Forever (Decca) It could almost be a flaw from a classical tragedy. A gifted singer, swollen with acclaim and popularity, suddenly believes he or she can write songs. It’s rife among jazz singers who, vexed by trying to make standards live anew, trot out trite ditties of their own,…
Category: Album Reviews
Afro Blue Impressions (Concord) If Louis Armstrong was jazz’s great innovator (and its heart) and Duke Ellington its key composer, John Coltrane remains its supreme improviser. In extending the saxophone’s potential he also stretched the music’s very fabric. Never had such boiling energy been unleashed; never had exultancy and anguish…
Balkan Spirit (Alia Vox/Fuse) The latest instalment in Jordi Savall’s Odysseus-like musical journey around the Mediterranean rim is typically glorious, but here his stately ensembles recreating the ancient music of Spain or Turkey give way to lively smaller bands and tearaway improvising. Savall embarked upon this project with a point…