Given my longstanding appreciation of jazz that traverses the genre boundaries, it’s perhaps not surprising that each of the albums I’ve reviewed this month is open to external influences. Enriched but not engulfed by the absorption of other dialects, each to a greater or lesser degree provides testament as to jazz’s extraordinary ability to evolve and renew.
Jessica Ackerley: All Of The Colours Are Singing (AKP Recordings AKP030)
After almost a decade cutting their [sic] teeth in New York’s creative music scene, Canadian-born guitarist and visual artist Jessica Ackerley recently relocated to Hawaii to pursue a PhD. This geographical distance, not to mention the dramatic change of natural environment, appears to have sparked a change of approach, Ackerley’s longstanding parallel interests in jazz, improvisation, contemporary composition and ambient music merging seamlessly within a single flow.
At the core of each piece is a trio with acoustic bassist Walter Stinson and drummer Aaron Edgcomb, recorded in Honolulu in October of 2022. Four of the seven tracks include Ackerley’s string arrangements, recorded separately in New York by violinist Concetta Abatte before being added during the final production stages. The sombre opener leans heavily into classical sonorities, and along with Nature Morte – Time Is Fleeting it is amongst the album’s most reflective moments. The title track is a real thing of beauty, conjuring images of birds of paradise, while Forward Motion Is Never A Straight Line and The Dots Are The Connections are the most conventionally jazz-based pieces, hinting variously at Frisell, Halvorson and Cline. The dramatic noise-rock jolt of the final Conclusion: In Four Micro Parts runs the gamut of Ackerley’s sound world, but even the harshest timbral extremes melt away as the strings assert their presence. Another wonderfully diverse set from West Coast experimental label AKP, and Ackerley’s burgeoning reputation can only continue to grow.
Orson Claeys: Odyssey To Self (Sdban Ultra SDBANU1208)
Amongst the beautiful weirdness of Sdban’s recent Lefto Presents Jazz Cats Vol. 3 a track by the all-acoustic Hancock-inspired trio of 25 year-old Ghent-born pianist Orson Claeys stood out precisely because it was so relatively conventional. He now returns to the label with a new five-track EP by his quintet Eastern Tales in which the evocative oud of Akram Ben Romdhane introduces a strong East-West flavour.
Each composition has been inspired by a significant event in the young pianist’s life, and amongst the standouts are Une Nuit Devant Soi, which shifts from airy impressionism to a fully committed modal excursion from the leader, and the fragile beauty of the melancholic W.A.R. (Where Ancestors Rest), which showcases the burnished lyricism of trumpeter Pierre-Antoine Savoyat. Highly accomplished contemporary jazz that should appeal to fans of Anouar Brahem, Dhafer Youssef and Shai Maestro alike, Odyssey To Self points towards a bright future for Claeys.
Joe Sanders: Parallels (Whirlwind Recordings WR4827)
An openness to different forms of musical expression lies at the very heart of this latest release from bassist Joe Sanders. First-call bassist for some of the biggest names in US jazz, Sanders was active on both East and West coasts before settling in Europe. He is also no slouch when it comes to digital production techniques, and Parallels sets out to fuse the various strands of his career into a single musical discourse.
The first four tracks were recorded live in France in October 2021 and feature a stellar quartet with Seamus Blake, Logan Richardson and Gregory Hutchinson. The open-form and loose grooves of the opening Dualities are straight from the contemporary East Coast milieu, Sanders’ sonorous bass anchoring the ensuing maelstrom. Blake is in typically scintillating form on both the faintly nostalgic Grandma and the Ornette-ish swinger J’ai, while on La Vie Sur La Terre Sanders’ young son Elioté makes a heartwarming appearance on melodica. The remaining pieces are multi-tracked studio creations featuring Sanders on acoustic and electric basses, drums, keyboards and electronics. The spacey post-Headhunters fusion of Aligned and the laid-back lounge jazz of Amalfi (with guest Jure Pukl) are particularly strong, and on the closing D.H., a lush groover dedicated to Derrick Hodge, pianist Taylor Eigsti sprinkles some West Coast magic.
Superposition: Superposition II (We Jazz WJLP72)
Nominally led by drummer Olavi Louhivuori, Finnish quartet Superposition’s remarkable 2020 debut fused the ebullient 60s free jazz of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry with folkish melodicism and the experimental tonalities of the classical avant-garde. The quality of the writing often recalled the great 70s works of Edward Vesala and Tomasz Stańko, and key to the album’s great success was the contrasting and complementary frontline of saxophonists Linda Fredriksson and Adele Sauros.
On this long awaited sequel the writing duties have been shared more evenly around the group, Louhivuori contributing four of the nine pieces. With a more flowingly melodic approach, the group has clearly been busy honing its approach. Bassist Mikael Saastamoinen’s hypnotic ostinato provides the perfect counterpoint for the horns as they lock together on the opening Clouding, weaving delicate lace-like patterns as the theme patiently unfolds. Fredriksson’s warm baritone jukes it out with Sauros on Superseven, and along with Angel Oak it is one of two gloriously spacious free ballads. Bass and drums combine to devastating effect on the elastic groove of To Dream, and on uptempo tracks such as Huia, Elfivk and the simmering KMT emotions threaten to boil over without ever quite going beyond the brink. But if there’s one standout track it surely has to be the closing Uuz Nousee, a hauntingly elegiac chamber jazz piece by Fredriksson with a fragile emotional substructure that the altoist explores to the full.
Sam Norris, The Necks, Devin Gray
Amongst other music I’ve enjoyed this month is Small Things Evolved Slowly, the stunning debut from the quartet of English alto saxophonist Sam Norris, and Bleed, the latest single-track album from The Necks, which is surely one of their most distinctive yet. Devin Gray’s Melt All The Guns II deserves an honourable mention, a slow-burning protest album with Ralph Alessi which is released just ahead of the pending US election.
