Rather beautiful this album of Welsh concert music celebrating Calennig - New Year, drawing on the power and quiet majesty of the ancient Plygain carols of rural Wales. Performed by jazz pianist Huw Warren - known in recent years for his extensive work with June Tabor and Iain Ballamy - here with singer-violinist Angharad Jenkins I could imagine these quite easily fitting into an edition of BBC Radio 3 classical progamme In Tune. Not really jazz at all despite Warren's strong pedigree in the area but I am sure many jazz listeners as will anyone encountering the work be charmed by the ancient sounds carefully collected here and performed so evocatively by Jenkins and Warren. SG
A fine new guitarist to look out for this week is Karim Saber who plays music from his debut Transmission at the Vortex on Wednesday. The British/Iranian player studied at the Royal Academy of Music and recorded his group's debut back in April - it's officially out on the Ubuntu label in early-2024. If you are into go-ahead guitarists like Wolfgang Muthspiel or Ant Law then Saber certainly will appeal. His band in Dalston is pianist Alex Wilson, tenorist Matt Cook, bassist John Jones and drummer Jack Thomas. Click for tickets - and you can listen to the album title track above.