Europe Jazz Media Chart - December 2025

This version of the bass player Per Zanussi's various number combinations has become, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful and finest he has made to date. Together with saxophonist Kristoffer Alberts and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen, they have created a strong, clever, and playful set, where the music flows naturally. Even though the recording was made as far back as 2019, I hope the band is not laid "dead". Because this is trio music I would like to hear at a neighbourhood jazz club.

From Red Norvo to Stefon Harris, the masters of vibraphone keep presenting a surprising artistry to the jazz scene. Sasha Berliner's Fantôme is no exception with its French title.  Enclosed is an engaging album of straight-ahead improvising jazz with contemporary compositional sensitivities.

On this album almost everything sounds ‘fascinalienated’. The music is sometimes tender, sometimes hectic, can be world-forgotten, elegiac or have a solemn, conjuring or processional touch. It remains in irresolvable levitation, which gives it a mysterious breath, shrouds it in mysterious mists. At the same time it is very physical and concrete and also wears the air of something being in the process of becoming. It takes you far but never enters the expectable usual harmonious resolvement. That makes it an exceptional experience in a time full of cruel lies and hard to bear many familiar formulas anymore. It is music that puts our perception and our mood swings to the test. Resolutely as carefully it ventures beyond familiar paths, and finds its way into new passion triggering and nurturing momentum. It evokes moments of bewilderment and wonderment as well as enchantment and differs clearly from present hyper-massive flushes of diversionary manoeuvres. The music, composed by trumpeter, santoor player and vocalist Amir ElSaffar and worked out in close collaboration with this new quartet of saxophonist Ole Mathisen, drummer Tomas Fujiwara and pianist Tania Giannouli, who plays a quarter-tone adapted piano here, was a commission for a series curated by Piotr Turkiewicz at Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal. It was performed live in Berlin, September 30, 2023, and recorded in that same (empty) hall the next day. The core of the album are the live-recordings of the concert supplemented by three alternate takes with ‘studio’ recordings, together running more than 70 minutes. Chicago-born Amir ElSaffar has solid jazz roots and ground. He played a.o. with Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, Vijay Iyer, Anthony Davis. He has also build up a profound knowledge and skill in Iraqi Arab music and is one of the most thorough, advanced and reflecting mediators and unifiers of musical idioms and cultures, what he carefully brings into practice in his ensembles, the 6-piece Two Rivers Ensemble and the 17-piece Rivers of Sound Orchestra, and in numerous commissions in Europe and in the US (a.o. Berlin Jazzfest, Jazztopad Festival (2018), Flamenco Biennale Netherlands, Dream City Festival Tunis (2019)). Saxophonist Ole Mathisen, Director of Louis Armstrong Performance Program at New York’s Columbia University, is a long time collaborator in ElSaffar’s ensemble work while Fujiwara and Giannouli are new forces in the context. Drummer Tomas Fujiwara is a much in demand musician and member of leading New York ensembles a.o. the ensembles of Mary Halvorson, Tomeka Reid and Matana Roberts. For Greek pianist Tania Giannouli it is not so astonishing to find her in a configuration with a colourful trumpeter. Her own trios have the colours of trumpet (Andreas Polyzogopoulos, Paul Estievenart, Jakob Bänsch) in combination with ûd (Kyriakos Tapakis) and piano. She played with Arve Henriksen, and she has a duo collaboration with trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær. The North-American premiere of the group will be at New York’s Roulette on Saturday, December 6 followed by an appearance on New York Winter Jazzfest, January 9 at Drom. 

Kathrine Windfeld (born 1984) has long since distinguished herself as one of Scandinavia's foremost big band arrangers. With the experience gained, she also knows how to make a sextet sound like something much bigger. She is like the star Aldebaran shining bright. Her music comprises powerful groves in quirky time signatures as well as poetic ballads. The Polish-Swedish-Danish combo realizes her ideas superbly: Tomasz Dabrowski (tp), Hannes Bennich (as /ss), Marek Konarski (ts), Johannes Vaht (b), Henrik Holst Hansen (d).

A new programme combining Ana Rocha's poetic texts with the pianist's ever-soothing melodies. (Jean-Pierre Goffin)

Strasbourg-educated Paris-living Latvian vibraphonist Jānis Fedotovs has come to his debut album. It features convincing modern jazz with a playful vibraphone sound in the foreground and the support of Burgundian musicians met in Parisian clubs in the basic structure. As is usual in the case of a vibraphone and jazz combo, the piano takes on a second main role. Here it is played appropriately gently by Clément Merienne, but drummer Elie Martin-Charrière also reminds us of himself. Subtle nuances are added to the sound by double bassist Etienne Renard. The opening Cross-Country Ski Hop demonstrates the dynamic possibilities of the coexistence of vibraphone and combo. Further cross-country skiing trip with French colleagues takes place leisurely for Jānis, but persistently and harmoniously. It does not just remain snowbound in the Nordic ECM stylistic mood. The scope is broad and searching, even delving into the mystical themes of the Amazonian natives or the more avant-garde documentation of Japanese cultural expressions.

Eleanna Pitsikaki connects musical worlds with complete naturalness. The kanun, a traditional string instrument from the Eastern Mediterranean, is rarely heard in a jazz context. Yet what might seem like an experiment in other hands feels utterly effortless with her. Her music flows organically, free of any artifice – it simply breathes. On Aroma, jazz, world music, and Mediterranean influences merge into a captivating whole. The pieces thrive on delicate melodies, floating rhythms, and thoughtful arrangements that always leave plenty of space for improvisation. Each musician contributes to this richly textured sound, while Pitsikaki herself shines with virtuosity and deep sensitivity. The music unfolds slowly, almost like a narrative, revealing itself layer by layer – sometimes with a dancing lightness, sometimes with contemplative depth. Aroma is a striking example of how tradition and innovation can coexist in harmony without overshadowing one another. With this album, Eleanna Pitsikaki presents herself as one of the most exciting new voices on the European jazz scene – open, curious, and uncompromisingly musical.

Oleksandr Malyshev's "Live at 32 Jazz Club," the second release in a series of live albums from Kyiv's 32 Jazz Club, captures a vibrant quintet performance recorded on April 5, 2024. The project, initiated at the end of 2023 following the club's first album "Eternal Anxiety: Live at 32 Jazz Club" by saxophonist Viktor Pavelko (where Malyshev served as a sideman), was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Andriy Makarenko—a Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman who worked on it during rare moments of free time amid his duties. As bandleader, composer, and pianist/keyboardist, Malyshev draws from a broad musical palette. In his “library”, there are modern fusion Brazilian influences, and jazz classics interpreted with respect to tradition but without mere imitation. He's a familiar figure at the club as an active sideman in groups like Impressions Jazz Quintet, Bitlo, and D’Electro, and as the organizer of charity jam sessions over the past year. The quintet features prominent Ukrainian jazz musicians: Dennis Adu on trumpet and flugelhorn, Borys Mohylevskyi on alto saxophone, Kostiantyn Ionenko on bass guitar, and Artur Frolov on drums. All compositions are by Malyshev except one by Mohylevskyi. Thematically driven in an era where AI challenges human creativity, the album's tracks emphasize music "about something." Highlights include "Madman" (exploring sounds in the leader's head), pieces dedicated to friends, "Get off the Beach" (expressing a dream), and Mohylevskyi's tender melody about a turtle, which holds a special place for Malyshev.