Ashley Maher: Tree To Tree
Ashley Maher is an LA-based singer and songwriter much immersed in the music of Senegal, where this album was recorded. Although the prevalent mood here is of LA-type crossover, the local musical style is evident from the first track, where typically West African arpeggiated guitar is heard. Indeed, Maher says that she blends “Senegalese mbalax, folk, jazz, and global grooves”. She was born in Canada, raised in California, and “seasoned in London and Dakar” and says her sound has drawn comparison to Peter Gabriel, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon and Youssou N’Dour. That makes sense. It’s pleasant, if more on the pop than jazz side, with no substantial improvisation, but all very well played. Perhaps the most engaging and intriguing track is a contrafact of Sting’s Englishman In New York, which is here transmuted into American In Dakar. The track can heard and seen (with lyrics) in a video made in Senegal in late 2025 which has been licensed to appear on YouTube for a year, the fee raised by the enterprising Maher via a GoFundMe campaign.
Discography
Music; Salt And Pepper; American In Dakar; Till The Day; Galón De Leche; Dangerous; Reading The Rings; Ever Given; Nenam (37.37)
Jean Mermose, Papis Konate (kyb); Amady Sidibé (elg); Thierno Sarr, Willy Bousset (b); Abdoulaye Lo (d); Babacar Seck, Alioune Seck (sabar); Samba Ndokh Mbaye (tama); Mildah (Peljacerel Miambanzila) (t); Silvain Boco (tb); Ashley Maher (v). Papis Konaté’s studio, Dakar, Senegal, c.2025.
ashleymaher.com
Theorem Of Joy: Feux
In the brisk New Spring, driven by a locomotive drum sound, there are reminders of Metheny and, in the wordless vocal, Norma Winstone; the melodic style is folkish and at times sub-continental. The meat of it is a guitar solo that is more redolent of, say, Kurt Rosenwinkel than Metheny. Things slow down with Au Monde, still folky, with an English lyric; Steeleye Span even suggests itself. And so the whimsical, sometimes world-beat journey continues. Heart Wide Open is funkier over a sort of Afrobeat, again with wordless vocal, and solo interest from an occasionally polytonal violin. Echo 1 is a 50-second acoustic bass lament. Behind The Sky offers more folkiness but with some prog-rock style changes, and features a guitar solo at first reflective before distortion adds some grit. Little Raymonde introduces a brighter Latin tone reminding of Astrud Gilberto before moving in a raga-like direction, the sense underlined by the presence of violin. In The Way, at least on Bandcamp, appears to be a repeat of Little Raymonde. Echo 2 briefly offers more bass rumination before the tempo picks up on El Haik Dance Floor with a solid disco drum backbeat under world-flavoured riffs and trumpet cries; in the end though it dissolves into a more subtle beat with a wistful French vocal. The last two tracks don’t deviate from the preceding overall style.
This is the third album from this French quintet led by bassist and composer Thomas Julienne, whose publicist says the music “blends jazz with Indian, classical, post-rock, and electronic influences”. That’s fair comment. The whole – all very well played – leaves an impression of an atmospheric, folky excursion with some very good solo moments.
Discography
New Spring; Au Monde; Heart Wide Open; Echo 1; Behind The Sky; Little Raymonde; In The Way; Echo 2; El Haik Dance Floor; Upside Down Candle; Ideal Robots (46.25)
Raphaëlle Brochet (v); Anthony Winzenrieth (elg); Robin Antunes (vn); Thomas Julienne (b); Tom Peyron (d). Villetaneuse, Paris, c.2025.
Label Déluge
Valley Voice: Stars, Engines
The album opens with a light drum backbeat and bass describing an angular modal chord sequence embellished by vibes. A tenor saxophone enters with a slender theme over the lugubrious background. Eventually the saxophone improvises over the sequence as the drums loosen into a more conversational approach. It’s insubstantial but conveys an eerie, persistent message. The chord sketch is variously varied through rearrangement of the instruments. Eventually the vibes move centre stage for a slight, exploratory solo. There are a seven tracks to go and one wonders how the group’s fragmented, pointillist approach will evolve, if at all. The second track is even skinnier and more diffident than the first. This is clearly modern chamber music, somewhat related to jazz in the instrumentation and improvisation but unlikely to light any fires – which may be intentional. The music holds to that approach through the rest of the album, with little variation in tempo or timbre.
All the themes are written by saxophonist Harrison Argatoff, a 2018 BMus graduate of the University of Toronto’s jazz course, during which he did an independent study of 1970s French Spectral Music. I don’t know that form, but the adjective seems very much descriptive of the ghostly shapes and moods generated here. It’s the sort of thing that might fit well, episodically, on BBC Radio 3’s sepulchral Night Tracks programme.
Discography
Wishlow; Analemma; As Though I Knew; Please Hold; Sun Patch; Tin Rain; Shiver; Stars Engines (55.32)
Harrison Argatoff (ts); Michael Davidson (vib); Dan Fortin (b); Ian Wright (d). Union Sound Company, Toronto, 19-21 November 2022.
Elastic Recordings
