The music had started sounding the same to me, and I feared that I could not listen—or hear—anymore. Then, within a week or so, I came across these five albums—from John Lurie, American Patchwork Quartet, Alexvndria, the Yes! Trio, and Allison Burik—that sound nothing like one another. Thank goodness. Here are five short (mostly) reviews to whet your appetite.
Jazz speaks in many dialects, or maybe it’s more accurate to say that different musical genres find it easy to apply jazz techniques to their native material. Gilfema (Lionel Loueke, Massimo Biolcati, Ferenc Nemeth) applies them to a West African musical palette; the Kenny Barron|Dave Holland Trio, Featuring Johnathan Blake, to a collection of compositions squarely in the mainstream of the American jazz tradition; Grégoire Maret, Romain Collin, and Bill Frisell, to a range of material in the Americana songbook. In sum, we have three outstanding trios offering three satisfying new recordings across a range of sensibilities.
