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More Reviews
May 2015
Click on the Artist/Title to read our review
ADJQ - Just Friends
TONY ALESS - & His Long Island Suite
JULIAN ARGÜLLES - Let It Be Told
BURAK BEDIKYAN – Circle of Life & Leap of Faith 
SAMUEL BLASER QUARTET - Spring Rain
RUBY BRAFF - Braff!!  Featuring Coleman Hawkins
LUCIA BRIGHENTI – Objets de Vertu
JAKOB BRO – Gefion
AVISHAI COHEN TRIO - From Darkness
COLEMAN – AHEARN QUARTET – Cooper Ridge
SCOTT HAMILTON QUINTET - Swinging Young Scott
JOHNNY HARTMAN - The Complete Bethlehem Sessions
KEITH JARRETT – Creation & Barber / Bartók / Jarrett 
NOEL LANGLEY – Edentide
SINIKKA LANGELAND – The Half-Finished Heaven
THELONIOUS MONK - Thelonious Monk Trio/Plays Duke Ellington & The Unique Thelonious Monk /Monk’s Dream
THELONIOUS MONK QUARTET - The Complete 1966 Geneva Concert
VERONICA MORTENSEN - Presents Passed
MATT OWENS – The Aviators’ Ball
OxJaMS TRIO - Suite of Dreams
FLORIAN PELLISIER QUINTET  -  Biches Bleues
OSCAR PETERSON - Plays the George Gershwin Songbook
CYMIN SAMAWATIE & CYMINOLOGY – Phoenix
FRANK SINATRA - The Complete Studio Recordings with Tommy Dorsey
SNARKY PUPPY & METROPLE ORKEST - Sylva
THE SPIRIT FARM
TRIOLOGOS - Trace di Canti 
WARREN VACHE QUINTET - Remembers Benny Carter
EBERHARD WEBER – Encore
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FAST TRACKS...more reviews in brief
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ANDERS JORMIN / LENA WILLEMARK / KARIN NAKAGAWA - Trees Of Light (ECM)
A collaborative trio featuring two musicians from Sweden and Japanese koto virtuoso, Karin Nakagawa that draws music from the folk and classical traditions of their respective countries. The best known to readers of these pages will be bassist  Anders Jormin through his work with painists Bobo Stenson and Jon Balke, and also with Charles Lloyd and Tomasz Stanko.
All three members contribute compositions, with the arrangements credited to the Trio with the music performed adhering very much to their collective identity. Often instruments swap 'roles' with the 25 string koto accompanying violin and bass, although perhaps it when Jormin takes the more traditonal line and anchors down proceedings that the music is at its best  
Reviewed by Nick Lea

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SAVINA YANNATOU & PRIMAVERA EN SALONICO - Songs Of Thessaloniki (ECM)
For her fourth release for ECM Savina Yannatou loks to her own hometown and delves deep in to the complex history of the cities multicultural past. The music is therefore very rooted in tradition, and the assembled musicians bring authentic instruments from their musical and cultural heritage employing the oud, nay and qanun along with more familiar instruments.
The music is drawn from the Thessoliniki of the 19th and early 20th century and depicts the bustling and vibrant city that embraced many different religions and communities with influences from Western European, Greeks, Jews, Armenians and Pontiac Greeks all thrown into the melting pot.
As you will by now have established, this is not a jazz album, but collects traditional songs from Armenia, Greece and Turkey, as well as Irish folk song to produce a music that is as much a hybrid of styles and diverse influences as jazz would become, and yet still has the power and beauty to communicate it's message in the 21st century.
Reviewed by Nick Lea 

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ECM celebrates 50 years of music production with the Touchstones series of re-issues