JAZZ TRACK

Harry Beckett’s trumpet tone was astonishing and you can hear it at its best on ‘Joy Unlimited’. You can also hear another side of Chick Corea on his album ‘Plays’, as well as blow your mind with Tomato Brain.

THE END Allt Är Intet [Frontiers]

Allt Är Intet is comprised of Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, Norwegian saxophonist Kjetil Møster, Ethiopian-born vocalist Sofia Jernberg, Norwegian guitarist Anders Hana, and Norwegian drummer Børge Fjordheim. Their performances are always at the freerer end of the musical spectrum, and incendiary blowing is very much to the fore on this second album (the first being their audacious SvarmodOch Vemod Är Värdesinnen). The unbridled saxes of Gustaffson and Møster create a structured maelstrom that’s visceral, dense and exhilarating. Arguably more rock than jazz, super-tight hypnotic rhythms pummel and entrance in equal measure, deftly providing an anchor point in what is certainly a turbulent and bracing musical experience, but one that’s undeniably rewarding.

MAJOR SURGERY Rare Live Performances 1978 [Last Music]

This album represents a new chapter in an otherwise forgotten and overlooked outfit active in the 70s. It’s not actually a recording as such,but a compilation of the band’s repertoire as recorded on cassette tape by The Last Music Company’s Malcolm Mills. He explains: ‘In early May 2020, I dug out the cassettes from my archive and engaged Baz Farmer to recover the contents. I was blown away with what I heard. It was almost the entire Major Surgery repertoire… and the band were clearly at their peak for these live shows.’ Don Weller was one of the finest saxophonists ever to emerge from Britain and these previously unreleased live sessions bristle with elements of Soft Machine and Nucleus, wherein smartly crafted tunes are delivered with razor precision, offset with Weller’s customary passion. Pete Jacobson’s keyboards spar with Jimmy Roche’s biting lead guitar, expanding the band’s tonal range as Bruce Collcutt’s bass and Tony Marsh’s drumming mine a funkish undertow.

REUTER MOTZER GROHOWSKI Shapeshifters [Moonjune]

Fans of the kind of musical telepathy demonstrated by the King Crimson fractals ProjeKcts 1, 3, and 4 in the 90s will find much to enjoy in the latest collective improvisations of Reuter Motzer Grohowski’s Shapeshifters. A collaboration between touch guitarist Markus Reuter, guitarist Tim Motzer, and Brand X drummer, Kenny Grohowski, their rapid-fire, intensive jousting and inquisitive, discursive solos cover a lot of sonic ground across four pieces that never fail to deliver bold results. As to what Shapeshifting might be is described in John McGuire’s extraterrrestrial album liner notes. “Shapeshifting refers to an act of rapid physical transformation, from one form to another by supernatural means. Whether its origins can be traced to a genetically inherited superhuman ability, incidences of the spirit world manifesting into the physical, shamanism, black magic, or something still completely unknown, has been the subject of much speculation for those who have dared question whether the concept is, indeed, a fictional one.”

He concludes: ‘ Prepare to be amazed, earthling!’

THE GOLDEN AGE OF STEAM Tomato Brain [Limited Noise]

The name might suggest a gentle diversion into the realms of nostalgia, but that’s far from the case on the third album from this avant-garde ensemble led by saxophonist and composer James Allsopp. Their sound conjures visions of an exploratory jazz group improvising in an abandoned Radiophonic Workshop. In fact, that’s not far wide of the mark, with Loftopus, a six-part, 31-minute tone poem, recorded live in a single take. It begins with blippy electronica and disembodied voices, like something approaching from inner space, before a wave of sax breaks against the digital ether, producing slow, elegant lines that hang in the air. The song eventually builds to a parping, skirling climax against celestial organ, bringing a righteous Soft Machine meets Sun Ra vibe.

HARRY BECKETT Joy Unlimited [Cadillac]

As the title cunningly suggests, Harry Beckett’s Joy Unlimited accentuates the positive with good vibes abounding in this handsome reissue from 1975. Beckett’s mellifluous trumpet and flugelhorn daub the stratosphere with gorgeous streaks of vibrant colour against the busy interactions of Isotope’s Nigel Morris (drums) and

Brian Miller’s Rhodes piano. The criminally underrated bassist, Daryl Runswick, is frequently astounding, nipping, and tucking around Ray Russell’s surging guitar. All six tracks were written by Barbados-born Beckett (1935–2010) and all are tuneful, spirited and attractively arranged and despite his UK residency, a Caribbean lilt infuses a sunny, relaxed atmosphere. Beckett’s solo playing is quite astonishing, indeed jazz reviewer Dave Gelly says Beckett had one of the most beautiful trumpet tones he’s ever heard. ‘ It was firm, but soft at the edges, with a chuckle lurking somewhere inside,’ he wrote in his positive review of this album for The Guardian.

CHICK COREA Chick Corea Plays [Concord Jazz]

This live solo performance available on two CDs (or three 180g LPs) sees Corea chatting between numbers, performing some genuinely dazzling improvisations, and performing engaging renditions of pieces across multiple genres including classical (Mozart, Chopin, Scarlatti, Scriabin), jazz (Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Antonio Carlos Jobim), soul (Stevie Wonder) and even Broadway (Jerome Kern, George Gershwin). While clearly having lots of fun illustrating a six-decade career for his audience, it has to be said that sometimes things get a little schmaltzy. At times I was reminded of JazzNews’ Nick Lea’s comment: ‘ There is no disputing his technique and knowledge of the music he performs, but it may be that his all-encompassing, genre straddling has meant that at times he has spread himself a little too thin.’ However, Corea’s bravura reading of highlights from his 1984 recording, Children’s Songs, reminds us of the poetic, harmonic beauty informing all his best works.