Latest releases reviewed
IRO HAARLA
Northbound ECM
****
Composer/pianist/harpist Iro Haarla played a crucial part in the groundbreaking music of her late husband, Edward Vesala. This colours, in part, Northbound, a lovely, melancholy album, though Haarla's approach to actual performance is, perhaps, more collaborative. She strikes a fine balance between the written and improvised; both inside and outside, the music's spacious but controlled feel is surely hers. Bringing out the lyrical qualities of these slow, mournful pieces is the passionately engaged work of Trygve Seim (tenor/soprano) and Mattias Eick (trumpet), who are extraordinarily affecting on With Thanksgiving, Barcarole, Yarra, Yarra and an anthemic Light in the Sadness. Bassist Uffe Krokfors and drummer Jon Christensen also dialogue superbly in a group whose openness, mutual responsiveness and dynamics are remarkable. www.musicconnection.org.uk
Ray Comiskey
JOHN TAYLOR
Songs and Variations CamJazz
****
A solo programme of Taylor performing all his own music virtually guarantees something out of the ordinary. So it proves here. In a beautiful exposition of sweepingly romantic piano playing, he creates a series of moods, by turns sad, nostalgic, joyful, dancing and playful, which have a suggestive capacity as varied as their emotional climate, though his titles don't always give a clue; Wych Hazel is more like the memory of a past love, for example. He's also a great melodist; both In Cologne and the very different In February are stunningly beautiful examples of his ability to come up with charming themes and match them with equally beguiling solos. And three short, free pieces show, paradoxically, how disciplined and imaginative, in terms of line and harmony, he is in a context like this. Lovely. www.harmoniamundi.com
Ray Comiskey
ADAM ROGERS
Apparitions Criss Cross
****
Intelligent, inventive, technically brilliant, Rogers is now clearly one of the finest guitarists around. This, his third album, reunites him with the outstanding group he led on his second, Allegory - Chris Potter (tenor) and the Edward Simon-Scott Colley-Clarence Penn rhythm section. Again, Rogers wrote all the music, which manages the difficult feat of being simultaneously challenging structurally, rhythmically and harmonically, without letting its complexity blunt the performances. It's epitomised by The Maya, a deceptively simple line with multiple sections, key changes and time signatures, which never loses its flow or sense of wholeness. Overall, Potter is again astonishing, while Rogers is, if anything, an even finer player this time round, and the rhythm section is terrific. www.crisscrossjazz.com
Ray Comiskey
