Jazz

Callum Au
Sing Seven Seas
Chairman Music CABBCD002 (two discs); LP: CABBLP001 (three discs)

Best known as a leading arranger, trombonist Callum Au is also an inspired composer, and he called on a total of 80 musicians to record this double-length collection of his own music. To start with, Au leads his superb jazz big band in ‘Swipe Right’, a pace-setting opener that highlights the virtuoso ensemble work of each section in turn. After this come several fully orchestral settings including ‘The Weaver’, which won the Brussels Jazz Orchestra contest in 2020. For the second half, or ‘Vol 2’, it’s the big band again, Au’s four-part ‘Influencers’ suite offering tributes to Ellington, Basie, Gillespie and Kenny Wheeler. This is an ambitious, expansive and entirely successful project that’s rich and rewarding. SH

Sound Quality: 90%

Elina Duni and Rob Luft
Reaching For The Moon
ECM Records ECM 2866/5744332

Collaborators since 2017, the Swiss/Albanian singer and British guitarist have recorded two ECM albums with their co-led quartet, but this time they’re strictly a duo. Together, they explore songs from many different countries and cultures, and it’s great to find that the CD booklet includes translations of the lyrics. Luft is a master of his instrument and also of the electronics he uses, and there are many magical moments when he duets with the singer rather than just accompanying. Above all, he makes electric guitar sounds that are beautiful and human, while Duni seems able to deliver and engage emotions whatever the language. SH

Sound Quality: 90%

Irreversible Entanglements
Future Present Past
Impulse! 5716029; LP: 5716028

It was at a Musicians Against Police Brutality day in Brooklyn that trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and drummer Tcheser Holmes, recent music graduates, first joined poet and vocalist Camae Ayewa (aka Moor Mother), saxophonist Keir Neuringer and bassist Luke Stewart. For this quintet’s fifth album, their second on Impulse!, the essentials are as before – communion verses repeated as calls to action over irresistible rhythms – but with a more complex studio production. The sound is lusher, fuller and less hard-edged than 2023’s Protect Your Light [5581923] and there is less extended free-jazz playing, yet the music is still bursting with life. SH

Sound Quality: 85%

Joe Webb
Neath Beat
Edition Records EDN1303; LP: EDNLP1303

In a relaxed and mellow follow-up to his 2024 Hamstrings & Hurricanes album, Webb gets started by harnessing some timeless blues idioms to his own personal rhythmic approach, before directly referencing some of the piano giants who’ve most influenced him. Two of these are evoked in the live ‘James P’ and a very brief ‘Duke’, while a jaunty ‘I’m Confessin’’ pays tribute to Art Tatum. Webb’s regular sidemen Will Sach (bass) and Sam Jesson (drums) swing effortlessly, especially in ‘Uncle Paul’, which has a happy Ahmad Jamal feel. By contrast, Webb’s expansive take on the Welsh male-voice favourite ‘Myfanwy’ makes an emotional finale. SH

Sound Quality: 80%