Jazz in Elsewhere
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Medbøe/Halle/Malling: Hvor En Var Baen (Copperfly)
6 Jun 2019 | 1 min read
Following the recent 10 inch release with Swedish pianist Jacob Karlzon, Edinburgh-based Norwegian guitarist Haftor Medbøe here teams up with Norwegian trumpeter Gunnar Halle and Danish bassist Eva Malling for a further limited edition, hand-numbered 10 inch installment of distinctive, lean improvisations. But here this trio stretch further using the folk poetry of Danish writer Martin N... > Read more
Ae Nynner En Vis'
Herlin Riley: Perpetual Optimism (Mack Avenue/Southbound)
24 May 2019 | <1 min read
This great New Orleans jazz drummer emerged alongside Wynton Marsalis and his neo-con movement in the Eighties and played on many Wynton albums (and pianist Marcus Roberts' Deep in the Shed), is a member of the Jazz at the Lincoln Centre Orchestra and, like many neo-cons, moved into teaching. Here with the fine band of pianist Emmet Cohen, bassist Russell Hall, alto player Godwin Louis and... > Read more
Stella By Starlight
Eyolf Dale and Andre Roligheten: Departures (Edition Records/digital outlets)
14 May 2019 | <1 min read
Say “Norwegian jazz” to most and the most immediate response from most would be of emotionally frosty ECM albums and brusque tonality from the saxophone. This established duo however of pianist Dale and saxophonist/clarinetist Roligheten – who were previously known as Albatrosh and who have has separate careers – deliver something considerably more warm, melodic and,... > Read more
Mark de Clive-Lowe: Heritage II (Rope-a-Dope/Southbound)
13 May 2019 | 1 min read
In some respects the first volume of this musical journey by expat Kiwi keyboard player/electronica artist Mark de Clive-Lowe sets up this superior edition which is more focused on the Japanese half of his background. Much of the source material (musical or literary) is Japanese and the evocative opener sets a mood of reflection and a contemporary-sounding voyage back to misty origins.... > Read more
The Silk Road
Ezra Collective: You Can't Steal My Joy (Enter the Jungle/Southbound)
26 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
Spoken of in the same breath as Sons of Kemet, Maisha and The Comet is Coming, the five-piece British outfit Ezra Collective are part of the new wave of jazz coming out of London where artists collaborate and support each other, yet can take quite divergent paths. Ezra Collective have already picked up a number of accolades for two previous EPs but if, for example, The Comet is Coming aim... > Read more
King of the Jungle
MARK DE CLIVE LOWE PROFILED, AT AUDIOCULTURE (2019): Jazz in the present and future tense
23 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
As with his peer and fellow jazzman Nathan Haines, Auckland-born keyboard player, DJ, producer and composer Mark de Clive-Lowe was a serious young jazz musician who came of age in the hip-hop era. And so his musical – and then geographic – horizons widened rapidly. These days he is a global citizen who has collaborated with local players in Japan, performed in Cuba, South... > Read more
The Comet is Coming: Trust in the Lifeforce of The Deep Mystery (Impulse)
15 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
The name to note in this UK trio is saxophonist and jazz-shaman Shabaka Hutchings, the pivotal figure in the emerging new wave of British jazz who is in Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors. He's a prime mover in a scene which is enjoying a renaissance (and enjoying itself in the process) with big and boisterous music, controls sometimes to the heart of the sun above a spiritual... > Read more
Unity
ONE WE MISSED: Michal Martyniuk; Nothing to Prove (SJ Records/digital outlets)
15 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
Michal Martyniuk is a composer/keyboard player who divides his time between Poland and Auckland, completed his music degree at the University of Auckland and has played with Nathan Haines' band. This album however was recorded in Poland last year – he'd been absent for almost a decade – and appeared the SJ Records label there. Here is an interesting line-up of Polish and New... > Read more
Insomnia
NATHAN HAINES PROFILED, AT AUDIOCULTURE (2019): Jazz from before to beyond
5 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
In 1994 Nathan Haines released his debut album Shift Left, an album which revealed a fault-line between the previous generation of New Zealand jazz players and – because of its use of turntables and rappers – a new generation which had embraced hip-hop as much as the cool sounds of the 50s and 60s. Shift Left – the title chosen from a roadworks sign which appealed to... > Read more
NATHAN HAINES : SHIFT LEFT AT 25 (2019): Looking back at an album that looked ahead
3 Apr 2019 | 10 min read
In late 2018, because I had been a great supporter of saxophonist Nathan Haines' debut album Shift Left when it was released, I was invited by Nathan to write an extensive liner essay for its expanded (with remixes) double-vinyl remastered reissue. It was a pleasure to do so because this was an album -- still the country's biggest selling jazz album -- which was grounded in some classic... > Read more
Haftor Medbøe and Jacob Karlzon: Haftor Medbøe and Jacob Karlzon (Copperfly)
1 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
In keeping with our name – and love for the 10'' vinyl format – Elsewhere is pleased to point readers to this very pleasant limited-edition hand-numbered 10'' vinyl (with a digital download which includes an extra track) by this guitar and piano duo. Norwegian/Scottish guitarist Haftor Medbøe and Swedish pianist Jacob Karlzon met 15 years ago at the Islay Jazz Festival in the... > Read more
Hope
Lyn Stanley: London Calling; A Toast to Julie London (CD Baby)
29 Mar 2019 | 2 min read
Julie London – who died in 2000 age 74 – was what Hollywood folks used to call “a looker”. And she was. She went from elevator operator to the silver screen on the basis of her striking beauty and how much the cameras – still and movie – loved her. She wasn't much of an actress however (she was in the excellent film-noir The Fat Man of '51 with Rock... > Read more
Go Slow/Nice Girls
Chucho Valdes: Jazz Bata 2 (Mack Avenue/Southbound)
27 Mar 2019 | <1 min read
This great Cuban pianist turned 77 last year and could reflect on a remarkable career in which he was acclaimed internationally, has won Grammys and founded the enormously successful Irakere band. And on this outing with an acoustic quartet featuring the vocals and bata drums of Dreiser Durruthy Bombale he takes his distinctive, frequently percussive and jigsaw-puzzle playing to music which... > Read more
El Gulje
Daniel Herskedal: Voyage (Edition/digital outlets)
22 Mar 2019 | 1 min read
Jazz tuba is not rare but certainly uncommon: among the great players are Bob Stewart who played on a dozen or so albums with Arthur Blythe; Howard Johnson for whom tuba is among his artillery and who has appeared on albums by just about everyone from Mingus and Dexter Gordon to the Band and Lennon; and British session man Herbie Flowers. Daniel Herskedal is Norway's most pre-eminent... > Read more
Batten Down the Hatches
Jan Preston: Play It Again Jan (janpreston.com)
3 Mar 2019 | 1 min read
Greymouth-raised singer/pianist and composer Jan Preston may have been classically trained but her career in New Zealand saw her best known as a member of the innovative Red Mole Cabaret theatre troupe, Midge Marsden's Country Flyers band and in Coup D'Etat alongside then-former Hello Sailor member Harry Lyon. Her repertoire expanded from soundtracks and classical into boogie, jazz and... > Read more
Lazy Boogie
Mark de Clive-Lowe: Heritage (RopeADope/digital outlets)
18 Feb 2019 | <1 min read
Expat New Zealand pianist/composer Mark de Clive-Lowe here explores his Japanese/European heritage in music which peels off from the hip-hop-influenced jazz he made his name with in New Zealand. On Heritage, while still using contemporary electronics, sits at the keyboard with his group – recorded live in the Blue Whale club in Los Angles and in a North Hollywood studio – for... > Read more
Niten-Ichi
ONE WE MISSED: Onyx Collective: Lower East Suite; Part Three (Big Dad)
21 Jan 2019 | 1 min read
This muscular trio (with guests) first came to Elsewhere's attention only late last year on the belated jazz tribute to Sgt Pepper where they delivered a usefully different treatment of Harrison's Within You Without You which connected to the more experimental end of American jazz. As the title here tells you, we come to this suite – which appeared in the middle of last year –... > Read more
2AM at Veselka
Various Artists: A Day in the Life, Impressions of Pepper (Impulse!)
17 Dec 2018 | 1 min read
Jazz musicians are renown for their sense of time, although – if this album is any measure – perhaps not for their timing. Arriving fully 18 months after the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's – and coinciding with the exceptional remaster/reissue of their follow-up The Beatles (aka The White Album) and the Christmas rush – this stellar interpretation of... > Read more
Good Morning Good Morning (Shabaka and the Ancestors)
ONE WE MISSED: Charlie Haden and Brad Mehldau; Long Ago and Far Away (Impulse!)
16 Dec 2018 | <1 min read | 1
Recorded live in 2007 at a church in Mannheim, this recording only became available late this year – four years after bassist Charlie Haden's death at 76. Haden and pianist Brad Mehldau – thirtysomething years Haden's junior – had enjoyed a comfortable friendship, and a performance and recording association. That ease in each other's company is evident in their supportive... > Read more
My Old Flame
Manins/Samsom/Benebig/Lockett: Shuffle (Rattle)
10 Dec 2018 | 2 min read
First a word about the cover, and in fact all the Rattle covers. Right from their first releases the cover art and presentation of albums on Auckland's Rattle label – which cover classical, jazz, taonga puoro and more – have been classy affairs: engaging artwork and design, useful liner notes and, after a few releases, the gatefold hardback format. Their few forays... > Read more