Jazz

Bill Stewart
Live At The Village Vanguard
Criss Cross Jazz 1424

This is the first time the Dutch label Criss Cross has offered a ‘Live At The Vanguard’ recording, and the Sep ’23 residency captured here also marks the first time drummer Bill Stewart has been recorded there – though he’d brought the same starry trio to the famous New York club in 2017/18, when they also appeared on his self-published studio album Band Menu. The piano-less format gives lots of space for the drums of course, and for Larry Grenadier’s big sound and rock-like authority. Most of the compositions are Stewart’s but, with a sound full of humanity that never tires, it’s the endless invention of saxophonist Walter Smith III that keeps you engaged and makes the music flow. SH

Sound Quality: 90%

Brigitte Beraha with Alan Barnes & Barry Green
Tea For Three
Woodville Records WVCD155; LP: WVLP155

In a recent trio project, the fearless and fascinating vocalist Brigitte Beraha joined Tim Garland and Jason Rebello to celebrate Wayne Shorter. But here, in a 2023 live recording from London’s Vortex club, is a very different but equally empathetic collaboration with pianist Barry Green (always a superb accompanist) plus saxophonist (and label owner) Alan Barnes. Starting with an affectionate ‘Tea For Two’, they close with an affecting ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’, while Beraha offers her setting of Tennessee Williams’ poem ‘We Have Not Long To Love’ and heads to Brazil with Edu Lobo’s ‘Pra Dizer Adeus’. SH

Sound Quality: 85%

Enemy
Fiend
Edition Records EDN1266; LP: EDNLP1266

After studying piano, organ and composition, Kit Downes toured with Empirical in 2008 and by 2015 was recording for ECM. But he also teamed up with drummer James Maddren and Swedish bassist Petter Eldh to form Enemy, playing intense, rhythmically adventurous music and releasing a self-titled album for Edition in 2018. The name was dropped in 2022 but reappeared with The Betrayal on the Finnish We Jazz label. Now back with Edition for a fourth album (and a first live one), they are as vital and innovative as ever. Be prepared to be battered by, yes, fiendishly complex polyrhythms, and energy that never flags. SH

Sound Quality: 80%

Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano, Jan Lundgren
Mare Nostrum IV
ACT Music ACT8008-2; LP: ACTLP8008-1

Billed as ‘The Sound Of Europe’, this stellar trio cut their original Mare Nostrum album in 2007. Supreme accordionist Richard Galliano is a delight, Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren contributes engaging melodies, rich harmonies and a pulse that needs no rhythm section, and Sicilian flugelhornist Paolo Fresu can often add a magic touch. There’s quite a lot of production here, and even some seaside effects with ‘Belle-Île-En-Mer’. Galliano brings new colours with his Melowtone keyboard harmonica and there’s a washy ambience to everything. So here, we’re taken to the easy listening end of European jazz. SH

Sound Quality: 80%