Massimo Biolcati, On a Misty Night, Sounderscore ****

Featuring tenorist/bass clarinettist John Ellis and drummer Johnathan Blake whose own Homeward Bound was such a thrill in 2021, Swedish/Italian US bassist Massimo Biolcati, best known for his work with Lionel Loueke and Ferenc Nemeth in Gilfema, …

Published: 9 May 2023. Updated: 11 months.

Featuring tenorist/bass clarinettist John Ellis and drummer Johnathan Blake whose own Homeward Bound was such a thrill in 2021, Swedish/Italian US bassist Massimo Biolcati, best known for his work with Lionel Loueke and Ferenc Nemeth in Gilfema, lands On A Misty Night to take the standards route on a handsomely recorded studio release blessed with the sonics of Sear Sound and recorded at the end of 2022. The title track is a Tadd Dameron piece that goes back to the pianist's 1957 Prestige album Mating Call that Dameron recorded with John Coltrane, Wizard of the Vibes bassist John Simmons and the First Great Miles Davis Quintet drummer Philly Joe Jones and which has been covered in recent years by the late Dr Lonnie Smith. There are few finer jazz bassists of his generation than Biolcati and On A Misty Night is the latest reminder - particularly his beautifully gauged beginning to 'For All We Know' - of that realisation first made when Gilfema first lit us up inside in 2005. Massimo Biolcati, photo: via Bandcamp. 'East of the Sun' is streaming ahead of the 19 May release

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Vipertime, Arise, Hyde Park Book Club Records ***1/2

What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding that's what we want to know: The love child of the far more out there trioVD, the slogan is ''aggro jazz'' the location is Leeds where Arise was recorded and pick of the tracks is easily 'Demise' …

Published: 8 May 2023. Updated: 11 months.

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What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding that's what we want to know: The love child of the far more out there trioVD, the slogan is ''aggro jazz'' the location is Leeds where Arise was recorded and pick of the tracks is easily 'Demise' featuring alto saxophonist Jasmine Myra and the rap from Franz Von on 'Head Up'. Percussion heavy it's a sax, bass guitar, two-drummer/percussionist band. Drummer-percussionist Luke Reddin-Williams - who was on Dave Morecroft's eternally listenable-to punk jazz innovators WorldServiceProject's 2020 release Hiding in Plain Sight - is the best known of the players. The other Vipertimers are tenorist/flautist Ben Powling (also a Hiding in Plain Sight connection) bass guitarist/guitarist Matías Reed and drummer/percussionist George Hall. Guests in addition to Myra who made a splash last year with Horizons on Manchester label Gondwana include drummer Charlie Grimwood. Certainly a groove, party, band for moshing to it seems early on, the tunes aren't amazing - more extended riffs heated up a bit. But and it's a redeeming factor the spirit lifts these up exponentially and the album shows more seriousness and interesting depth later on, particularly on 'The Wise' and 'All Our Heroes Are Dead'. Post-punk spirit and a bass line from Reed on 'Thumb Claw' sends us easily to thoughts of Joy Division's Peter Hook the punkness a strand in the band's DNA. Thundering tribal drums on the title track 'Arise' at the beginning get the party started. On 'Head Up' MC Franz Von provides a vocal that sits alongside what Soweto Kinch can do (head to seven deadly sins album The Legend of Mike Smith for some of Kinch's best rapping) and Vipertime can sound a little like Sons of Kemet but that similarity shouldn't be overemphasised at all.

Hear Vipertime photo: press live at the Crescent in York on Wednesday night - click for details