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JAN GARBAREK
In Praise of Dreams 
ECM

Garbarek's first album in six years unites the great Norwegian saxophonist with a remarkable Armenian-American violist, Kim Kashkashian, and a fine African percussionist, Manu Katché, for some beautiful music. With a focused fascination with melody and sound, there's a folk-like, deceptive simplicity to what they do. Garbarek and Kaskashian weave around each other with such intuitive mutual appreciation that it's hard, at times, to separate the written from the improvised. Regardless of instrument, Garbarek, on tenor and soprano here, has always had a signature, arresting sound, but Kashkashian's is also strikingly personal and expressive. Sampling and some lovely synthesiser (by Garbarek) provide an aural carpet for their unabashedly lyrical encounter. Is it jazz? Who cares?

RENE MARIE
Serene Renegade
MaxJazz

This is a musical autobiography - Marie wrote nine of the 11 pieces here, drawing on her childhood, hometown and family memories, and her adult life, for an often moving example of her superior gifts as a singer-songwriter. So exceptional is her interpretative talent that she can invest almost anything with remarkable feeling, even profundity. And the best songs provide memorable experiences. Wishes is a sad reflection on resignation; Pause deals with handling a difficult decision; Many Years Ago is, unlike Housman's melancholic Blue Remembered Hills, a celebration of childhood; and Autobiography is about the getting of wisdom. One or two pieces don't stand up, but Marie, discreetly backed by her working trio including a fine pianist, Takana Miyamoto, with trumpeter Jeremy Pelt guesting on one track, is extraordinary. www.maxjazz.com