Daily jazz blog, Marlbank

Eurojazz club guide 21-25 May

Magnus Lindgren and John Beasley play Stuttgart on Thursday night. Julian Sartorius Moods, Zurich Tuesday 21 May New peaks? Drummer percussionist Julian Sartorius launches Domodossola – Weissmies. Jesse Cook Porgy and Bess, Vienna Tues 21 May

Published: 16 May 2024. Updated: 2 months.

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Magnus Lindgren and John Beasley play Stuttgart on Thursday night.

New peaks? Drummer percussionist Julian Sartorius launches Domodossola – Weissmies.

Both shows are sold out. Stacey Kent's latest album 2023's Summer Me Winter Me had arrangements by the duchess' husband saxophonist-flautist Jim Tomlinson the anchor the album relies on. Tracks mine a classic era where jazz became the soundtrack of arthouse films and a certain very classy nostalgia was included for no extra charge. Opening with a breezy version of Michel Legrand and the Bergmans' 'Summer Me, Winter Me' Stacey sings in French on another Legrand classic 'La Valse des Lilas' and again you land on one of the chief plus points on a Stacey Kent record: that stately feeling of a lost era and a tempo that takes all the time in the world. Jacques Brel's 'If You Go Away' is sung in two versions, one in English one in French. Quintessential Stacey Kent then - and while not a classic in her discography (for these go to The Changing Lights or Dreamer In Concert first) this move to new label Naïve still means business as usual for a remarkable singer who has a sound completely her own.

The acclaimed US singer Jazzmeia Horn was certainly formidable guesting on Orrin Evans' The Red Door on the 2023 released song 'Big Small.'

US saxist/singer Camille Thurman plays the Swedish capital's foremost jazz club with trumpeter Wallace Roney Jr., pianist David Bryant, bassist Paul Beaudry and drummer Darrell Green.

Playing from Butterfy Effect this stellar duo - US pianist John Beasley best known for his MONK'estra - jump up to speed with his Resonance label 2021 Hear and Now Best-of perhaps but hear Beasley with reedist/flautist the Swede Magnus Lindgren most relevantly together on 2021's work with the SWR, the local Stuttgart radio station jazzband's Grammy winning album, Bird Lives.

Tribute to Sarah Vaughan on the centenary of Sassy's birth from acclaimed east London singer Zara McFarlane and erstwhile Hackney jazz club Kansas Smitty's clarinet kingpin Giacomo Smith.

Huh? Abacaxi is Portuguese for pineapple, natch.

Acclaimed alto saxist-composer Caroline Davis' Köln concert at the Stadtgarten is a must - Davis is with pianist Julian Shore, bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Allan Mednard

The vibes are the lead instrument on Following the Sun given this is the formidable French jazzer Alexis Valet's record recently released - he leads an all-star Stateside group. Everyone is well known on it and the album recorded in the US is more than the sum of its illustrious parts. Tenor saxist Dayna Stephens - Gratitude proved a key record of Stephens' in recent years - pianist's pianist Aaron Parks (whose input was also significant on Gratitude), double bassist Joe Martin and drummer Kush Adadey - who is on the new Blue Note Ethan Iverson album Technically Acceptable - complete the quintet of players. Following the Sun was recorded in a studio in the New York borough of Queens in 2022. The album sports an ultra hip approach but does not try too hard. Originals of Valet's - who shakes and vacs to put the freshness back compositionally - played beautifully by everyone land in a melodic 21st century blissed out take on progressive hard bop. So if you like Jalen Baker whose Be Still we chilled to last year these sounds are perfectly compatible and rub along wonderfully. With Valet and Stephens in Barcelona the band is completed by pianist Tony Tixier, bassist Ameen Saleem and drummer Adam Arruda.

On a Cape Town crusade - seek out pianist Nobuhle Ashanti.

Not a club (but near a few) happening en plein air in reliably surreal Brussels, it's hip to be square.

GIG OF THE WEEK:

Oh, what a line-up. Featuring the swish swingalongadingdong Stepping Stones (Cellar Live) line-up of His Higness sans orb and sceptre Dave of the sax joining Canadian pianist-leader Sean Fyfe, bassist Luke Fowler and drummer Matt Fishwick (who displayed consummate sticksmanship with saxist Alex Merritt on 2022's Mind-Ear-Ladder).

Walk Away legend vibist Bernard Maseli is in the house.

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Outubro - from the stellar summertime release Milton + Esperanza - is streaming

Esperanza Spalding and Milton Nascimento, photo: Lucas Nogueira. Featuring Paul Simon, Dianne Reeves, Lianne La Havas, Shabaka Hutchings, Tim Bernardes, Maria Gadú and Wayne Shorter's wife Carolina, 'Outubro' from summertime Milton Nascimento and …

Published: 15 May 2024. Updated: 2 months.

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Esperanza Spalding and Milton Nascimento, photo: Lucas Nogueira.

Featuring Paul Simon, Dianne Reeves, Lianne La Havas, Shabaka Hutchings, Tim Bernardes, Maria Gadú and Wayne Shorter's wife Carolina, 'Outubro' from summertime Milton Nascimento and Esperanza Spalding release Milton + Esperanza (Concord, 9 August), is streaming.

Recorded in Brazil last year the album has 16 tracks and features Nascimento classics, Spalding originals and treatments of The Beatles' 'A Day In The Life' and Michael Jackson's 'Earth Song' among its spread.

Spalding's Nascimento inspirations go back to Wayne Shorter classic Native Dancer particularly the Brazilian icon’s 1975 collaboration with global jazz great saxophonist and composer Shorter, with whom Spalding later worked on the opera Iphigenia (2021) late in the saxist's lifetme.

Spalding met Nascimento partly though an introduction made by Herbie Hancock. And Nascimento sang luminously in duo with the US singer-bassist-composer Spalding on the Oregonian's 2010 album Chamber Music Society's 'Apple Blossom.'

The core band on Milton + Esperanza includes guitarist Matthew Stevens, drummers Justin Tyson and Eric Doob, pianist Leo Genovese, vocalist/synth player Corey D. King + Orquestra Ouro Preto, percussionists Kainã Do Jêje and Ronaldinho Silva and guitarists Lula Galvão & Guinga.

Spalding - whose duo album Alive at the Village Vanguard [2022] with pianist Fred Hersch we loved - originals on the upcoming album include 'Wings for the Thought Bird' and 'Get It By Now' and there is a version of Wayne Shorter Atlantis piece 'When You Dream' featuring Wayne's wife Carolina Shorter.