Reviews of the Week

The new album After The Last Sky by Anouar Brahem with Anja Lechner, Django Bates and Dave Holland is reviewed in a leading German daily paper

Im musikalischen Duktus an das vor acht Jahren erschienene ‘Blue Maquams’ mit dem Pianisten Django Bates und dem Bassisten Dave Holland anknüpfend – freilich ohne den Schlagzeuger Jack DeJohnette, dafür mit der feinfühligen Cellistin Anja Lechner – , ist es eine jener betörenden orientalisch-okzidentalen Mischformen Brahems geworden, die, um einen Essay von Adam Shatz bereichert, noch wehmütiger stimmt als frühere Einspielungen.

Wolfgang Sandner, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

A US jazz magazine on the album Defiant Life by Vijay Iyer with Wadada Leo Smith

Pianist Vijay Iyer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s sophomore album as a duo, ‘Defiant Life’, artfully explores themes of grief, hope and resilience. The legendary pair’s shared language of angular lines and deliberate pacing provides the perfect vessel to reflect on the current moment of political upheaval and strife across the globe. There’s a spiritual resonance to the opening track, ‘Prelude: Survival’, with Smith’s yearning trumpet call in dialogue with Iyer’s dark, brooding piano chords. Named after the Palestinian concept of steadfast resilience, ‘Sumud’ layers in ethereal electronic waves that expand  Smith’s languorous blustery trumpet notes into something vast and powerful. […] The album concludes with the achingly poignant ‘Procession: Defiant Life’, a spacious meditation where silence itself feels unyielding, each quiet pause a refusal to surrender. It is a fitting conclusion to a work that grieves deeply yet steadfastly envisions the possibility of a more peaceful future for all.

Ivana Ng, Downbeat

The new album Homage by Joe Lovano with the Marcin Wasilewski Trio enchants a German radio reviewer

So wie Joe Lovano in seiner langen Karriere gelernt hat, den großen, amerikanischen Jazzmusikern zuzuhören und wie sie Stücke immer wieder neu zu erfinden, so lässt auch er seinen Mitspielern alle Freiheiten, eigene Ideen zu entwickeln. Das Album zeigt, dass sich Joe Lovano und das Wasilewski Trio bestens verstehen. Sie verzaubern uns mit grandiosem, beschwingtem Jazz. Man könnte ihnen ewig zuhören.

Johannes Kaiser, Südwestrundfunk

A US reaction to the album Watersong by Savina Yannatou and Primavera en Solonico with Lamia Bedoui

‘Watersong’ is the fifth album on ECM for the extraordinary Greek world-music and free-jazz singer Savina Yannatou and Primavera en Salonico, her splendid Athens-based ensemble: Kostas Vomvolos on qanun and accordion, Harris Lambrakis on nay, Kyriakos Gouventas on violin, Yannis Alexandris on oud, Michalis Siganidis on double bass and Dine Doneff on percussion. The album also features the noteworthy Tunisian singer Lamia Bedioui, with whom they have collaborated on many occasions. […] Each selection on the album offers a distinct musical world, with liner notes providing evocative lyric snippets to spark the imagination. The program begins with Vomvolos’ quietly beautiful arrangement of ‘The Song of Klidonas,’ a simple ‘silent water’ evocation of St. John, which stems from an ancient summer solstice ritual. […] Bedioui is particularly strong on ‘Mawal (To the Mourning Dove, I Said),’ a 10th-century poem set by celebrated 20th-century Iraqi singer Nazem al-Ghazali. Primavera en Salonico’s arrangement is characteristically eerie and otherworldly. She reads the poem at the outset, speaking over Doneff’s ominous percussive rumblings. Yannatou enters quietly, improvising beneath, behaving like a barely intelligible interior voice, a murmuring undercurrent. […] The sonic realms she and her collaborators lead us into on ‘Watersong’ are enchanting, mysterious, sometimes dark and always unforgettable.

Katchie Cartwright, All About Jazz

The new album Arcanum by Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari garners acclaim in German and UK media

Das erste Stück, ‘Nokitpyrt’, beginnt mit einem freisinnig und zweistimmig gespielten, melodischen Thema, Trompete und Tenorsaxofon laufen lässig, hingebungsvoll und nicht völlig synchron (im Vordergrund) nebeneinander her, und schon kann man sich finden und verlieren in einer weiten Klanglandschaft voller mehrdeutiger Linien und Konturen. Kunstvoll tragen Bass und Schlagwerk die Weiträumigkeit mit. […] Seim und Henriksen haben an spieltechnischen und klanglichen Erweiterungen ihrer Instumente gearbeitet. Henriksen verwendet unterschiedliche Mundstücke, glissandiert zuweilen mit halb gedrückten Ventilen und erzeugt allerlei Klänge, die man einer Trompete nicht unbedingt zutrauen würde. Seim schafft auf dem Tenorsaxofon sanfte Mehrklänge, erstaunliche Klangvariationen und ebenfalls glissandierende Tongebilde. So hat man es hier mit zwei mehrdimensionalen Melodieinstrumenten zu tun, die oft an exotische Blasinstrumente eher östlicher Herkunft erinnern. Der musikalische Kosmos, in dem sich das alles abspielt, ist der einer tonal frei angelegten, ganz und gar zeitgenössischen improvisierten Musik und zugleich einer irgendwie folkloristischen Grundlegung mit filigranen Strukturen und vierfach feinsinnigen Klangebenen. Wie man das alles auf einem Album zusammenbringt? Ein Geheimnis.

Hans-Jürgen Linke, Frankfurter Rundschau

Already hailed as a ‘Nordic supergroup’ in some quarters, the designation hardly conveys the thoughtful, reflective quality of the improvising and the sensitivity of the interaction here, whether playing music composed in real time or taking ideas spontaneously into new horizons. The roots of Arcanum’s approach to making music appear to be multi-faceted. Blending composition with improvisation, there is a searching quality to the music that brings the best out of all four performers. Space and texture are key ingredients, with the quartet feeling their way, delicately, yet also with a freedom of expression that borders on the experimental at times. Refreshingly open and collaborative, ‘Arcanum’ offers a deep and immersive soundscape for the listener to discover.

Mike Gates, UK Vibe

UK and German reactions to the new recording of Alexander Knaifel’s Chapter Eight

Although ‘Canticum Canticorum’ is unique through its emphasis on human love, little, if anything, is evident here – Knaifel rather favouring a meditative  and distanced approach notable less for any evolution than a continually shifting density of texture sustained over 32 continuous sections; the 14 verses being freely reordered or condensed to result in a formal and expressive ‘development’ that is subliminal at most.  […] This recording with Patrick Demenga has the advantage of being recorded in an acoustic, of Lucerne’s Jesuit Church, wholly appropriate to the music. […] A pity it took 16 years for release, but Knaifel was present at this performance and was doubtless pleased.

Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone

‘In hallreicher Kirchenakustik’ soll diese geheimnisvolle Komposition aufgeführt werden, denn die subtile Verschmelzung der Pianissimo-Klänge ist von zentraler Bedeutung für dieses Werk ‘ohne Handlung oder Drama’, wie Knaifel es beschrieb. Auf dem bei ECM in München erschienenen Album wurde dies eingelöst, die Einspielung fand in der barocken Luzerner Jesuitenkirche statt, bekannt für ihre außergewöhnlichen akustischen Eigenschaften. Einfühlsame Interpreten dieses über einstündigen herausfordernden Werks sind der Cellist Patrick Demenga, der Lettische Staatschor, der Knabenchor der Kathedrale Riga und der Jugendchor Kamer aus Riga unter der Leitung des estnischen Dirigenten Andres Mustonen. Sie beeindrucken mit kristallklaren Klängen, die in Zeitlupe changieren.

Susanne Schmerda, Bayerischer Rundfunk

The vinyl-reissue of Bennie Maupin’s The Jewel in the Lotus within the Luminessence-series thrills a UK reviewer

There are certain albums that, from the very first note, seem to defy time and genre – records that invite you into a sacred, contemplative space. Bennie Maupin’s ‘The Jewel in the Lotus’ is undoubtedly one such recording. Released on ECM in 1974, this album is a quiet storm of spiritual resonance, impressionistic texture, and understated brilliance. It’s no exaggeration to say that this is one of the most beautiful and meditative works that I have ever had the pleasure of listening to, and its power has only grown more luminous with age. Maupin, perhaps best known for his contributions to Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi and Headhunters ensembles, steps into a bandleader role here with an astonishing level of grace and vision. Surrounding himself with kindred spirits – Herbie Hancock, Buster Williams, Billy Hart, Charles Sullivan, Freddie Waits, and Bill Summers – he crafts a work of profound subtlety and depth. The result is a spiritual jazz masterwork that eschews fireworks for flow, ego for ensemble, and showcases a deep reverence for silence and sound in equal measure. […] The sound quality on this Luminessence reissue is absolutely stunning. It truly enhances the listener’s pleasure. With its high quality tip-on gatefold sleeve and new insightful liner notes by Friedrich Kunzmann, the whole package is a joy to behold. ‘The Jewel In The Lotus’ remains a glowing ember in the ECM catalogue – mysterious, transcendent, and totally unique. A sonic prayer that lingers long after the last note fades. Essential listening and must-have reissue.

Mike Gates, UK Vibe

The album Just by Billy Hart with Ethan Iverson, Mark Turner and Ben Street impresses a Swiss reviewer

Hart ist ein Meister des subtilen Spiels, einzigartig, wie er die Toms förmlich streicheln kann und mit innovativem Drumming einen sicheren Grund legt, über den seine Mitmusiker ideenreich und stilsicher improvisieren können. Solistisch herausragend ist Saxophonist Mark Turner, überraschend auch Iversons flinkes und stellenweise frenetisches Pianospiel.

Richard Butz, Jazz’n’more

UK and US reactions to the album Preludes and Songs by François Couturier and Dominique Pifarély

It has been nearly three decades since the last ECM collaboration – 1997’s ‘Poros’ – from French jazz violinist Dominique Pifarély and jazz pianist François Couturier. But even describing the duo in those terms does them a disservice: both have been immersed in classical music and more contemporary, genre-straddling work alongside jazz, and influences from all those backgrounds are evident in their uncompromising, sometimes gnarly, but ultimately very moving ‘Preludes and Songs’. Its sources are a mix of jazz standards and music by the two men themselves. Couturier’s opening ‘Le surcroît I’, for example, is angular and gnomic enough to sound like Schoenberg or Webern, though it’s played with enormous sensitivity: Pifarély, in particular, offers immensely sensitive contributions, conveying worlds of expression with the tiniest fluctuations in tone or dynamic.

David Kettle, The Strad

The only previous duo recording by François Couturier and Dominique Pifarély is ‘Poros’, from 1997. The intervening 28 years have seen a jazz violin renaissance; Pifarély has been an important contributor. Both musicians are associated with the European avant-garde, but even their boldest experiments sound disciplined and cultivated. They’re grounded in  classical and new-music idioms as well as jazz, and their musical erudition is deep. Their joint venture is based on close, intuitive listening to each other and a shared interest in celebrating their instruments’ rich, disparate sonorities. […] The players rarely occupy roles of soloist and accompanist. Instead, they juxtapose their spontaneous inventions and produce a third creation that transcends the individual parts. For ‘Preludes and Songs’, these two hardcore improvisers made an unexpected decision: they selected several standards, including ‘Solitude’, one of Duke Ellington’s tenderest melodies. The 1934 song is given  jagged edges by Pifarèly’s fiercely sawing violin and becomes, newly, strangely poignant. Manning Sherwin’s ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’ is reimagined into something  dark and solemn. ‘I Loves You, Porgy’ is stunning in its passion. There are thousands of versions of Gershwin’s timeless song; this one, clearly motivated by love, is among the permanent ones.

Thomas Conrad, Stereophile (Five stars)