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Max Bib is the brainchild of leader and saxophonist Max Von Mosch and the folk-jazz flavours on this album hint at both early Jan Garbarek and the chamber-jazz of Oregon. Clearly both pianist and band have soaked up the influence of EST and this is evident on ‘Star city’ which features a melody that would not be out of place on an Est album, and more obviously on a faithful rendition of ‘Gregarin’s point of view’. It should be stated that the second half of the CD is more impressive than the first which is devoted largely to an overlong and in parts meandering ‘Space walk suite’. That said, ‘Inner orbit’ is a lovely piece with Von Mosch excelling on soprano saxophone while ‘Quietude’ is a reflective piece. Max Bib have yet to fully find their own voice and there could be more substance to some of the performances. However, there is a good deal of promise and collaborating with musicans of the calibre of Charlie Mariano will do them no harm.  Tim Stenhouse

What immediately attracts one’s attention here is that this could be an upcoming US quartet playing, such is the American influence present from this Germano-Scandinavian band fronted by two German brothers and produced by Swedish engineer and trombonist Nils Landgren in Gothenburg, hence the title. The classic Blue Note quartets seem to be a seminal influence here as well as Chet Baker whom the band paid homage to on their 2006 debut. Reed player Julian Wasserfuhr alternates between tenor and flute on Lalo Schiffrin’s ‘Toccata’ with a Latin vamp in the chorus that gives way to a mid-tempo waltz. Indeed the Blue Note influence is present on ‘Geno the shoeshine’ with bluesy licks from pianist Roman Wasserfuhr. Throughout proceedings the quartet is propelled by a driving rhythm section of Lars Danielsson on bass and Anders Kjellbers on drums. Perhaps the individual pieces are a tad short, though it should be said in their defence that the concise solos are expertly executed. Nonetheless there is a cohesive feel to the quartet and on a piece such as ‘Fade a little’ it is the refined and mature playing that impresses. A band to watch out for in the future.  Tim Stenhouse

Pianist Vijay Iyer may be a new name to many readers, but from the late 1990s onwards Iyer has slowly but surely gained a reputation as an individual voice on the jazz piano and has no less than twelve albums already under his belt. Iyer has recorded on a variety of independent labels, garnering critical acclaim on ‘Re-Imagining’ and last year’s ‘Tragicomic’ for Sunnyside, but ‘Historicity’ is the first for the German-based Act label.  His influences are wide ranging, but in the jazz sphere Andrew Hill and Thelonius Monk immediately spring to mind alongside southern Indian traditional and US hip-hop music. Key to the trio’s sound has been the close working relationship with engineer/mixer Scotty Hard and for this album he continues to be an integral part of the overall make up, facilitating a heavy bass and drum accompaniment. This terrific album is characterised by some masterful and quite radical reworkings of compositions that reflect the eclecticism of the pianist’s musical interests. A most unlikely candidate is Ronnie Foster’s ‘Mystic brew’, originally a mid-1970s funk tune that has been sampled by rappers. Here the riff-laden groove is retained, but over this Iyer improvises to wonderful effect. In an entirely different vein is a take on Andrew Hill’s ‘Smokestack’ , an early trio outing for the Chicago pianist on Blue Note and by no means an obvious piece to rework. Two of Iyer’s earlier self-penned compositions are revisited with ‘Segment for Sentiment #2’ a reflective piece on which bassist Stephen Crump excels while ‘Trident’ illustrates the telepathic rapport that exists between pianist and bassist. At times Iyer takes a leaf out of the EST book of trio playing in appealing to an audience beyond jazz. Other pieces selected include compositions by Bernstein, Stevie Wonder and avant-gardist Julius Hemphill. This is a prime candidate for jazz piano trio album of the year and already feted by Downbeat as number one rising star, a bright future is assured for Vijay Iyer.  Tim Stenhouse

The music of fado is reflective and deeply emotional. Its highly melodic songs are beautifully crafted and often feature sparse musical accompaniment. One of its major practitioners is vocalist Carlos de Carmo and it his art that is celebrated here in an excellent overview of his career thus far. In fact his recordings span some five decades from 1967 to 2007. The early period of de Carmo’s output was characterised by melodramatic orchestrations as exemplified on ‘Gaivota’ from his very first album. By the 1970s his individualistic style had been formed and this saw the use of viola, bass viola and often two guitars to accompany him. Strings either disappeared, or became far less prominent. Thus a rootsier form of fado became popular and this is best illustrated on a song such as ‘Os Putos’ from 1978 and by ‘Bairro alto’ from 1976. However, orchestrations could re-appear as on the homage to his home city on ‘Lisboa, menina e moca’ also from 1976. The mid-late 1980s witnessed variations on the traditional sound with contrabass and background vocals on ‘Fado Penelope’. By the noughties Carlos de Carmo was in themidst of another stylistic change within the confines of fado, this time combining elements of jazz with a piano trio and saxophone on ‘Palavras minhas’ from 2006. While general liner notes are in Portugese only, explanations of individual songs are provided in English.  Tim Stenhouse

Pianist Horace Tapscott is one of the unrecognised greats in jazz and one of the true individualists of the jazz piano. Stylistically he is a fascinating mixture of stride piano, blues and gospel on the one hand, and be-bop and freer influences on the other. This takes in the music of James P. Johnson, Duke Ellington, Gerald Wilson (with whom he worked early on in his career) and Andrew Hill, though others would argue that he is similar also to Randy Weston. During the 1960s Tapscott recorded infrequently as a sideman, most notably for Sonny Criss in 1968, but it was not until the late 1970s that he came into his own as a leader and by then had created his own label, Nimbus, on which the majority of his albums are to be found. In the meantime during the 1960s he had founded an organisation whose name speaks volumes for the marginal status of the pianist at the time, the Association for Musicians not accepted in the Mainstream which later became the Assembled Pool of Lesser Known Musicians (UGMAA) . Tapscott has recorded in a variety of contexts including an eight volume series of solo piano and big band outings. However, it is in the trio and quartet formats that he is perhaps most at home and this double CD captures him in peak form at two live sessions from December 1989 at the Catrina Bar and Grill in Hollywood. Accompanying him during proceedings are the crack pairing of bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Andrew Cyrille (best known for his work with Cecil Taylor) and clarinetist John Carter. The tracks, nearly all Tapscott compositions, are lengthy, but never self-indulgent and surprisingly lyrical throughout.. Among his best known pieces are a superb reworking of ‘Lino’s pad’, a lovely composition on which Tapscott improvises over a repetiitous drum roll, the two part ‘Dark Tree’ and ‘Sketches of drunken Mary’ which features a lovely clarinet solo that floats over the melody. It is a mystery why no major jazz label saw fit to snap up Horace Tapscott and undoubtedly the lack of exposure to a wider audience has severely restricted his career in the sense of reaching out to a wider auidence. However, in an another it has provided him with greater freedom, largely free of commercial consderations, to perfect his craft. Horace Tapscott passed away in 1999, but leaves a rich legacy of albums that can be investigated on the Nimbus label via the web. This live recording rates among the very best of them.  Tim Stenhouse

Portugese Fado has a common ancestry with Brazilian samba and Cape Verdean morna and reputedly originates from the rituals of the Bantou slaves from Angola and the Congo who were then shipped to Brazil. Many have argued that fado is the Portugese take on the blues and it is difficult not to concur with this view when listening to this compilation of some of the finest interpreters of the genre. The current star of fado is unquestionably Mariza and the gorgeous delivery on ‘Meu fado meu’ simply confirms why she has become one of the main practitioners of world music. During the 1990s the crown of fado queen was worn by Cristina Branco and the clarity of her voice is angelic on the midetempo ‘Sete pedacos de vento’. In some ways she is the Portugese answer to Brazil’s Gal Costa, though in a very different musical environment. However, going back in time the all-time great high priestess of fado was Amalia Rodrigues and she opens proceedings with a passionate rendition of ‘Alfama’ from the latter stage of her career. Her male equivalent is Carlos de Crmo and he contributes an uptempo fado on the appropriately title ‘Fado maestro’. Further back still is some pared down old school fado from 1961 courtesy of Alfredo Marceniero and ‘Mocita dos cardeois’. of the new discoveries it is the women that shine brightest with the lovely voice of Ana Moura and the especially strong sounding Deolinda Maria. Ideally one would have liked to hear more than one example of several of the singers mentioned and at fifty-seven minutes the compilation could have added extra songs. Given the lack of knowledge of fado in this country, liner notes in English as well as Portugese would have enhanced the listeners understanding. Otherwise the sound quality throughout is crystal clear in spite of the difference in time-scale between recordings.  Tim Stenhouse

Following on from the ‘Cafe de los Maestros’ project of a year or so ago comes another compilation of classic tango again accompanied by a film documentary (available separately).In this instance it was inspired by young Argentine German Kral studying at film school in Munich and making regular return visits to his home city of Buenos Aires. For the non-specialist tango has recently undergone a major retrospective (indeed in the last year original masters have been found of classic tango recordings and these are finally finding their way onto CD/download - formerly they were from poorly sourced vinyl) and many of the artists of the 1950s and 1960s from the bar El Chino in the capital have returned to recording alongside a new generation of young Argentines who have started to play the instrumentation of tango. This is the case of Orquesta Tipica Imperial and it is they who provide the musical backdrop to more of the older stars singing on this compilation.  The repertoire here is eclectic and reflects both the traditional and modern side of tango. Of immediate interest is ‘Volver’, which appeared as a flamenco title track to Pedro Alomdovar’s last but one film, but here is in its authentic tango version, the passionate and dramatic instrumental ‘Verano porteno’ (’A Buenos Aires summer’) and the wonderful voice of Omar Garre on ‘Soledad’. Perhaps most impressive of all is the homage to the native city of Buenos Aires by Cristina de los Angeles on ‘Mi ciudad y mi gente’ with its spoken introduction. An atmospheric stroll, then, through some of the classic repertoire that tango has to offer. Hopefully the film will be released over here to accompany the CD. Tim Stenhouse

Carrying on the Blue Note label’s tradition of promoting historically great and new upcoming pianists, Robert Glasper returns with a new album after the critically acclaimed predecessor ‘In my element’ of two years ago. The new venture is essentially divided into two parts: an acoustic trio and a larger 1970s style electric keyboards ensemble. The former is the instrumentation on which he truly excels with the self-composed ‘59 south’ where the influence of Herbie Hancock from his 1960s period is all too apparent on this reflective trio piece. Equally as impressive is an updated version of the Monk standard ‘Think of One’ . This piece changes from a rapid opening tempo to a more contemplative one before setting off in yet another direction. Blue inflections are in evidence on the Mehldau influenced ‘Yes I’m county (and that’s ok)’. On the lyrical and meditative ‘No worries’ the drums play hip-hop style beats over some lovely improvising from Glasper. Of the fusion efforts ‘For you’ is a beat ballad that uses vocoder vocals in a similar fashion to Herbie Hancock’s ‘I thought it was you’ (and Glasper surely had this period in mind) while another ballad ‘Festival’ features the saxophone playing of Casey Benjamin. It has to be said that the vocals on ‘All matter’ are somewhat unexceptional and could have been dispensed with. That minor gripe aside, this is otherwise an exemplary album that highlights diverse facets of Robert Glasper’s craft and one that manages to pay homage to Bud Powell, Herbie Hancock and Gene Harris in the same breath. Alfred Lion would have approved. Tim Stenhouse

Following up the the critically acclaimed ‘Segu Blue’, which even featured in the Guardian’s ‘A thousand albums to hear before you die’ series, was always going to be a tall order, but Bassekou Kouyate has come up with a winner of an album in ‘I speak Fula’. Malian Instrumentalist Kouyate revolutionised the use of the traditional ngoni instrument by inventing a new protoype that incorporated additional strings and added new depth to the existing ngoni. In fact this has encouraged a renewed interest in the instrument among young musicians in Mali. The line up of musicians is almost identical to the first album, but with a few key additions. Vieux Farka Toure makes a couple of guest appearances on electric guitar and Toumani Diabate does likewise on kora while there is a very welcome return for Kasse mady Diabate on vocals, though it is Bassekou’s wife, Amy Sacko who provides the majority of lead vocals. One of the most immediate songs is the highly melodic ‘Jamana be diya’ with its catchy hook riff and its message of uniting people. Vocals here are supplied by Kassa Mady Diabate. Another album highlight is the incessant groove of ‘Torin Torin’ which is taken at a leisurely tempo, enabling the listener to appreciate the solos on kamele ngoni by Harouna Samake. In contrast the uptempo ‘Musow’ catches the ear and is a song thanking women for their contribution to society. Collective a cappella vocals greet the intro to ‘Bambugu blues’ with Vieux Farka Toure featured on electric guitar. His father would have been proud of both the composition and his son’s participation. In general one is always struck by how the lyrics in West African music refer to important everyday events and no more so than on a song such as ‘Saro’, devoted to the younger brother of Bassekou who tragically died in a motorcycle accident. There is real depth and texture to the multi-layered instrumentation and the musicianship on the combined ngonis is truly wonderous. Matters are finished off by a lilting combinatino of kora and ngoni on ‘Tineni’ and the simple yet devastatingly effective riff and collective vocals of ‘Falani’. Once again the crack production team of World Circuit engineer Jerry Boys is brought on board with the expert sleeve notes and overall control of Lucy Duran. Mention must also be made of the fabulous photography of Thomas Dorn which is almost worth purchasing the CD for in itself, so vibrant are the colours on the images portrayed of Bamako. Thankfully the UK will have the opportunity to catch Boussekou Kouyate and band in concert as part of an extensive tour starting in late October. Make sure you secure a place. It promises to be the hottest African live act of the year. Tim Stenhouse

Singer-songwriter and Radio 3 jazz presenter Claire Martin has managed to combine her separate though interrelated professions with great aplomb, but with ‘A Modern Art’ has come up with arguably her most contemporary sounding and accomplished recording thus far. Perhaps it is the recent residency in New York that has done her a power of good and on this album Martin has very successfully provided a modern twist to the vocal repertoire. This includes the Steely Dan pairing, Michael Franks and even a vocal take on an instrumental piece from the late Esbjorn Svensson. She is to be commended for going beyond the standard jazz repertoire and find other songs that can be just as well interpreted, but relate specifically to contemporary society. Taking a leaf out of the school of jazz irony personified by Mose Allison and Patricia Barber, ‘So twentieth century’ is a nice swinging original piece while the band really stretch out on ‘Love of another’ that introduces the talented songwriting of Rebekka Bakken with fine piano and ensemble accompaniment.
A light latin breeze is one way to describe Martin’s take on Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s ‘Things I miss the most’ and Gareth Williams plays a lovely solo here. What impresses in general is the desire to take chances (something Claire Martin alludes to in her sleeve notes) and explore new territory in the choice of song as in adding lyrics to the Joshua Redman instrumental ‘Lowercase’ which is an uptempo number with saxophone, or in the beautiful ballad rendition of ‘Love is real’ in homage to Esbjorn Svensson. The album is extremely varied in tempo and context, the title track providing a big band ambience while Michael Franks’ ‘Sunday morning here with you’ is delivered in the most intimate of settings with trio and guitar. Proceedings end with an even sparser format of guitar, bass and vocals on ‘Nirvana’ . Claire Martin seems to have reached her own nirvana on this album and ‘A Modern Art’ seems set to be her most successful to date. Tim Stenhouse

This is an extended version of an album that came out in the summer of 2008. Subtle changes have been made to the key tracks with DJ Nicola Conte reworking the excellent ‘Brisa mar’. This now has a lovely cavaquinho intro and a beautiful flute solo as well as a separate instrumental version. The title track receives similar treatment and features a bossa intro that transforms into an uptempo swinging number with understated piano. This has classic written all over it.. The jazz samba niche is definitely one that Sabrina Malheiros should stick with and suits her vocals perfectly. The unissued ‘Ginga de amor’ is the big surprise and wonders why this superlative samba-funk composition was ever left off the original album. Here acoustic piano and brass stand out. Clubland will appreciate the rework of ‘Paradiso’. Only the radical IG Culture rework of ‘Eira nem beiro’ sounds out of place and is virtually unrecognisable from the superior and rootsier original with its folk feel. Overall a revamped version to the original album that definitely improves upon the first attempt and a well rounded album. Tim Stenhouse

Here is a gem of a rarity. A single copy of this album recently surfaced and it is a precious document of a young King Tubby perfecting his craft as a pioneering technician of the art of dub. Clancy Eccles is a somewhat unusual candidate for the dub treatment. His music belongs to an earlier era of ska and rock steady. Moreover in the majority of cases here, the Dynamites instrumental rhythms are not the obvious ones with the exception of Lord Creator’s ‘Kingston town’, King Stitt and Andy Capp’s ‘Herbman’ and the classic instrumental ‘Red moon’. However, it was the genius of King Tubby to take the less obvious and transform it into something special and the choppy guitar beats allied to the earliest and sparsest of dub technique makes a potent combination that really comes off here. This is no better illustrated than on ‘Joe’ where hammond organ and dub meet in musical heaven. The familiar Lord Creator song turns into ‘Kingston dub town’ and the piano and vocal dubs breathe new life into the tune with Tubby’s signature echoing out emerging. Minimal changes are made to King Stitt’s ‘King of kings’ and the dialogue between King Stitt and Eccles is retained on ‘Dance beat’ whereas ‘Red moon’ has the horn sound dubbed over a gorgeous organ solo. For this release five additional dubs complement the ten original outings on the vinyl original. Extensive sleeve notes are provided to explain the whole dub and DJ phenomenon. Tim Stenhouse

First aired as part of the 2006 Chicago Jazz festival, this new project celebrates the seminal duet recording that John Coltrane and his classic quartet made with crooner Johnny Hartman for Impulse in 1963. The result was one of the most endearing and melodic of albums in the Coltrane repertoire, and one that rivals the pairing of Bill Evans and Tony Bennett over a decade later. For this new recording the regular Kurt Elling trio featuring pianist/arranger and long-time associate Laurence Hobgood is augmented by a string quartet and the considerable talents of saxophonist Ernie Watts who was an integral member of Charlie Haden’s Quartet West.
The live context of the Lincoln Centre in New York provides the perfect backdrop to proceedings and the evening is neatly divided up into extended medleys. This writer was a little sceptcial about the inclusion of strings, but they are far from obtrusive and indeed provide real depth to the trio sound. The two combine wonderfully well on ‘Dedicated to you’ with Hobgood demonstrating yet again what a marvellous accompanist he is. Elling is a a consumate live performer and his spoken introduction to ‘It’s easy to remember’ entitled ‘A poetic jazz memory’ gives the audience and listener a real flavour of the historical importance of the original album.  Possibly the combined instrumentation impresses most of all on the mid-tempo ‘Autumn serenade’ where the lilting melody leaves one wanting more. An impeccable rendition of ‘Lush life’ begins as a pared down duet between vocalist and piano before the trio and strings join in. Ernie Watts has the unenviable role of playing the part of Coltrane, but is far from daunted by the immense legacy and performs concise and fiery solos including the all instrumental ‘What’s new’. It was a brave decision to revisit such a classic album and a risk that has definitely paid handsome dividends as a result.. Elling is ideally suited to this kind of project and it is to be hoped that he will be allowed to devote another to one of his heroes, Lord Buckley, at some stage.  Tim Stenhouse

Now sporting a brand new line up that sounds both fresh and cohesive, Clark Tracey returns with an excellent set of compositions that steers a judicious course between classic hard bop and post-bop territory and is far from derivative. In particular the inclusion of vibraphonist Lewis Wright adds a new dimension to the ensemble. The Cedar Walton piece ‘Bolivia’ is an ideal vehicle for the sextet which sounds like Bobby Hutcherson circa 1965 on Blue Note. Altoist Piers Green impresses with a restrained yet soulful solo. A Jazz Messengers staple ‘One by One’ from the pen of Wayne Shorter receives a light Latin vamp intro on piano from Kit Downes before various band members engage in solos. Most impressive of all the covers is a reworking of Monk’s ‘Bemsha Swing’ taken at a slightly slower pace than per usual and where the use of space both from vibes and bass solos offer a wholly different version from the original. However, this is by no means a covers only album, with four out of the seven lengthy pieces being originals, and various band members including the leader contribute some excellent compositions. Pianist Kit Downes offers the reflective ballad ‘Export’ with trumpet and vibes solos. New directions are hinted at on ‘Devil’s chair’, a reworking of a Clark Tracey original first heard on a previous album from the 1980s. The piece begins conventionally enough, but a third way through becomes somewhat freer in format and it is in this context that Wright on vibes plays a pivotal role before Tracey leads the sextet back into the theme. Overall this new sextet appears to have a whole variety of musical options at its disposal and it will it be fascinating to see in which of these directions they will head over subsequent albums and live settings.  Tim Stenhouse

Jazz vocalists are appearing in unusual guises at present. Barbara Streisand has just released a jazz album and is about to engage in a week long residency at the Village Vanguard (she actually opened for Miles Davis when starting out in the 1960s). If Wille Nelson seems an unlikely candidate for jazz singer, this is by no means the first time that he has attempted the standard repertoire. Some thirty years ago Nelson recorded ‘Stardust’ which sits proudly among his finest recordings. For this new CD he has enlisted the production talents of Tommy LiPuma (Geroge Benson, Diana Krall) and a stellar listing of the top sessions musicians under the tutelage of one Joe Sample who also plays piano on the majority of the album. While Nelson is not making any claims to rival Jon Hendricks or Eddie Jefferson in the male jazz vocal pantheon, he does concentrate what he is partcularly good at, namely interpreting the great American songbook. In this respect he is very much in the lineage of the classic crooners such as Johnny Hartman and even as great a country singer as Patsy Cline possessed the bluesiest of voices. Nelson impresses on the mid-tempo ‘On the streeet where you live’ with lovely guitar and piano licks and on ‘Since I fell for you’ with accompanying harmonica. Perhaps the biggest surprise is how well the duet with Norah Jones works on ‘Baby, it’s cold outside’. This is truly an inspirational combination with the contrast in their voices lending an instant chemistry to the verbal jousting. It could just be a hit if released as a single. The duet with Diana Krall on ‘If I had you’ features some bluesy piano inflectins and Nelson is clearly at ease in this idiom. Throughout the album the hammond organ accompaniment and solos of Jim Cox create a relaxed atmosphere as on Fats Waller’s ‘Ain’t misbehavin’. If last year’s collaboration live recording with Wynton Marsalis raised a few eyebrows, then ‘American classic’ should merely confirm that like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson is fully capable of gonig outside his normal musical territory and still remain a masterful exponent of Americana in its myriad forms.  Tim Stenhouse