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Reviewed: Threeway | Vivian Buczek | Charles Mingus | Anat Cohen

Threeway: Harken! (Jazz Cat JCCD 120) | Vivian Buczek: Le Grand Michel (Prophone PCD363) | Charles Mingus In Session: Mingus Fingers (Jasmine CD2840) | Anat Cohen Quartetinho: Bloom (Anzic Records ANZ 0092-02)

Threeway: Harken! (Jazz Cat JCCD 120)

Harken! is the fourth album from Threeway, the drumless jazz trio comprising Steve Waterman (t, flh), Steve Lodder (p, org) and leader Ben Crosland (elb). It follows Conversations (2005), Songs Of The Year (2009) and Looking Forward, Looking Back (2013). The release, recorded in December 2023, marks the 20th anniversary of the trio’s formation. It features John Etheridge, guest guitarist and longtime friend of the band, who plays on six of the 12 tracks.

The album’s title stems from the values of Humility, Ambition, Resilience and Kindness (acronym Hark) promoted by Crosland’s old school, Sedborough, in the Yorkshire Dales. His alma mater is approaching its 500th birthday and by way of marking this milestone, it’s invited Crosland to reflect these principles in music. In response, the bassist has composed The Hark Suite as a four-part central piece to his new recording.

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Three other tunes are written by him – two in tribute to his cats Billie and Lester and one dedicated to his former music teacher. Waterman has contributed Welshcake and Lonely Streets, Lodder Lazy Susan and Etheridge AB4BC which stands for Altered Blues for Ben Crosland. There’s also a Crosland arrangement of Joni Mitchell’s Black Crow which has been part of the trio’s live repertoire for several years.

Interplay between the artists is intricate yet relaxed throughout the album. The music is strongly melodic with a touch of wistfulness, due in large part to the flugelhorn’s tone. For a sample of the album, check out Humility from The Hark Suite here. Full track list is available here.

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Vivian Buczek: Le Grand Michel (Prophone PCD363)

Jazz singer Vivian Buczek was raised in Sweden by Polish-French parents. She’s been making records for almost 20 years and has performed with Clark Terry, Harry Allen and Scott Hamilton among others.

Her new album celebrates French Oscar-winning composer, arranger and pianist Michel Legrand (1932–2019). He wrote over 200 film and television scores and collaborated with the likes of Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis and Phil Woods.

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Buczek is backed by Martin Sjöstedt (p, org), Jesper Bodilsen (b) and Zoltan Csörsz (d) with guests Peter Asplund (t, flh)) and Mathias Heise (hca). Le Grand Michel refreshes 10 of Legrand’s best-known songs including Windmills Of Your Mind, You Must Believe in Spring, I Will Wait for You and What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life? The title track, the only one not by Legrand, is written by Asplund in tribute to him.

Buczek’s pianist, Sjöstedt, has arranged all the numbers and singer and band deliver these in a contemporary manner. In Buczec’s own words, the “music in combination with beautiful lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman stand for what I want to convey to my audience: romance, dynamism, melancholy but also blues and swing”. Full track list and further details are available here.

Charles Mingus In Session: Mingus Fingers (Jasmine CD2840)

This compilation of 26 tracks is culled from various studio recording sessions (mostly in Los Angeles and New York) spanning the years 1945 to 1962. They overwhelmingly feature Charles Mingus performing as sideman for other musicians with a couple under his own name. His first outing on record, aged 23, opens the album, with Russell Jacquet’s orchestra on Penny’s Worth Of Boogie. It concludes 17 years later with the Latin-tinged A Little Max from the trio album, Money Jungle with Duke Ellington and Max Roach.

En route we hear the likes of Ernie Andrews with the Wilbert Baranco Trio in Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying, Marion Abernathy singing Baggin The Boogie with Bob Mosley & His All Stars, Oscar Pettiford Quartet playing I’m Beginning To See the Light, Charlie Parker Quartet doing In The Still Of The Night and Quincy Jones and orchestra with A Sleeping Bee. Other artists include Dinah Washington with Lucky Thompson’s All Stars, Howard McGhee, The Jacque Rabbits, J.J. Johnson & Kai Winding and The Red Norvo Trio with Tal Farlow on guitar.

Incidentally, the title track, Mingus Fingers, written by Mingus and heard here with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra, was recorded later as Mingus Fingus No. 2 on his own album, Pre-Bird, and is likely to be the song’s correct name.

The original 78s of many of these tracks are rare and haven’t been reissued until now. Whilst the sound quality of 78s can’t match modern audio advances, this CD from Jasmine Records is good value at 78.39 minutes and worth every penny as a historical document. The full track list is here.

Anat Cohen Quartetinho: Bloom (Anzic Records ANZ 0092-02)

Anat Cohen, one-time tenor saxophonist in the Israeli Air Force band, has been voted top clarinettist in Downbeat’s readers’ and critics’ polls for several years running. She’s been based in New York for the last 25 years and during this time has recorded 11 albums as bandleader of various ensembles and another 11 as co-leader. Bloom is the second album by her quartet, Quartetinho. It follows the band’s self-titled debut release in 2022.

Accompanying Cohen, who plays various clarinets, are Tal Mashiach (g, b), Vitor Gonçalves (p, acc) and James Shipp (vib, mar, pc). Each of them play in her tentet as well. The album consists of compositions contributed by all four members along with a novel interpretation of Monk’s Trinkle, Tinkle and a fresh arrangement of the third movement from Paraguayan guitarist/composer Agustín Barrios’s La Catedral

This first-rate band combines jazz, Latin jazz, Brazilian jazz and Israeli folk music to deliver a set that is consistently melodic and lyrical. For a taste, have a look at the band performing Mashiach’s excellent composition Paco. Bloom’s full track list can be found here.

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