Josephine Davies is a saxophonist/composer with a fine ear for the colours of a big band. The Enso Ensemble is her 17 piece ensemble, including some of the finest British improvisers. This album is themed around the 8 parts of the Celtic Wheel of the Year, beginning with the Summer Solstice and moving through the darkness of winter and back out again. Davies has worked closely with the great Mike Gibbs, and the flow of her writing, the way she brings out different big-band sounds, always leaving room for lots of interesting improvisation, carries his (always benign!) influence.

John Patitucci’s new studio album Spirit Fall, featuring Chris Potter and Brian Blade exploring themes of unity, spiritual growth, and musical innovation to showcase his artistry as a visionary bassist and bandleader. The album draws inspiration from the rich tradition of New York trio music, echoing the innovative spirit of legends such as Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. Nine out of ten songs written by Patitucci himself, except for Wayne Shorter's House of jade from the 1965 record Juju.

For some reason there are not that many real creative masters of the accordion within the jazz genre. Here is one! Portuguese João Frade (b. 1983) got his first accordion when he was seven years old, and ten years of studies followed. He now works as a composer, arranger, sideman and producer. Apart from the unique Portuguese Fado-tradition he is inspired by jazz, classical music as well as folk music. João Frade has developed an eclectic and cosmopolitan language and the interplay with bassist Munir Hossn and drummer Micael Olivera is of the highest order – several excellent guests get plenty of space and further broaden the scope of this release.

The great thing about jazz musicians is their ability to play anything, to mix anything, to grasp anything. And when a group like The Young Mothers embark on a protean music that embraces virtually every component of Great Black Music, we understand that the result is and will remain timeless. Their third album, Better If You Let It, is a perfect example. Rap verses, saturated guitars, intoxicating percussion, groove and horns blend into an unstoppable bitches' brew. One is reminded of The Last Poets, The Roots, Sun Ra, Don Cherry, Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk... the list is endless.

Lysis is a deeply human, touching album.

The adjective progressive fits these ‘Cosmic Light Clusters’ perfectly, albeit without the limiting connotation with prog. There is much more to experience here including the predominant coherence that is regularly broken with inventive bravado coupled with continuously expanding perspectives. A peerless cosmic trip from start to finish. Do yourself a favour and seek out the previous chapters of this saga of which several more volumes will soon follow. (Georges Tonla Briquet)

Latvian saxophonist and Latvian Radio Big Band artistic director Kārlis Vanags has released a massive sounding album for his jazz trio and two orchestras, dedicated to the legendary Sonny Rollins LP Saxophone Colossus. Although the influence from Rollins is not hidden, this is Kārlis Vanags’ original music, which features the bright expressions of double bassist Edvīns Ozols and drummer Artis Orubs, as well as the powerful sound of the Latvian Radio Big Band and Liepāja Symphony Orchestra. The three-part cycle, recorded at a concert in the Latvian city of Liepāja, is likely to appeal to both jazz and classical music lovers.

Silvan Strauss is already a big name in our jazz scene. He has introduced us to unconventional ideas and collaborations with many highly interesting musical personalities. On "Flukin" he surprises us once again with fresh ideas. Innovative sounds, rhythms and highly interesting compositions. A great album for those who are looking for a respite from contemporary gibberish and have tried in vain to find it by turning the radio dial.

Luis Nacht, sax / Demian Cabaud, double bass/ Jeff Williams, drums. All that baggage is filtered by the contemporary sensibility of three enormous musicians who are not content with imitating genre clichés; Nacht, Cabaud and Williams take that tradition and reimagine it from a current perspective to create an album as personal as it is complete.

V Апофеоз (V Apotheosis) is a live album by Ukrainian saxophonist Andrii Barmalii, a strikingly bright figure on the local jazz scene. It marks his second full-length release following the explosive debut Autoportrack, where he made a bold statement as a music producer. While rooted in jazz and improvised music, his distinctive aesthetic draws from techno, dub, rock, and experimental influences. This time, however, the album takes an acoustic form, featuring an outstanding lineup of Ukrainian improvisers —Oleksandr Yavdyk (drums), Yevhen Pugachov (guitar), Maryan Karpinskyi (guitar), and Stanislav Diachenko (bass). Karpinskyi and Pugachov also appeared in previous album reviews at the Media Chart. V Апофеоз presents a striking contrast of raw intensity and poignant melodicism— as they say, it is an “immersive artistic act”, because it is the fifth part of the long-term project called Do Lia (which means “destiny” in Ukrainian,  but also the notes C and A in solmization).  After all, we have been growing up on the music of Ambrose Akinmusire, which I can still hear in everything they do. Listening to this album, you can feel what it means to carry the unbearable, to long for lost freedom, yet remain ready to dedicate a lifetime to fighting for it.

Living Ghosts is a textbook example of what a modern piano trio is capable of - respecting tradition while simultaneously presenting a fresh, innovative approach. An outstanding album.

Knut Kristiansen (born 1946) is the very veteran of the jazz scene in Bergen. His piano playing is characterized by the fact that Thelonious Monk is in his spine. And over the years he has collaborated with relatively much younger musicians, which he also does on his new album Volum. Here he collaborates with tenor saxophonist Aksel Røed, bassist Magne Thormodsæter and drummer Sigurd Steinkopf, and alongside his own compositions, in the Monk tradition, we get compositions by Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Esa Kotilainen / Nils Aslak Valkapää, which the relatively young band performs with great conviction.

With his new, strikingly titled album Blame It On My Chromosones, Alex Koo picks up the pace relentlessly after his solo outing Etudes for Piano from two years back. This time in trio form with double bassist Lennart Heyndels and drummer Dré Pallemaerts as heroes alongside Koo and with American trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire as a guest. That he has always been extremely talented and eager to learn may be obvious but as fascinating as he continues to grow is quite surprising. Like compatriot Bram De Looze, Koo plays without hesitation with the world's greatest jazz musicians and they watch and listen to him with as much attention as he pays to them. For ten pieces, the adventure is full present, it seems like Koo wants to showcase everything he is currently at. And what a delightful excess of ideas and class that is. In Heyndels and Pallemaerts he has his ideal companions who are equally adventurous and challenging.

Daniel Herskedal is always in harmony, even with himself when he performs solo. Sometimes he is a pacesetter, sometimes he communicates in the language of wailing whales; his tuba at times transforms itself to a muted flugelhorn. Tuba or not tuba is a question he has answered long time ago... And Dale and Norbakken create the interplay for the fireside.

Amado's tenor saxophone intertwines with Maranha's sombre and nebulous organ, which, in an infinite drone, inflicts a constant weight; Amado's tenor saxophone flutters, rough, sometimes even poetic. Organ and saxophone combine their registers which, although contracting, merge into a block of sound. One of the most surprising encounters of the year results in a memorable album.

Drummer Sun-Mi Hong (1990) could be from a more or less close by star but actually she is just a too much down-to-earth, gripping phenomenon on everyday life ground. She is both and mostly more than that permeating with special powers from within and depths down under. She cannot be grasped in usual dualistic sense. This kind of overall effect manifests itself in the lushly and dynamically fluctuating, mingling and passing sound images that tell of her odyssey through music making and shaping of her personal life.  It’s a constant attempt to catch the sound of life and to surf on its movements dauntlessly, sensitively and full of passion through the waves. In recent years she has grown into a non-shy, versatile and infectious key-figure of the Amsterdam-scene and meanwhile has crossed Europe with her own group and as sideman in a lot of collectives. Even when you know her playing each appearance up to now has to offer surprise to discover. Downbeat critic Kurt Gottschalk saw her performing last autumn once in Wroclaw, Poland, and nominated her immediately for the international 2024 El Intruso Critics-Poll as best drummer of the year. “Fourth Page …” is her fourth album (and the second for British Edition Records). It is an eight-part suite produced with class trumpeter Alistair Payne, a partnership like that of Carla Bley and Steve Swallow. Her quintet is a long time, firmly and deeply connected posse of two musicians with Korean, two with Italian and one with Scottish background: Sun-Mi Hong (comp, ld, dr), Chaerin Im (p), Nicolò Ricci (ts), Alistair Payne (tr), Alessandro Fongaro (b).