Note so it comes on nice audiophile 180g vinyl with a full and new remastering job. It's the debut album from Rivers, a saxophonist of striking originality who offered up his sound fully formed right from the off here. It came originally in 1964 and has a fine avant-garde sound with the stunning ballad 'Beatrice' a real highlight.

Review: Alberts Favourites have the honour of releasing Qwalia's debut album 'Sound And Reason' this March, and what a debut it is too. The now London based quartet is lead by drummer Yusuf Ahmed and takes in inspirations from the likes of old masters and peers alike. It is a group composed of musicians who play with the likes of Joy Crooks and David Byrne, Cat Stevens and Frank Ocean and includes Tal Janes on guitars and vocals, bass from Ben Reed and Joseph Costi on keys. The sound palette is lush and rich, with spiritualism and complex grooves sweeping you off your feet.

Review: Pakistani-American singer Arooj Aftab has consistently used her albums as a vehicle for musical experimentation, often wrapping her distinctive vocals (often delivered in urdu) in progressively minimalistic arrangements that seem to get more ethereal and becalmed with each successive release. On 'Love in Exile', her latest album, Aftab is joined by two frequent collaborators in largely improvised sessions: jazz pianist Vijay Iver and synthesiser player (and electronics wizard) Shahzad Ismaily. The results are frequently mesmerising and breathtakingly brilliant, with Aftab's haunting vocals rising above ambient, beat-free soundscapes that cannily combine suspenseful, slow-burn basslines, evocative chords and ghostly electronic textures with the twinkling, yearning piano motifs. It's a genuinely beguiling and brilliant sound that should appeal to both open-minded jazz heads and ambient enthusiasts.

Review: A true icon of jazz saxophone, Pharoah Sanders' 1969 album, Karma, is central to the artist's impressive oeuvre. A key player in the growth of the spiritual and free jazz movements through his involvement in John Coltrane's groups of the mid-1960s, Audio Clarity have ensured Sander's treasured work is granted a much-needed re-release. Featuring two gloriously layered twenty minute pieces - 'The Creator Has A Master Plan' on the A-side and 'Colors' on B -, these tracks showcase the distinctive sound that came to define Pharoah Sanders, crafted from an array of inventive technique such as overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic methods, as well as his use of 'sheets of sound' and non-Western percussion. Described by fellow saxophonist Ornette Coleman as "probably the best tenor player in the world", this is undoubtedly a keystone record for any jazz-lover's collection.

Review: Trading Places reissues a rare live recording of the legendary jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, captured in Ankara in 1969. Accompanied by Turkish musicians Irfan Sumer, Selcuk Sun and Okay Temiz, Cherry explores his original compositions and adaptations of local folk songs, as well as tunes by Ornette Coleman and Pharoah Sanders. A fascinating fusion of tradition and experimentation, this album is a treasure for jazz lovers, capturing a moment of transnational future-dreaming. Cherry laid down its original recording in the Turkish-US Embassy, after spending months learning the ways of traditional Turkish folk music - 'the mother' - with saxophonist Bernt Rosengren.

Review: From his past credits as an accomplished session musician John Carroll Kirby has smoothly transitioned into his own field of recorded work. A recent run of stellar LPs for Stones Throw is being followed up with a reissue of this highly sought after work for Patience, originally released in 2019 and already a big hitter on the second hand market. Made up of two extended piano studies, it's a truly soothing, escapist record to take you far away from the daily grind, clothed in stunning artwork and worth every penny. This latest print run isn't likely to hang around for long, so don't delay if you love long form ivory tinkling played by a true maestro.