The Listening Guide
🎶 The listening guide: five albums, released during the past twelve months, chosen around a weekly theme 🎶
This week’s theme is piano trios. The prolific pianist Satoko Fujii works with bassist and cellist Takashi Sugawa and drummer Ittetsu Takemura in her newly-formed Tokyo Trio. Their new album, Moon on the Lake, was recorded at Pit Inn in Shinjuku last year, and features five original pieces. Cologne-based pianist and composer Niklas Roever is joined by bassist Roger Kintopf and drummer Simon Bräumer on his debut album, which features original compositions from the explorative pianist, who cites the likes of Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock as influences. The legendary pianist George Cables—who recorded with Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, and Billy Harper in the seventies, before creating numerous trio LPs in the eighties—demonstrates his enduring talent on Too Close For Comfort. Joined by bassist Essiet Essiet and drummer Victor Lewis, his compositions like Circle of Love and This Is My Song spill over with excitement. Fergus McCreadie’s SAY award-longlisted album Cairn was released on Edition Records earlier this year, and features David Bowden on bass, with Stephen Henderson on drums. The traditions and landscapes of his native Scotland are a key inspiration for McCreadie, who already has a clear compositional voice. Pianist, composer and educator Vijay Iyer rounds off our list with his spectacular new album for ECM records, entitled Uneasy. Iyer is joined by Linda May Han Oh on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, performing original music that, although informed by the unrest and unease of the modern world, may help to free the listener somewhat from those troubles. You can support George Cables’ album via HighNote Records and the artist’s website. You can support the other four LPs on Bandcamp!
Satoko Fujjii’s Tokyo Trio – Moon on the Lake
Niklas Roever Trio – Skepsis dem Stier gegenüber
Album of the Week
Our NQ Jazz album of the week is Irreversible Entanglements’ third LP, Open The Gates. With Camae Ayewa’s spoken word poetry at the forefront, the self-produced album builds upon the sonic base of their previous two, with several band members doubling on synths and percussion, augmenting Keir Neuringer’s saxophone playing, Aquiles Navarro’s trumpet lines, Luke Stewart’s hypnotic bass lines, and Tcheser Holmes’ drumming. The LP is out via ​​International Anthem and Don Giovanni Records, and you can support it on Bandcamp!
Classic Album
Our NQ Jazz classic album this week is the self-titled 1978 release from vocalist and pianist Rimona Francis. With seven tunes and a strong fusion flavour, the album features Leszek Zadlo on saxophones, Jasper Van’t Hof on keys, Barry Finnerty on guitar, Frank Tusa on bass, and Buddy Williams on drums. Its pieces use unusual time signatures and arrangement ideas to add interest to gentle ballads and uptempo instrumental pieces alike. You can find the album on streaming services, with physical copies on platforms like Discogs.