Europe Jazz Media Chart

Christine Stephan, JAZZTHETIK

Nils Wülker: DECADE, Warner

 

Viktor Bensusan, jazzdergisi.com

Peter Brötzmann: SAXOPHONE SPECIAL, Naughty Dog

A real gem of European Free Jazz from 40 years ago in the then-western border of Eastern Europe. Tunes with no titles and until now an album with no physical CD. The line-up (or sax-up) will tell the rest of the story: Peter Brotzmann, Evan Parker, Willem Breuker, Steve Lacy, John Tchicai (s), Klaus Koch (b) and Gunter “Baby” Sommer (d).

Henning Bolte, Written in Music

Sungjae Son / Suwuk Chung / Yulhee Kim /Soojin Suh: NEAR EAST QUARTET, ECM

What you hear here is music taking time and enlarging space, music of a different beguiling pace – a conjunction of rare beauty. It is music expanding and contracting, condensing and unloosening. It’s music that is raw and sophisticated, driving and lingering, ethereal and visceral, highly awake and traumverloren. What these two male and two female Korean musicians play is full of productive paradoxes generating a captivating sound world carrying listeners out far beyond known wavelengths. The music personally struck and seized me not least as (female) drummer Soojin Suh has listened deeply to the drumming of Paul Motian.

Anna Berglund, OrkesterJournalen

Sanna Ruohoniemi: START FROM NOTHING, Eclipse

 

Cim Meyer, Jazz Special

Mikkel Ploug / MArk Turner: FAROE, Sunnyside

Only guitar and tenor sax. A stunningly subdued performance by two musicians, who have worked together regularly for ten years.

Lars Mossefinn, Dag og tid:

Atomic: PET VARIATIONS, Odin

 

Axel Stinshoff, Jazz thing

Johannes Enders: ENDORPHIN, Enja

 

Luca Vitali, Giornale della Musica

Henriksen / Aarset / Bang / French: THE HEIGHT OF THE REEDS, Rune Grammofon

 

Madli-Liis Parts , Muusika

Merje Kägu Ensemble: WHEN SILENCE FALLS, Losen

 

Paweł Brodowski, Jazz Forum

Anna Maria Jopek & Branford Marsalis: ULOTNE, AMJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5J_KioPn84The great American saxophonist joins the Polish jazz singer as co-partner on this double CD. The album’s title means “Volatile”, referring perhaps to the transitory nature of music and the feelings, which it tries to capture and reflect. Anna Maria sings in Polish. The repertoire focuses on her jazz-tinged renditions of Polish folk melodies and her own folk inspired songs. Tomasz Stanko’s  “A Farewell to Maria” is a tribute to the late icon of Polish jazz. In addition to the strong presence of Branford Marsalis, who excels on soprano saxophone, the album features Mino Cinelu on percussion and some of the top Polish jazz players, including Krzysztof Herdzin and Marcin Wasilewski on piano. Plus the ubiquitous Atom String Quartet.

Mike Flynn, Jazzwise

Flying Machines: NEW LIFE, Ubuntu

 

Anna Filipieva, Jazz.Ru

Wayne Shorter: EMANON, Blue Note

 

Jan Granlie, salt-peanuts.eu

Hanna Paulsberg Concept + Magnus Broo: DAUGHTER OF THE SUN, Odin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k0O0vWqd-EHanna Paulsnerg and her band, Concept, have made their best album to date. Not only because they have gotten the Swedish trumpeter Magnus Broo as a guest. But as much because Paulsberg has found her place in the music. Her  way of composing has grown a lot, and she appears as a strong band leader, without stepping on any of the other musicians' feet. A record from a band I look forward to listen to the next time they show up. And a record with many roots in the jazz history with a lot of inspirations from South Africa, and with five musicians who follow each other all the way in a brilliant way. Even in the bonus track, which comes after some seconds after the sixth track, where we get Grönberg and Paulsberg in a beautiful duet at the start, before Fiske and Hulbækmo comes in, is briliant. I do not quite know why this should be a bonus track, because it works well together with the other tracks, but maybe it's a test for us to write about the album, if we bother to hear through the entire recording?