JAZZ TRACK

| A Life In A Day | Lionsharecords LSR20153

John Shand looks at albums from David Ades, Gary Peacock, Erik Friedlander, Johnny Griffin Larry Coryell and Kurt Elling. Ades’ knew A Life in the Day would be his last album, and it shows…

Dying of lung cancer, alto saxophonist David Ades knew this album would be his last and made it his best. Monstrous willpower must have been required, and the results have been released posthumously. Ades’ illness could not knock the singing vitality out of his playing, however. If his sound is sometimes less robust than previously, it still carries a phenomenal life force, while his lines jumble exuberance and sadness into one milewide emotion. The compositions are quite openended, and there is more air around the notes than on his preceding ‘A Glorious Uncertainty’, so that the effect is very slightly less vigorous; more ethereal. Once again Ades went to New York (from Byron Bay) to record with the stellar band of tenor saxophonist Tony Mallaby, bassist Mark Helias and drummer Gerald Cleaver. so streams of melody emerge from nowhere and evaporate just as unexpectedly. Peacock’s playing has lost none its vigour or sinuousness, and his bass has been magnificently recorded. Copland’s distinctive approach mingles effervescence and enigma, and Baron plays with something of the joyous naivety with which Henri Rousseau painted. An undervalued composer, Peacock revisits such timeless pieces as Moor and Vignette. An instant classic.