Emmet Cohen, Uptown in Orbit, Mack Avenue ***

''No, you can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you just might find you'll get what you need.'' Stride is the name of the game. With the pianist Emmet Cohen are bassist Russell Hall and drummer Kyle Poole plus trumpeter Sean Jones

Published: 14 Oct 2022. Updated: 18 months.

''No, you can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you just might find you'll get what you need.''

Stride is the name of the game. With the pianist Emmet Cohen are bassist Russell Hall and drummer Kyle Poole plus trumpeter Sean Jones and saxophonist Patrick Barclay. The tracks with the horns are most involving. Did Uptown in Orbit move me? Not really hand on heart but it's not that kind of record more one where you admire the musicianship more than most and even more than that do a helluva a lot of time travelling and wishing you were around in New York when stride was new.

And yet the style itself despite notable efforts has dated more than most. Cohen is a master of the idiom as is perfectly clear to anyone who has followed his work on or offline in recent years and this latest record continues a remarkable studio streak.

Material includes Cohen and Poole originals plus work by Willie “The Lion” Smith (1939's 'Finger Buster'), Neal Hefti, Cedar Walton, Gerry Mulligan and Duke Ellington. 'My Love Will Come Again' featuring a gorgeous horn line from Sean Jones answered achingly by Barclay is along with 'Finger Buster' streaming ahead of the album's 28 October release. SG

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James Brandon Lewis, 'Someday We'll All Be Free,' Anti ****

Track of the day new in our 1 luv spot is this very passionate, moving, treatment of the Donny Hathaway classic 'Someday We'll All Be Free' (Extension of a Man, Atco, 1973) new on the Anti- label from free-jazz tenor titan James Brandon Lewis. The …

Published: 13 Oct 2022. Updated: 18 months.

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Track of the day new in our 1 luv spot is this very passionate, moving, treatment of the Donny Hathaway classic 'Someday We'll All Be Free' (Extension of a Man, Atco, 1973) new on the Anti- label from free-jazz tenor titan James Brandon Lewis. The track also features cornetist Kirk Knuffke. Drawn from Eye of 1 out next year an album that also includes The Messthetics (guitarist Anthony Pirog Fugazi's Joe Lally and Brendan Canty and Shahzad Ismaily on Moog synthesizer) on the hard hitting 'Fear Not'. More on James Brandon Lewis (above): read about 2021 classic - Code of Being