Wadada Leo Smith & Sylvie Courvoisier: Angel Falls (Intakt CD 444)
Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier first played together at a concert organised by John Zorn in 2017 and have collaborated regularly since then. But this is the first time they have recorded together as a duo, a format Smith loves and regularly returns to. It was Smith who suggested they record together, Courvoisier who asked that they avoid charts. What resulted are eight tracks of stunning immediacy, a sense that sonic architecture is being discovered anew. Courvoisier remarks that, starting at noon, “We just played right through exactly the order of the CD, and exactly the amount of music on the CD, with no edits. We probably did that in two hours.” Recorded and mixed on the same day, everything was done and dusted by 5pm.
That sense of immediacy permeates every one of the eight pieces, all given their titles during a joint listen to the playback. Throughout, Smith is elegant and rarely hurried in his delivery, performing with controlled emotion whether in annunciatory fanfares or more subtle lines, sometimes with an open horn, often muted. Courvoisier is consistently inventive and unpredictable, delivering both rumbling piano rolls and a snatch of boogie-woogie, percussive interludes and romantic passages. She brings a childlike sense of wonder to the music, a joyful and spontaneous immediacy of creation, in real time. Together as Courvoisier says, “We’re like kids discovering things. … Basically, I try to erase myself and try to make him sound great.” But actually, they both sound great, complementing each other without comping, showboating or grandstanding. I hope these two fine musicians work together again soon.
Brigitte Beraha: Teasing Reflections (Let Me Out Records LMOCD004)
I last encountered singer Brigitte Beraha fronting a delightful trio with saxophonist Alan Barnes and pianist Barry Green on Tea For Three (reviewed JJ, 25 June 2025) but here she ventures into more diffuse territory, leading her own Lucid Dreamers ensemble with saxophonist George Crowley, pianist Alcyona Mick and drummer Tim Giles on their third outing.
Behara’s seven original compositions range from the satirical to the sublime, blending improvisation and lyrical storytelling while exploring themes of identity, communication and meaning. The opening Words sets the tone with its initially nonsensical speech set against some fine driving piano lines, its successor White Noise, a spacious, almost rock-inflected ballad, evoking lives of displacement, conflict and resilience. The two parts of Arnaud offer a cinematic depiction of life unfolding, The Matrix producing one of the album’s most jazz-inflected moments in its slow dance of voice, piano and saxophone.
What holds these and the other tracks together is Beraha’s distinctive voice, both intimate and powerful, adventurous in its range and tone but always accessible and intriguing. What is partly a playful, dreamlike journey is also a thought-provoking and well-balanced mix of structure and freedom, the outcome a perfectly executed set of musical rapport and creative skill.
Ruby Rushton: Legacy! (22a Music 046)
South London based Ruby Rushton is a group, not a solo artist, a British band led by saxophonist and flautist Ed “Tenderlonious” Cawthorne, whose Surrey grandmother was Ruby Rushton. Keyboard player Aidan Shepherd, trumpeter Nick Walters and drummer Tim Carnegie make up the quartet. Their previous four albums have been live, one-take wonders, but here the original takes are overdubbed with added horn and flute lines.
Still genre-surfing and fabulously louche (as critic Jane Cornwell said of their first performance at Ronnie Scott’s in 2017), and still joyously melodic and rhythmic, the band purveys easy, soulful funk and has a sense of swing that carry everything and everyone before them. The leader’s love of Yusef Lateef’s flute is echoed in many outings, notably on the first Theme From Legacy!, while the band fly loose on the trumpet-led La Niña, in good contrast to the slow-motion Otto, where Shepherd’s piano rolls out a gorgeous melody before trumpet and sax top things off. Elsewhere, as on the second Legacy! theme, we might be in movie soundtrack land, such is the widescreen attraction of the theme. The concluding The Lighthouse and the third Legacy! theme end proceedings in commanding form. And while it might be tempting to judge this set as a soundtrack to a club gig, a taster of what the group can deliver live, Legacy! stands proud, and fun, on its own terms.
