Keeping up their long track record of signing new names to the label, 22-year-old alto saxophonist composer Immanuel Wilkins has signed to Blue Note with a Jason Moran-produced album Omega to be released on 7 August. Pianist Micah Thomas, bassist Daryl Johns, and drummer Kweku Sumbry are on the record and you can listen to lead-off track, the highly impressive 'Warriors,' Wilkins burning like Greg Osby back in the day, ahead of release.
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A first collaboration between the Marcin Wasilewski trio, one of the greatest European piano trios of the last 30 years, and the iconic tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano
It's refreshing to hear tenor titan Lovano in new settings and keeping new musical company. A very delicate interior sound the Wasilewski trio who have been around a long time (I first heard them in the early 1990s) project, and they have formidable empathy and groupthink quality. Coming in to join them can't have been easy for Lovano but it works well.
Among the material included on the album, a Manfred Eicher produced studio affair recorded in France last summer, are two versions of Carla Bley classic 'Vashkar', one a variation. A thoughtful record, this isn't bravura extrovert jazz by any means. Wasilewski has always liked oblique melody and that preference has not changed nor has his beautiful harmonic grasp that again avoids the obvious. Bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz is strong on tone and like drummer Michal Miskiewicz never grandstands. There is a lot of nuance on this record and it's a pleasure to listen to from beginning to end. SG