November round-up
You wait for a Finnish pianist who stretches the boundaries of jazz and then two come along at once. While Iiro Rantala (see Jazz Choice) looks into other corners of the piano tradition for inspiration, Aki Rissanen counts electronic music among his interests, which has an intriguing effect on the music presented on his CD Art In Motion. Artists such as the UK’S Neil Cowley have also been chipping away at this area for a while; Rissanen takes some of the more subtle aspects of the genre and, like Cowley, applies them to that most traditional of jazz groupings, the piano trio. Realising that there’s now more to beat-driven electronica than the thump and clang of house and techno, he delves instead into the murky, shifting sounds of glitchhop and the trippy realms of the arpeggiator, tucking them under the jazz umbrella with very convincing results. (Edition EDN1134 ★★★★)
The young British pianist Ashley Henry is equally at ease when using his own personal mixture of musical experiences in a jazz context. His first full length album Beautiful Vinyl Hunter draws on other components such as hip-hop and grime to address the idea of jazz from varied perspectives in a multistranded musical lineage, with expert assistance from guests such as MC Sparkz and trumpeter Keyon Harrold, whose own album The Mugician was reviewed here on release. Like Harrold’s, Henry’s album gets in its own way slightly as it’s so wide-ranging as to give the overall project a slightly showcasey feel, yet paradoxically such variety is also analogous to his or indeed most people’s musical experience. Rather than ponder that, simply enjoy and appreciate the energy and cool expertise on this fine set of tracks. (Sony Music 190758915821 ★★★★)
Jazz has of course always been influenced by musics adjacent to it, so if those of us of a certain vintage detect a slightly Canterbury school progrock element in the music presented on Peaceful King, it’s to praise rather than to bury the work of keyboardist/ composer Rebecca Nash and her group Atlas. Here are bold melodic gestures, inventive arrangements and, notably, a fine grit-in-theoyster contribution from singer
Sara Colman, all underpinned by an elegant reassurance that makes this a fine debut release for the band. (Whirlwind WR4748 ★★★★).
Having said all of the above, the tradition and inspired ways of working with it remain alive and well, but there are also creative ways of doing that. Re-interpretation is one approach, which saxophonist Dave O’higgins and guitarist Rob Luft adopt on Play Monk & Trane, a set which does indeed focus for the most part on pieces by Thelonious Monk and
John Coltrane. The selection and arrangements are both respectful and gently surprising, which is a good combination, and the fleshing out of the music with a guest organist and drummer, eschewing a bass instrument in favour of the former’s left hand, adds just the right amount of textural robustness. (Ubuntu UBU0029 ★★★★)
Another way of keeping the tradition healthy is by showcasing good new writing in an established style, so an honourable mention for the Ruud Breuls/simon Rigter Quintet ’s Rise and Shine is in order. Rather than making spurious attempts at ‘ground-breaking’
(is there any unbroken ground left in jazz?) this set simply proves in abundance that the modern mainstream, like solo piano performance and the string quartet, is in no way a spent force.
(Challenge CR73480 ★★★)