The Listening Guide
🎶 The listening guide: five albums, released during the past twelve months, chosen around a weekly theme 🎶
This week’s theme is solo albums. Saxophonist and composer Darius Jones performs compositions from formidable Black artists such as Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, and Georgia Anne Muldrow, evoking sadness, rage, confusion, and hope with his arresting solo playing. Other jazz greats: Anthony Braxton, Eric Dolphy, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk inspired the making of multi-instrumentalist Chloe Jackson-Reynolds’ Solo Mood Improvisations, Summer 2021. Matthew Bourne’s solo Fender Rhodes project, 1674, finds the acclaimed pianist and keys player using different Roland Space Echo settings to give different atmospheres to his four improvised pieces. Trumpeter and comopser Niran Dasika used sampling and spring reverb on his scratchy, minimalist recording, Endless Spring, Infinite Summer, which features beautiful playing throughout. Like Niran Dasika’s album, saxophonist Jaleel Shaw recorded Echoes at home. His recordings grew out of meditations on loss and positivity, leading to an emotive set of new pieces. You can support each of these records on Bandcamp!
Darius Jones – Raw Demoon Alchemy (A Lone Operation)
Chloe Jackson-Reynolds – Solo Mood Improvisations, Summer 2021
Album of the Week
Our NQ Jazz album of the week is pianist and composer Ivo Neame’s Glimpses of Truth. The album was written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a big band including Jason Yarde and Nathaniel Facey, plus guests Ingrid Jensen, Gilad Hekselman, and Jim Hart making contributions remotely. The track titles and musical moods find Neame grappling with the so-called post-truth age. The album is released via Whirlwind Recordings and you can support it on Bandcamp!
Classic Album
Our NQ Jazz classic album this week is multi-instrumentalist and composer Dawan Muhammad’s Deep Stream. Released in 1979, the largely instrumental record does feature vocalist Delores Pierce on the title track and ballad Is That You, as well as Oscar Williams on trumpet, Paul Nagle on piano, and Daniel Sabanovich and Prince Lawsha on drums and percussion. There’s plenty of variety on show, with sweet strings introducing Is That You, a deep funky vibe on opener Anxiety, and a cool jazz flavour on Sun/Moon/Stars. You can find the record on Bandcamp and streaming platforms.