Europe Jazz Media Chart

 

Axel Stinshoff, Jazz thing

Maik Krahl Quartet: FRACTION, Challenge.

 

Luca Vitali, Giornale della Musica

Jon Hassell: DI SEEING THROUGH SOUND (Pentimento Volume Two), Ndeya.

 

Madli-Liis Parts, Muusika

Charles Tolliver: CONNECT, Gearbox.

 

Paweł Brodowski, Jazz Forum

Włodek Gulgowski: BEYOND INFINITY, Soliton.

This is a long-awaited album by Włodek Gulgowski, a Polish born, Swedish based veteran pianist and composer. The album features his intriguing original music, with classical, electronic and jazz elements, performed solo on acoustic piano and keyboards. The action is constantly moving forward, unfolding an ever-developing story built on pulsating rhythms, dynamic shifts, changing moods and colors.
Gulgowski first emerged in the early 1960s as a member of the legendary Zbigniew Namysłowski Quartet, with whom he toured Great Britain and recorded Lola (Decca), the first Polish jazz album released in the West (1964). He soon emigrated to Sweden, reuniting with Namysłowski in the next decade on two albums, Pop Workshop 1 and Pop Workshop 2, the latter including Tony Williams on drums. In the mid-70s Gulgowski lived temporarily in New York, collaborating with, among others, Michał Urbaniak, Al Di Meola, Steve Gadd and Anthony Jackson.

 

Mike Flynn, Jazzwise

Tigran Hamasyan: THE CALL WITHIN, Nonesuch.

 

Anna Filipieva, Jazz.Ru

Lenny Sendersky & Moon Strings: BLUES MIZRAHI, Losen.

Saxophonist Lenny Sendersky, based in Tel Aviv, Israel, recorded his newest album with Russian musicians in Lenny’s native St. Petersburg; the resulting tracks (eight originals and three standards, arranged in the jazz/classical crossover vein) were released on a Norwegian label; the beauty of today’s multicultural, polycentric world!

 

Jan Granlie, salt-peanuts.eu

Kenny Warren Trio: IN THE HEAT, Whirlwind.

 

Christine Stephan, Jazzthetik

Sigurd Hole: LYS / MØRKE, Elvesang.

 

Viktor Bensusan, jazzdergisi.com

Ant Law: SLEEPER WAKES, Edition.

A brilliant album by a guitar genius for these isolated times...

 

Henning Bolte, Written in Music

Benjamin Moussay: PROMONTOIRE, ECM

Pianist Benjamin Moussay has a beautiful gift to just by two carefully set tones transport listeners fully into experiencing a deeper world layer of calmly roaming and astounding sensing. In short, he creates distance to the everyday outside business and simultaneously access to freed intimate sensing and contemplating our state of being.
While shades might wave in and inexorably darken the mental scenery evoked by his magic tone colors it also brightens in non-predictable ways. It is interweaving mystery and clarity where the real and the magic meet and illuminate each other.
It’s small pianistic gestures with meaningful halts, which give this carefully orchestrated music its deep reaching impact – a humble masterwork. This music trusts itself and lets listeners find themselves, something needed in these disrupted days. 

 

Magnus Nygren, JAZZ

Ambrose Akinmusire: ON THE TENDER SPOT OF EVERY CALLOUSED MOMENT, Blue Note.

Strong in form, but also open for a lot of improvisation. The music of trumpeter and composer Ambrose Akinmusire is always complex, sometimes weird and contradictory but also tender, beautiful and sad. This new album is no exception. It is a dissection of black life in America. With titles like Blues (we measure the heart with a fist) and Reset (quiet victories & celebrated defeats) he brings his music into a devoted atmosphere and it’s all possible to sense both anger and love. 

 

Cim Meyer, Jazz Special

Maria Schneider Orchestra: DATA LORDS, ArtistShare

An exceptional amount of work has been put into this project by Maria Schneider – one of the most gifted big band composers and arrangers ever. So much music to dive into and so many views to consider. A corner stone in her oeuvre.

 

Lars Mossefinn, Dag og tid

Waldemar 4: THE BUOY AND THE SEA, AMP.

 

Matthieu Jouan, citizenjazz.com

Christian Lillinger's Open Form For Society: LIVE, Plaist.

The great project, made in and for the studio, was performed live at Jazzfest Berlin 2019. This circular stage covered with many instruments, heavy and highly tuned, was the place of a heathen ceremony, where drummer Lillinger was heart-beating the audience. This very composed and framed music was warmed and shoved by legion of keys (grand piano, upright piano, synth, keyboards) and blades (vibraphone, marimba). A must heard.