Deirdre Cartwright: Organik
Neither organist Pete Whittaker nor percussionist Gary Hammond, being custodians of the heavy armoury in guitarist Deirdre Cartwright’s trio, lifts the lid on what in the wrong hands can be the paradigm of imbalance. On the contrary, they match Cartwright’s mellow tones at all tempi on nine charts that mix her originals with jazz standards and nods towards pop music. In pyrotechnic terms, they burn with the sustained sparkle of a fountain, never with the expectation of a Roman candle’s sudden gush or the aerial explosion of a rocket.
Sometimes, this even keel can make the listener impatient for the odd barrage or jolt, an eagerness justified not only by the presence of the Hammond and the waiting cannon of percussion but also when one learns, especially with On Green Dolphin Street, that the trio can swing, if lightly. The head on that one is played by Cartwright against mysterious organ chords and on the beguiling one of Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise with a wholly appropriate use of harmonics. There’s a Cuban feel to Cartwright’s Mango Bango and the opening Eleanor Rigby, the latter’s strophic nature subverted without loss of the chart’s pathos. The restrained sentiments of Mark Knopfler’s Sultans Of Swing sum up the trio’s style.
A discreet and unpretentious approach to tunes on an impeccably played album.
Discography
Eleanor Rigby; One For Polly; Mango Bango; Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise; Espresso Martino; You Don’t Know Me; Sultans Of Swing; On Green Dolphin Street; The Gentle Rain (47.55)
Cartwright (g); Pete Whittaker (org); Gary Hammond (pc). London, 17-18 February 2026.
Blow The Fuse Records BTF2616CD
Marilena Paradisi & Natalino Marchetti: Blue Prelude
If ever there was a union made in whatever your idea of heaven is, the Italian duo of singer Marilena Paradisi and accordionist Natalino Marchetti would have to be a contender. Both almost redefine what singing and accordion-playing can be in the jazz context, calling everywhere on tradition for standard treatments but with their concentration on what they can uniquely achieve together – which is a lot.
Paradisi’s elfin voice reaches often for, and is always at home in, the unforgiving upper registers; Marchetti plays as a jazz pianist would but with a knack of making the keyboard’s orchestral character ever more colourful and resonant. They read each other’s musical thoughts on the hoof, not least in Sondheim’s I Remember, an example of how the composer could invest Broadway music theatre with almost operatic depth. Note how Marchetti withdraws a tad to make room for the introspective lyric to do its job of recollection.
Elsewhere, the couple’s negotiating of sometimes difficult harmonies and melodic structures, such as those in Wayne Shorter’s Ana Maria, is but the route to performances of disarming candour, though this is one track on which, for the singer, that otherwise agreeable stratosphere threatens to endanger intonation. On A Clear Day begins with an indefinite time signature – from the beginning a ditched 4/4 in favour of a fast waltz, according to the liner notes of Amalia Mancini, but for this reviewer only established a fair way in and crystallised in the exuberance of Paradisi’s final scatting.
A duo that’s greater than the sum of its two parts.
Discography
Here’s That Rainy Day; On A Clear Day; I Waited For You; Ana Maria; Always And Forever; Blue Prelude; I Remember; Luiza; The St. Vitus Dance (37.13)
Paradisi (v); Marchetti (acc). Rome, 17-18 January 2026.
Losen Records LOS 330-2
Evan Taylor: Exactly This
Trumpeter Evan Taylor is a new name to me. I discover that he’s made a career as a pedagogue, having become professor of jazz trumpet at Broward College, Florida, at the age of 28. Some going! In 2020 he’d won the Jazz in Europe prize for under-25 musicians and was a finalist in the International Trumpet Guild’s jazz improvisation contest.
You can tell that Exactly This is a début. Its packaging gushes with information – except details of where and when it was recorded – and acknowledgements: “I foremost want to give the glory to God Almighty, the one true creator, who allows me to see the world through the wonderful gift of music.”
Has Taylor been on the road as an employee or leader of a band? Has he had to play before indifferent or sparse or disinterested or even enthusiastically appreciative audiences in club settings? We should be told. It’s a reasonable expectation. Or perhaps it’s not, and we must judge a musician on playing associated with the career path he’s chosen. But this is a jazz magazine and I’m a jazz reviewer.
Exactly This is testament to the clever technical manipulation of sound. It’s off the road and safely inside where stuff is synthesised. Taylor is an intelligent musician whose sanitised trumpet lines are creatively embedded in the synthetic mix designed by him and a dozen other musicians in various permutations. It’s so-called “smooth jazz”. Louder and gear-shifted, of course, it’s just classy disco music.
Discography
Exactly This; Shift; Laid Back; Blue Dreams; Swerve; Love’s Intention; Scarlet Flow; Skate On; Turn It Up; Shining (41.45)
Taylor (t); Adam Hawley (kyb, g, b); Richard Elliott, Dave Koz, Fabian Chavez (s); Oli Smith (p); Kasey Square, Caleb Middleton, Carnell Harrell, Mel Brown (b); Aaron Smith, Eric Valentine (d); Ramon Yslas (pc). Phil Denny, who features on the track Swerve, is not identified. No recording details.
MBF Entertainment MBF00050
