Category Archives: Albums I really like

Albums I really like

Albums I really like, Quick reviews

Brief thoughts, album review: Francesco Lo Castro: Chasing Beauty – released Oct 2013

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Chasing-BeautyThere was an aphorism from the First World War, “Don’t judge a man by his umbrella, it may not be his”.   But I think you can judge the quality of a musician’s work by the company he keeps on an album.  The guitarist and composer Francesco Lo Castro has surrounded himself with some very fine musicians on Chasing Beauty.   This heartfelt album of self compositions contains some lovely Miles-ish cameos for Fulvio Sigurta on trumpet (or flugelhorn) in As it is and for Maurizio Minardi on accordion.  The title refers to the worthwhile activity of seeking beauty in the mundane as well as the perfect. There are affectionate, jaunty, pictures of places, people and times past. It is not introspective, it demonstrates an attractive openness.  It is a perfect album for relaxation, calming and gentle.  I can easily imagine it being played in cafes in Europe.  But listen a bit deeper and you will spot gems such as Joe Fowler’s haunting flute on Nino and Dunia which paints a serene portrait of two friends, and the very lovely accordion of Maurizio Minardi on the upbeat May 2011.   There is no doubting Francesco’s prowess on both acoustic and electric guitar, the subtle shades and tempos are memorable.  His tunes, such as Sahara with its rocking motion like a camel, and Dresden with its arresting opening,  have a habit of sticking in your mind very quickly, and that’s no bad thing. 

Mary James

Album released 1 October 2013 here

Francesco Lo Castro

Albums I really like, Bands/Artists I rate very highly

Album review: Elliott: Girls with Radical Haircuts – released July 2013

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Standing on the shoulders of giants. Isaac Newton sums it up so neatly. None of us creates anything without building on the legacy of those who have gone before us. But that’s how we can reach for the stars, almost touch them, using the achievements of great musicians. The young Danish band, Elliott, have just released their debut album Girls with Radical Haircuts, and in their press release they pay homage to the one hundred year old catalogue of recorded compositions that have enriched our lives. They want to stand on those shoulders. Elliott comprises Alex Jønsson, guitar, Jens Mikkel Madsen, double bass and Jakob Sørensen, trumpet. They share the 8 original compositions, all working with each other to create a very distinctive and haunting sound. All play with other bands. Alex, in particular, plays with Foyn Trio which is led by the striking vocalist Live Foyn Friis whose pretty, quirky, catchy vocals are worth exploring.

So what can we see and hear with this particular trio, Elliott? An unusual combination of instruments – trumpet, guitar and double bass – creating a cool, consistent and spacious chamber sound, inspired by their native land, with beautiful compositions that hang around in your head. Jakob Sørensen’s delicately clear trumpet tone reminds me of Ron Horton when he played with Ben Allison on Midnight Cowboy from Cowboy Justice – a trumpet which is languid yet brittle, meandering gently through a vast American landscape. In Girls we have a more intimate landscape, from the dreamy calypso of Øresund, Baby, where the rocking bass lulls us to sleep to the beautiful Detecting Turtles. Alex Jønsson, who created a magical, fairytale-like atmosphere in The Lost Moose (reviewed here), has continued this vein. His opening, signature, melancholy chord on Dark Blue sets the tone which the others catch. He creates a sound which reaches back to the time of lutes and citterns but which speaks to us. These are wistful compositions, designed to be heard in a fire-lit room with the wind howling outside.

The arresting artwork of the album cover was created by Simon Gorm Eskildsen and you can see the making of it in the video below. The mixing and mastering by Kasper Nyhus are very fine. This is a delightful album by three talented musicians and composers which deserves its place on the shoulders of giants because, quite simply, it is beautiful.

Elliott:
Alex Jønsson, guitar
Jens Mikkel Madsen, double bass
Jakob Sørensen, trumpet
Simon Gorm Eskildsen, artwork

http://elliottband.tumblr.com/

Buy album here

Mary James

Albums I really like, Bands/Artists I rate very highly

Album review: Roller Trio: Roller Trio

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Roller_Trio

Twice I have come out of Roller Trio gigs and each time felt weightless, my brain fizzing with the tunes and the energy transmitted from the band to us. The Leeds-based trio who studied jazz at Leeds College of Music because they thought it was “the easiest option” (presumably discovering that it was not?) are winners of many awards and plaudits. Most recently, their saxophonist James Mainwaring received a Musician’s Benevolent Fund award in their Emerging Excellence Award series.

Emerging? That sounds like a butterfly struggling out of a chrysalis. No, James Mainwaring is the real thing, there is nothing delicate about this fledgling. Seeing him on stage, I immediately thought of Michael Brecker and more recently, of Marius Neset, that nagging feeling that there was more than one saxophone on stage when I could see there was only one. The electronics are subtle, just a little bit of distortion like static. Roller Trio combine extraordinary technical skills with a great sense of fun, they like being entertaining (a bit like World Service Project who impart a similar sense of enjoying themselves and all the more so for us being there too). Roller Trio are proof that insanely memorable tunes are not the result of dumbing down.

But thinking about the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly is perhaps an appropriate analogy – there is a sense that a struggle is going on. The sax tries to break free from the clutches of the guitar and the drums. Sometimes it shrieks, brays and roars. It is granted its freedom in the pastoral ROR’. This is my favourite track. It starts with an Eastern feel, the guitar like a sitar, the sax bubbles like a stream, the guitar picks out a Tales of the Riverbank melody (see this video for the reference), the drums tick and purr gently, then the stage is set for the most sublime melody on sax. If you only heard this track you might wonder why they are called visceral, gutsy, loud. They are all those things of course. But that is the metamorphosis – from gritty and urban to this beautiful tranquil track with just a hint of something to trouble the surface like the buzzing of a wasp on a summer’s day.

Roller Trio have recorded their second album (digitally stored in a folder endearingly named Doris by their engineer) and are touring with Go Go Penguin in October 2013. See them if you can, they are truly wonderful.

Roller Trio:

James Mainwaring, tenor sax and electronics

Luke Wynter, guitar

Luke Reddin-Williams, drums

http://www.rollertrio.com/

Mary James

Albums I really like, Bands/Artists I rate very highly, Gigs I've enjoyed

CD review and album launch: Ife Tolentino: Você Passou Aqui, 2 Aug 2013

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Ife-Voce-Passou-Aqui

Brazilian guitarist and singer Ife Tolentino waited eight months to launch his album Você Passou Aqui (You Were Here) in the UK because he wanted to launch it at The Vortex, and The Vortex is always busy so he had to wait. Such loving attention to detail distinguishes this album of standards and compositions from more familiar Brazilian music. You think you know what Bossa Nova sounds like, but this album has something else. It has a fragility which hints at its inspiration – Iceland, land of ice and fire, but also of tiny alpine flowers, midnight sun, silent landscapes, which contrasts so powerfully with the fecundity of the Brazilian landscape of lush forest, beaches and exotic blooms and flamboyant carnivals.

The album was recorded in Iceland with the Icelandic musicians listed below. It consists of standards like S’wonderful (which sounds as if it had been written by Jobim, not Gershwin), compositions by Jobim himself and own compositions. Especially beautiful is Me Chama (Call me) which has a haunting refrain which prompts me to reflect on the fragility of life in Iceland, where short days, tiny population and possible volcanic extinction make for a very thoughtful approach to life where you savour life’s beauties, especially if they are fleeting. The lyrics are poetic, sparce and beautiful. All the musicians are caught in the spell, tiny cameos such as the sax on Como num Conto, sparkle like stars.

At The Vortex, Ife was joined by Liam Noble on piano and Julian Siegel on saxophone. Ife’s vocals are unhurried, intimate like conversation, he makes it sound very easy and natural. The languor was reflected in Liam Noble’s sparce piano accompaniment, his fingers barely spanning a few keys yet sometimes delicately skittering or bubbling like lava. In Teco Teco Julian Siegel had no difficulty shadowing Ife’s tongue-twisting lyrics and speed, like dancing on coals. I do not speak Portuguese so to me most of the compositions sounded sunny but reading the sleeve notes I see this is misplaced. Many are sad, lonely and wistful. But George Harrison’s Here Comes the Sun reminded us that album launches are joyful times. It was a special evening and it’s a lovely, gentle, thoughtful album by a very accomplished singer guitarist.

Albums I really like, Bands/Artists I rate very highly, Quick reviews

Brief thoughts – Roberto Olzer Trio: Steppin’ Out

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I first heard the Roberto Olzer Trio play the Sting cover Every Little Thing She Does is Magic and bought the album on the whim that any trio containing bass player Yuri Goloubev was worth listening to. My hunch was justified. This is a lovely album of jewelled lyricism by Italian pianist Roberto Olzer. The jaunty Sting cover is not typical of the album, it is memorable but then so are the other nine tracks. Roberto studied the organ and I think this shows in the delicate layers of sound that hang around like the echo of an organ in the fan vaulting of a cathedral, you look up and feel wonder. The album is very visual, each track seems to tell a story, from the unsteady Madman of the opening, to FF (Fast Forward) which seems to want to trip up each musician. Especially beautiful is tragic Gloomy Sunday where the bass is intent on wallowing in misery. The sound swells and falls, like good ideas dismissed out of pessimism. You almost need to listen to each track on its own, they are exquisite short stories you want to savour.

It was recorded and mixed by Stefano Armerio in June 2012 (he also recorded Maciek Pysz’s Insight). Deserves a wider audience, especially in the UK.

RobertoOlzer

Roberto Olzer, piano
Yuri Goloubev, double bass
Mauro Beggio, drums

http://www.robertoolzer.com/