Category: Album Reviews – Archive

November 26, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

YAKIYA (Tall Poppies) 8/10 This is hair-curling stuff. Bass trombonist Adrian Sherriff, bass guitarist Jonathan Dimond and drummer Adam King share a keen interest in rhythmic complexities, whether by way of superimposing one rhythm atop another or incorporating metric modulation, intricate cycles or other options. The detailed liner-notes provide explanations…

November 19, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

GREAT (MGM/Planet) 7.5/10 This could have been the great album its title suggests, but then Fred Smith is not the first artist to mistake a single album’s worth of material for a double. Unexpectedly (given he is as Australian as an emu), Smith has given all the songs American settings,…

November 17, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

NAT KING COLE & ME (Blue Note) 7.5/10 It takes a certain vocal quality to even attempt this. Choose your own metaphor: whether velvet, honey or melted chocolate, lushness is mandatory, as is the ability to soothe. Nat “King” Cole was a primary influence on the young Gregory Porter, and…