Edition Schallplatten & CDs

Review: 20 years in and The Bad Plus sound as vibrant as when they started out. This latest set comes on Edition Records, and marks the second release since pianist Orrin Evans joined the group last year. As accomplished players in their own right, this particular album finds the new line-up gelling more cohesive and exploring new territory, with scintillating results. Evans in particular shines on "Thrift Store Jewelry", nimbly darting up and down the scales while Dave King's playfully quivering rhythms respond in kind. That's but one small example of the thrills to be elicited from taking a trip with one of New York's most on point outfits.

Review: SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree is a much-anticipated follow-up to Kurt Elling and Charlie Hunter's last album which was no less than 2021's eponymous and Grammy-nominated album. Once again this pair are blazing new trails and blending new genres across kaleidoscopic collection of new songs. They have reunited for it with Corey Fonville and DJ Harrison and along the way, there are some cheeky and pleasantly surprising covers as well as some smart and dynamic reinventions. A timeless jazz record if ever there was one.

Review: Composer and conductor Miho Hazama celebrates ten years of her respected M Unit project with an all new album performed by it. Beyond Orbits is a vibrant work that is also a fine testament to her endless creativity within the world of jazz. In the last decade she has played all over the world but the album was written in the confines of her flat during the pandemic in New York. But you wouldn't know it because like Afro-Futurists before her she looked outwards to the stars for inspiration. Effectually the album pays homage to the captivating wonders of the exoplanetary realm in majestic fashion.

Review: It would be fair to say that Dave Holland, Zakir Hussain and Chris Potter are not your average jazz trio. For starters, we can't think of many other trios comprised of a double bassist, a tabla player and a saxophonist. It's a musical line-up that guarantees intriguing, intoxicating and exotic music, as "Good Hope" emphatically proves. There's something genuinely alluring about the trio's combination of intricate table rhythms, inventive and off-kilter double bass lines, and sax solos that wind their way around both like a fell runner zig-zagging his or her way up a windswept mountainside. It's jazz, Jim, but not as we know it.

Review: British saxophonist and composer Mark Lockheart is a living legend who for this project has joined forces with some equally fine talents. They are Elliot Galvin, Tom Herbert and Dave Smith and together they cook up some unexpected and direct sounds that are both freeform and psychedelic yet never pretentious. Lockheart has said of the album that, "the grooves, the sonics and the musical character of each piece are all hugely important". Simple but effective tunes result with influences as broad as John Zorn, Burt Bacharach, Ellington and Kraftwerk all to be detected upon close inspection.

Review: Edition Records welcomes back Rob Luft for a third album on the label in the form of 'Dahab Days'. The acclaimed British guitarist builds on his signature sound here with fresh and lyrical new styles with long-time collaborators Alice Zawadzki, Byron Wallen and Steve Buckley. The more expansive sound of this album is no doubt a result of the addition of a string quartet, while Luft's own uplifting improvisations also shine bright as they evolve in hypnotic and contemporary ways. This is an immersive album from a contemporary jazz great.

Review: Some two years on from the release of his latest must-have album on ECM, "The Dreamer Is The Dream", long-serving saxophonist and clarinetist Chris Potter delivers a cracking new double-album. Potter's two instruments of choice are prominent throughout on a set that never settles on one particular style or sub-genre. Alongside keyboardist James Francies, drummer Eric Harland and bassist Linley Marthe, the improvisation-loving musican giddily flits between jazz-funk, more traditional-sounding jazz cuts, left-of-centre nu-jazz workouts, jazz dance slammers and cuts whose use of electronic hardware and sounds defy easy categorization. While hard to pigeonhole, the whole album is hugely enjoyable and should appeal to 21st century jazz heads as much as the fare pushed forwards by the likes of [re:jazz] and Brownswood Recordings.

Review: Given the critical and commercial success of Nate Smith's 2017 debut album, the GRAMMY Award-nominated Kinfolk: Postcards From Everywhere, it would be fair to say that this belated sequel is hotly anticipated. Fortunately, it's very good, with the New York drummer drawing inspiration from the music that sound-tracked his teenage years - think neo-soul, hip-hop, jazz-funk and Prince, for starters - while placing it in a contemporary jazz context. The results are uniformly breezy, entertaining and evocative, with highlights including the live rap headiness of 'Band Room Freestyle', featuring verses from Kokayi, the tactile neo-soul/R&B fusion of 'Don't Let Me Get Away', the high-octane jazz/alt-rock fusion of 'Rambo: The Vigilante' and the laidback vocal jazz bliss of 'Fly (For Mike)', a touching tribute to Smith's late father.

Review: Still Life is the new album by Sachal Vasandani, the acclaimed vocalist, and Romain Collin, a noted pianist. They first linked up back in 2021 for the fine Midnight Shelter album which was emotive and intimate. That one reworked both classic and modern songs with some new moments in between and this one again reworks some classics by the likes of Billie Eilish, Paul Simon, Sam Smith, Peter Gabriel and others. It makes for something again lyrically powerful with beautifully emotive tunes and real honesty at their core. These personal reworks are things of real joy.