The latest releases reviewed.
STAN TRACEY/BOBBY WELLINS Tracey/Wellins Play Monk reSteamed ****
As pianists, Ellington and Monk had much in common, but there was no mistaking one for the other. Stan Tracey has much in common with both, but there's no mistaking him, either. He's just as individual now, something he emphasises with another unique voice, tenor saxophonist Bobby Wellins, on this marvellous live quartet session recorded a few months ago. Tracey, bassist Andy Cleyndert and drummer Clark Tracey form a rhythm section that could swing a Chinese emperor's terracotta army, and the quartet's joyous response to an all-Monk programme is an example of the kind of ego-free jazz that happens when a band of outstanding musicians is on song. It's a feeling that can't be adequately explained to anyone who is not into the music and, for those who are, no explanations are necessary. Enough said. www.resteamed.com RAY COMISKEY
CHARLES MINGUS Cornell 1964 Blue Note ***
This recently discovered live tape of Mingus's septet has been hailed in the US as a major find, and in truth there are some superb moments scattered over the two CDs of the concert. Mingus was in jovial form - he even called for When Irish Eyes Are Smiling! -
and the septet, with Eric Dolphy, Johnny Coles, Clifford Jordan, Jaki Byard and Dannie Richmond, reflected this in electrifying performances. Particularly striking in parts are the lengthy versions
of his anti-racist Fables of Faubus, the tender Orange, the highly charged Meditations and the sadly prophetic (Dolphy was dead within months) blues, So Long Eric. The often complex music is handled with staggering aplomb and elan, but, as happens with Mingus live, things tend to grow wilder as they progress, and the recording quality, while listenable, is definitely less than optimum. Great in spots, like the curate's egg. RAY COMISKEY
DOROTHY MURPHY Calling Improvised Music Company ****
Curiouser and curiouser. Jazz vocalist Dorothy Murphy betrays the most divine kinship with Björk, her clipped consonants punctuating every lyric with a lurid intensity. Murphy's songs veer from the parchment-dry, cello-coloured lines of Field of Vision to the minor-note classic of the title track, surely an ode to every Francophone jazz fiend from Paris to Dakar. Dermot Dunne's piano accordion and Anne-Marie Farrell's harp add further to the slightly surreal, otherworldly atmosphere of this set piece. The obtusely named Seán Óg infuses the collection with a fine-boned sax: a surrogate Gitane in the midst of a gathering that cries out for smoke-filled darkness. It's the perfect foil for this languid recording, so cohesive that it beggars the need to hawk tracks on a need-to-know, MP3 basis. www.dorothymurphy.com SIOBHÁN LONG
Download tracks: Melt, Field of Vision
ERNST REIJSEGER Do You Still Winter&Winter ****
Reijseger is one of the most moving and original of cellists, ranging freely between classical disciplines and contemporary jazz. On this affecting and beautiful album he is joined by his frequent colleagues, cellist Larissa Groeneveld and pianist Frank van de Laar, exceptional players in their own right. Their lines seem mostly written, with Reijseger roaming to great effect in the context created. Passionate and imaginative, the music is thus marked by a consistent unity of performance, seamlessly marrying the written and the improvised. If Reijseger, who composed and arranged almost all the material, shows any particular leaning in his writing, perhaps it's a touch of Steve Reich in such pieces as the gorgeously other-worldly Passagio and the witty May the Law of Gravity Show You the Way. But this is his world, eloquently indebted to nobody else. http://uk.hmboutique.com RAY COMISKEY
