Alex LoRe and Weirdear, Evening Will Find Itself, Whirlwind ***

If you like tart, moody, minor scale-sounding relatively slow-to-midtempo paced avant bop, then this quartet album led by saxist Alex LoRe is made for you, dear reader. Unfamiliar with LoRe? Begin with compelling Marta Sánchez album SAAM the first …

Published: 23 May 2023. Updated: 12 days.

If you like tart, moody, minor scale-sounding relatively slow-to-midtempo paced avant bop, then this quartet album led by saxist Alex LoRe is made for you, dear reader. Unfamiliar with LoRe? Begin with compelling Marta Sánchez album SAAM the first track of which was released two years ago around the same time Evening Will Find Itself here was recorded. The altoist on this actually unweird new release is with pianist Glenn Zaleski, double bassist Desmond White and drummer Allan Mednard. The tunes are quite dour but have a certain robust stickability to them all as the Weirdears never wearily toggle mid-tempo nor tarry unduly on slower runs, LoRe giving us the lowdown via achey sax lines that hint at a basic bluesiness aided and abetted by a quality rhythm section. Zaleski's solo on 'Stripes' is a bright spot and the LoRe tunes make sense speaking to the architecture of the sound with a knowing appreciator's sense of perspective and even detachment as much as anything. Recorded in a Brooklyn studio towards the end of 2021, the album also includes a tribute to Bunky Green. Out now. The photo - top - shows a detail from the cover art

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Azamiah, In Phases, Rebecca's Records ****

Appealing IndoJazz vocals and trombone soaked lounge jazz wrapped in generous vamps and circling motion to chill to here on Glaswegian label Rebecca's Records. Donny Hathaway inspired singer India Blue and the core quartet of instrumentalists (in …

Published: 23 May 2023. Updated: 12 days.

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Appealing IndoJazz vocals and trombone soaked lounge jazz wrapped in generous vamps and circling motion to chill to here on Glaswegian label Rebecca's Records. Donny Hathaway inspired singer India Blue and the core quartet of instrumentalists (in a keys, bass, harp, drums combination) ooze sophistication at every turn. The capable band stroked languidly by drummer Alex Palmer who sets a laidback tempo on opener 'Night Woman' is convincing from the off on this studio album recorded in 2021.

Guests include stand out Scottish trombone star Liam Shortall who impressed a whole lot with Corto.Alto on Not For Now in 2021. Definitely big crossover potential here and it's certainly jazzy enough for the heads without being too niche to scare off the less partisan kind of punter who might approach the album with fewer fixed expectations. Open to enter another swirlier, dancier world beyond certainly as a mid-evening listen over the PA in a bar or restaurant this would be a cool choice and live you'd hazard a guess hearing Azamiah would be a fairly relaxing experience but it's far from content light. And yet there is a pertinent celestial side, provided by the presence of, naturally, harp - Azamiah's Romy Wymer on 'Half Man' finds the beat going more into an IndoJazz fusion space, a language the band begin to explore in a good many places. Some great vocal overdubs weave in and out.

Enhanced in passages by the bubbling percussive flickers of vibrancy that Finn Rosenbaum provides, In Phases takes its time and becomes experimental even on 'Monologue' which says much for the pushing the envelope aspirations of the production on the label, run by DJ Rebecca Vasmant. 'Conversations' set up by a simmering bass riff from Norman Villeroux fluffed out by harp is perhaps the most mystical track and you get a fine free floating vocal from India Blue. While very brief the almost lontano sound quality of Josef Akin's keys on the very brief 'Solace' works but likewise the more dystopian 'Alchemia' is only a vignette. Shortall and saxist Mateusz Sobieski on 'Heroine' act as responders to the seraphic vocals and there's a neat chord progression played on the keys that underpins the groove so infectiously. The scatting India Blue on 'Heroine,' the best track of all, even conjures persistent thoughts of a new Sade in the making - go figure, who knew?

Azamiah, photo: press

'Night Woman' is streaming. The next In Phases single is 'Celesta' which is out tomorrow. Azamiah play Hidden Door at The Complex in Edinburgh on 1 June. The full release of In Phases is out on 16 June