Kevin Sun, The Depths of Memory, Endectomorph ****

The most significant statement yet of just what tenor saxophonist and composer Kevin Sun can do is provided here on a double CD length series of recordings made in various New York studios during 2021 and 2022. Somehow, listening, on 'Interior …

Published: 29 Oct 2023. Updated: 6 months.

The most significant statement yet of just what tenor saxophonist and composer Kevin Sun can do is provided here on a double CD length series of recordings made in various New York studios during 2021 and 2022. Somehow, listening, on 'Interior Choruses' you land courtesy of pianist Dana Saul in a world Lennie Tristano would have recognised and yet seems relevant today. Saul is magnificent again at the beginning of 'From Some Unseen Center'. While often the tunes work on a skeletal level their core sound is beefed up by trumpeter Adam O’Farrill on a generous selections of tracks (particularly convincing on the first part of the balladic 'Eponymous Cycle') while bass duties are shared by Simón Willson and Walter Stinson and drum parts split between Matt Honor and Dayeon Seok. You feel as if you have been transported to a New York loft sometime in the 1950s or early 60s because the recording has a certain nostalgic glean to it but its modernism keeps it relevant in a jazz world today where there is no obvious right or wrong stylistically. Tunes here are concise and make their point - the album goes freer on the 'Depths' suite - and while not a grandstanding big technique player at all Sun shows his versatility in surprising ways, the quiet timbral ache he conjures on 'Shadow Meridian' for instance hits the spot.

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The Saturday morning listen: Harper trio, Passing By, Little Yellow Man Records

Gratifyingly shorn of any of the clichés you usually encounter on a ''spiritual jazz'' harp record Passing By is something of a breath of fresh air from relative newcomer harpist Maria-Christina Harper here with ex-Neil Cowley drummer Evan Jenkins …

Published: 28 Oct 2023. Updated: 6 months.

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Gratifyingly shorn of any of the clichés you usually encounter on a ''spiritual jazz'' harp record Passing By is something of a breath of fresh air from relative newcomer harpist Maria-Christina Harper here with ex-Neil Cowley drummer Evan Jenkins and saxophonist Josephine Davies - the latter in particularly fine form - alongside. Tunes are easy to latch on to - a touch of psychedelia enhances 'In Cairo / Grandma's Coat' and you get plenty of flow in the lead harp lines from the Greek-born Harper who has Egyptian roots. The album was very cleanly engineered by James McMillan at his south coast studio and you get a real sense of immediacy particularly in the saxophone lines on 'Safe Place'. A pleasant surprise of an album full of Harper's excellent, reliably soothing, tunes.