Jazz Recommends Jazz June 2020

Review: With no less than nine releases on the label to their name already, Black Cash & Theo AKA Thelonious Beats are Galaxy Sound Co's most experienced editors. Here they deliver another fantastic "45" packed with righteous grooves and life-affirming jazz moves. It's the latter that comes to the fore on side A's "Flute Thing", a sweet and seductive drift through picturesque jazz territory with some additional loose-limbed drum solos edited in halfway through. "Do What You Gotta Do" on the other hand is a simmering, string-laden soul treat rich in killer instrumentation, sumptuous orchestration, chunky grooves and hazy vocals. It's a fine edit of a superb cut and easily the record's standout cut.

Review: Since emerging at the dawn of the century, Vienna-raised saxophonist and singer Muriel Grossmann has released a dozen albums that fuse her European jazz heritage with everything from modernism and free-jazz, to Afro-jazz and classic spiritualism. "Elevation", a vinyl-only release, sees her debut on Jazzman with a bold and vibrant set that flits between wild, free-jazz-meets-spiritual jazz epics ("Elevation"), more considered spiritual workouts (the Ornette Coleman-ish "Rising"), double bass-heavy soundscape jazz (the foreboding but brilliant "Chant"), bouts of laidback, sun-kissed positivity ("Your Pace") and emotion-rich languid jazz bliss (closing cut "Peace For All", where Grossmann is in particularly fine form).

Review: Hungarian jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo released some mighty fine music during his lifetime, including a string of brilliant albums on Impulse in the mid 1960s. By 1968 he'd left the legendary jazz imprint, but the quality of his releases just kept improving - as this reissue of key album "Dreams" proves. Naturally his fluid, partially improvised, often bluesy electric and acoustic guitar solos feature prominently throughout, bobbing and weaving around atmospheric backing tracks that variously mix and match elements of jazz, folk, South American rhythms, folk-rock, flamenco and gypsy-jazz. It's a brilliant, often awe-inspiring musical blend.

Review: On this must-check set, Bassist Wojtek Mazolewski and his quintet pay tribute to one of the titans of Polish jazz, the late, great composer Krzysztof Komeda. The pianist passed away in 1969, leaving behind a string of highly influential albums - his work in part persuaded Americans to take European jazz seriously - and a string of inspired soundtrack scores. On "When Angels Fall", Mazolewski and his musical collaborators take us on a whirlwind tour through Komeda's catalogue of compositions, offering up brilliantly performed and produced covers that brilliantly showcase the depth and variety of the great man's work.

Review: Since emerging at the dawn of the century, Vienna-raised saxophonist and singer Muriel Grossmann has released a dozen albums that fuse her European jazz heritage with everything from modernism and free-jazz, to Afro-jazz and classic spiritualism. "Elevation", a vinyl-only release, sees her debut on Jazzman with a bold and vibrant set that flits between wild, free-jazz-meets-spiritual jazz epics ("Elevation"), more considered spiritual workouts (the Ornette Coleman-ish "Rising"), double bass-heavy soundscape jazz (the foreboding but brilliant "Chant"), bouts of laidback, sun-kissed positivity ("Your Pace") and emotion-rich languid jazz bliss (closing cut "Peace For All", where Grossmann is in particularly fine form).

Review: American vocalist Robin McKelle has decided to do things differently on alterations, eschewing her usual material in favour of a set of classic-sounding jazz covers of well-known songs originally recorded by female artists. Backed by what sounds like a quartet or quintet (bass, drums, piano, guitar, sax), McKelle delivers often quite revolutionary revisions of such much-loved cuts as Sade's "No Ordinary Love", Adele's "Back To Black", Nina Simone's "Don't Explain" and, perhaps most surprisingly, Dolly Parton's "Jolene". The latter sees McKelle at her expressive, soulful best over a backing track that cleverly turns the country classic into a loose-limbed jazz-funk workout.