Marie Mørck, Songs to Comfort, Marie Mørck/Zack's Music ***

Landing somewhere between the sound of Blossom Dearie and Monica Zetterlund singing with a very American sounding English accent Danish singer Marie Mørck is a retro quite often pingingly pure jazz singer who has been around a little while, …

Published: 21 Mar 2023. Updated: 13 months.

Landing somewhere between the sound of Blossom Dearie and Monica Zetterlund singing with a very American sounding English accent Danish singer Marie Mørck is a retro quite often pingingly pure jazz singer who has been around a little while, debuting with Fooling Around in 2019.

Zesty, full of spirit and a tonic in that regard certainly songs are mainly in English - a Danish language song at the end translated as 'In the Middle of a Dream' is one of the picks. The title track, ''song'' in the singular, is the best thing here. The other originals don't cry out for instant replay as much.

The instrumental arrangements are a little too trad. And the accordion accompaniment on 'Secret Reverie' seems as if it belongs on another record entirely.

The treatment of the Frank Loesser song 'Never Will I Marry' (sung in the 1960s by among others Nancy Wilson, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand) and more recently and much more compellingly to be frank by Cécile McLorin Salvant on the singer's 2017 album Dreams and Daggers is nevertheless listenable to.

Out on Friday. 'On My Way to Nowhere' and 'Never Will I Marry' are among tracks streaming ahead of the full release. Marie Mørck photo: press

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Howl Quartet, Airglow, Boathorse Records ***1/2

Hold on - how long have you got? But take more than a minute to find this new-ish UK based band fast establishing itself. On Airglow the throb of Pete Komor's bass - think Tom Farmer in Empirical - salty clash of alto and tenor saxophones textures …

Published: 21 Mar 2023. Updated: 13 months.

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Hold on - how long have you got? But take more than a minute to find this new-ish UK based band fast establishing itself. On Airglow the throb of Pete Komor's bass - think Tom Farmer in Empirical - salty clash of alto and tenor saxophones textures particularly a factor on 'Smudge', a drum line that acts partly as referee partly as beat quantity surveyor there is a neatness to the quartet on this studio album recorded in Wales last year.

The altoist is Dan Smith, tenorist Harry Brunt and drummer Matt Parkinson. Don't let that tidy quality put you off. Komor and Smith surfaced in the band OK Aurora led by Rod Oughton, an eclectic vocals-flavoured eight piece who released Only In Autumn (Ubuntu) in 2021 and whose members also included trumpet wiz Alexandra Ridout.

View a live version of Brunt's tune 'Smudge' recorded at Camden Town venue the Green Note

Very different to the Oughton sound Airglow follows on from 2021's Life As We See It. 'Salt House' is exceptionally slow and yet where Brunt is best captured. But 'Martello' is more exuberant. Pacing is never an issue. There is a sense of distilled tension that gains traction but endings on these originals are never simple. Not as spiky as a band like Led Bib, nor as hard bop as Empirical (Smith's sound sometimes inhabits a Chris Williams Bib-ian world) they build on a bebop language they ingeniously defibrillate back from any danger of it being a period piece to gulp down an invigorating inhalation.

'The Look Out' from Airglow is streaming. Howl Quartet play Pizza Express Jazz Club, London on 19 July

Pete Komor, photo, howlquartet.com