Europe Jazz Media Chart - February 2020

A selection of the hot new music surfacing across the continent this month by the top European jazz magazines and websites

Jan Granlie, Salt-peanuts.eu (Pan-Scandinavian)

JON RUNE STRØM/ANDRÉ ROLIGHETEN: Arv (Stone Floor Records)

All the way this is beautiful music. Good and well-considered improvisations around more standardized Norwegian folk tunes, and an interaction that works brilliantly.It never happens that they try to make folk music "artificial" jazz related. But instead, they incorporate Hilmar Alexandersen and Karl Johansen Rosenberg's eternal tunes into an improvisational landscape that they master to their fullest. In the songs for which they are responsible, they go a bit further "out" in the free-jazz-like style, and create good and delicious moods, so that the the record is wonderful and various. This record has been around for a few weeks in my player. I've picked it up a number of times during the Christmas holiday and played it while the sour wind has ruled outside the windows here in Copenhagen. and every time I've put on the record, the heat has come. And that's something that not happens every time you put on a record

Christine Stephan, JAZZTHETIK (Germany)

CARLA BLEY/ANDY SHEPPARD/STEVE SWALLOW: Life Goes On (ECM)

Viktor Bensusan, Jazzdergisi.com (Turkey)

JOEY ALEXANDER: Warna (Verve)

Joey is incredible in every sense, all you have to do is just listen to this 16-year-old musician from Indonesia...

Henning Bolte, Written in Music (Netherlands)

CARLA BLEY/ANDY SHEPPARD/STEVE SWALLOW: Life Goes On (ECM)

Magnus Nygren, OrkesterJournalen (Sweden)

PETER BRÖTZMANN: I Surrender Dear (Trost)

Cim Meyer, Jazz Special (Denmark)

PETER ROSENDAL WITH THE ORCHESTRA AND TRIO MIO: Trickster (Stunt Records)

Lars Mossefinn, Dag og tid (Norway)

TIM BERNE SNAKEOIL: The Fantastic mrs. 10 (Intakt Records)

Matthieu Jouan, Citizenjazz.com (France)

CLAUDE TCHAMITCHIAN TRIO: Poetic Power (Emouvance)

A very ethereal trio, with constantly lyrical compositions by bass player Claude Tchamitchian, who keeps on impressing by his musicality, his sense of staging and his artistic choices, like this trio with saxophonist Christophe Monniot and drummer Tom Rainey

Axel Stinshoff, Jazz Thing (Germany)

CHARLES LLOYD 8: Kindred Spirits (Live From The Lobero) (Blue Note)

Luca Vitali, Giornale della Musica (Italy)

CHRISTIAN WALLUMRØD ENSEMBLE: Many (HUBRO)

Madli-Liis Parts, Muusika (Estonia)

KRISTJAN RANDALU/DAVE LIEBMAN: Mussorgsky Pictures Revisited (BMC Budapest)

Paweł Brodowski, Jazz Forum (Poland)

PIOTR DAMASIEWICZ AND POWER OF THE HORNS ENSEMBLE: Polska (Astigmatic Records)

It is surprising that for Piotr Damasiewicz & Power of the Horns Ensemble, which was launched to high acclaim 10 years ago, “Polska” is its only second release, following the concert album “Alaman” of six years ago. Unbelievable as it sounds, the preperation and research for this inspired album took the trumpet playing leader a 4,000 km walking pilgrimage through several countries, with 100 solo concerts in 100 temples. The music was recorded in 2018 in a Warsaw studio. The instrumentation is made up of trumpet, three saxes, trombone, piano, two basses and drums. The nonet includes such such stellar musicians as Maciej Obara on alto sax and Dominik Wania on piano

Mike Flynn, Jazzwise (UK)

JZ REPLACEMENT FEATURING TIM LEFEBVRE: Disrespectful (Rainy Days)

Anna Filipieva, Jazz.ru (Russia)

LIVE PEOPLE ENSEMBLE: High Water (Fancy Music)

Deep, dark, emotionally rich, and intellectually rewarding: the new work by Moscow-based pianist/composer Natalya Skvortsova and her Live People Ensemble, reinforced by two equally prolific improvisers, Pavel Skornyakov on alto and Yury Sevastyanov on tenor sax, the rock solid bassist Daria Chernakova and the versatile drummer Petr Ivshin