Jazz Album Reviews

This article was originally published in Japanese in Jazz Japan vol.141 “Live From The Room At The Top” is Pepper Adams’ live album filling the blank period in 1972, an album that has remained unpublished and archived at the University of Alberta, Canada. Adams, who was a founding member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra … Read more

Bram de Looze’s Vice Versa, with New York masterful drummer Eric McPherson (Jackie Mclean, Andrew Hill, Pharaoh Sanders, Fred Hersch) and Berlin bassist Felix Henkelhausen (Jim Black, Nate Wooley, Lotte Anker). “Both (McPherson and Henkelhausen) are compositional masterminds with unlimited rhythmic inventiveness.” – from the announcement of the broadcasting hall in Bremen.  Top class jazz … Read more

Jacopo Ferrazza was born in Frascati, a city near Rome. He is an acoustic and electric pianist and bassist. He graduated in classical bass and classical piano at the Conservatorio di Musica Licinio Refice, Frosinone (Licinio Refice Conservatory of Music). He studied bass with John Patitucci, Ares Tavolazzi, Marco Panascia, Aldo Perris, Luca Cola and … Read more

Born in Durham, England, Jo Harrop started out as a session singer working with a host of artists including Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart, Gloria Gaynor and Enrique Iglesias. After moving to London, she quickly established herself as one of the most distinctive voices in British jazz. “When I was a teenager, my dad took me … Read more

It’s difficult for anyone to compete against such a famous song as Pop Up from the 2019 album Nadi. Especially when, like the German group Fazer, you wrote it yourself!  I can remember when they “only” had 500 monthly listeners. Today there are over 100,000 on Spotify – Fazer, the funky formation from Munich has … Read more

“Resina” is Guillem García’s first album in trio format. García began his musical studies with the classical accordion. At the age of 19, he adopted the piano as his main instrument, which allowed him to enter the world of jazz. In 2020 he decided to focus more on his own projects and started his own … Read more

This article was originally published in Japanese in Jazz Japan vol.141 Taking compositions from his past eight releases, Revisited is a collection of ‘self cover songs’ by top Norwegian pianist Helge Lien with a trio whose members have changed again. The members of the album “10” released in 2019 were drummer Per Oddvar Johansen and … Read more

Hailed by Downbeat as “a living work of modern art”, True Stories is the fourth album of Michigan-born musician Mark Wade who’s been named one of the best bass players of the year five out of the last six years in Downbeat magazine’s readers’ poll. Founder and director of New Music Horizons which promotes the … Read more

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.17.3″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”] The album “O.N.E” made a lot of noise in 2020. The recordings received much praise, were bestowed with prestigious nominations and awards, and in annual retrospectives, the album was repeatedly indicated as a standout jazz debut … Read more

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.17.0″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”] You can always expect originality and uniqueness from labels endorsed by the Oleś Brothers and Dominik Strycharski and it’s no different in the case of their latest project, where the roads of all three have crossed. … Read more