Corto.Alto continuing to set the Scottish scene pace have released 'Brotherhood'

From November Worm Discs EP release Not For Now Corto.Alto are continuing to set the hip-hop/bebop pace on the Scottish scene reaching out beyond and now here with 'Brotherhood' that features the spoken word contribution of Franz Von who MCs K.O.G …

Published: 14 Oct 2021. Updated: 2 years.

From November Worm Discs EP release Not For Now Corto.Alto are continuing to set the hip-hop/bebop pace on the Scottish scene reaching out beyond and now here with 'Brotherhood' that features the spoken word contribution of Franz Von who MCs K.O.G & The Zongo Brigade. 'Brotherhood' is one of five tracks, another of which features dazzling hard bop and jazz-rock trumpeter James Copus. The band's leader trombonist Liam Shortall notes on Bandcamp: “I called this E.P Not for Now in reply to 'Is That It?' the last track from Live at 435 featuring a hero of mine Soweto Kinch.” Dates coming up include the Great Western festival in Glasgow on 13 November.

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Bram De Looze teams up with Eric McPherson and Felix Henkelhausen on avant and African-flavoured Vice Versa

A very fresh-sounding piano trio for your radar Vice Versa is released on Friday. While album track 'Out of the Way' has its longueurs, given its glacial arco bass and a tendency to swerve right away from the atmosphere set impressively on 'The …

Published: 13 Oct 2021. Updated: 2 years.

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A very fresh-sounding piano trio for your radar Vice Versa is released on Friday. While album track 'Out of the Way' has its longueurs, given its glacial arco bass and a tendency to swerve right away from the atmosphere set impressively on 'The Sequel' which for me was an excellent start reminiscent of the ''first'' Vijay Iyer trio sound. Hearing Eric McPherson is a different experience than say if you know the drummer's work with Ethan Iverson. That is because this is more ascetic essentially. The album certainly comes alive on the pick of the tracks 'Toubaka (Soundioulou Sissoko)' a homage to the Senegalese kora legend Soundioulou Sissoko and yet recast completely in the trio's specific image. The handsome recorded sound quality of the album does a lot of favours to the double bass resonance of the German Felix Henkelhausen and on the Vice Versa title track begun by solo bass you get a sense of how fully his sound has been captured as the woodiness of the bass surrounds the entire space. Belgian pianist Bram De Looze doesn't convey by any means an orthodox standards and swing approach and the Iyer comparison is apt certainly in the cerebral aspect throughout when this imaginative trio settles and real development begins.

Felix Henkelhausen, top left, Eric McPherson, Bram De Looze. Photo: Bjorn Comhaire