Lewis Wright, Matt Brewer, Marcus Gilmore, The Colour of Intention

The word swinging gets a bad name some times because it can be used as shorthand for nostalgia. It ought to be a praise word not a cliché. When something does swing so convincingly as here on Monk's 'Brilliant Corners' then all is right with the …

Published: 16 Dec 2020. Updated: 3 years.

The word swinging gets a bad name some times because it can be used as shorthand for nostalgia. It ought to be a praise word not a cliché. When something does swing so convincingly as here on Monk's 'Brilliant Corners' then all is right with the world. Handy such rightness give or take an additional preceding consonant because it's Empirical vibist Lewis Wright along with US double bassist Matt Brewer and Brewer's fellow American drummer Marcus Gilmore together in top New York studio Sear Sound a year ago. 'Mettle' is probably the most interesting of the tunes but there is a lot to feast on throughout. Wright is clearly world class but that is hardly news and the three hit it off completely, Brewer and Gilmore much better known to international audiences certainly at this stage but newcomers to Wright may well be tracking back to hear him on other records. That impossible thing to achieve, looseness in performance, is definitely here and one of the reasons why the record works so well. The album, while not benefitting from a whole lot of exposure or even much marketing at all beyond its core aim given that it is directed squarely at the classical market because of the label's profile, also is notable for its excellent sound and very strong cover art. On Signum Classics.

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Top UK jazz albums 2020: full list

no. 1 Byron Wallen, Portrait: Reflections On Belonging (Twilight Jaguar) no. 2 Rob Luft, Life is the Dancer (Edition) no. 3 Django Bates, Tenacity (Lost Marble) no. 4 John McLaughlin, Shankar Mahadevan, Zakir Hussain, Is That So? (Abstract Logix)

Published: 16 Dec 2020. Updated: 3 years.

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no. 1 Byron Wallen, Portrait: Reflections On Belonging (Twilight Jaguar)

no. 2 Rob Luft, Life is the Dancer (Edition)

no. 3 Django Bates, Tenacity (Lost Marble)

no. 4 John McLaughlin, Shankar Mahadevan, Zakir Hussain, Is That So? (Abstract Logix)

no. 5 Bruno Heinen trio, Out of Doors (Heinen Records)

no. 6 Gary Bartz and Maisha, Gary Bartz and Maisha (Night Dreamer)

no. 7 Nubya Garcia, Source (Concord)

no. 8 James Copus, Dusk (Ubuntu)

no. 9 Martin Pyne, Spirits Of Absent Dancers (Discus Music)

no. 10 Moses Boyd, Dark Matter (Exodus)

The marlbank albums of the year, overall 2020 list, will be published on Thursday 31 December round midnight.

Photo: Emile Holba