Michele Rabbia/Gianluca Petrella/Eivind Aarset, Lost River, ECM

First published in June 2019. Pretty unusual instrumentation first off, a trio of drums & electronics/trombone/guitar & electronics. And a pretty unusual start too, lots of airy intrigue giving way to a more driving sound. A studio album …

Published: 2 Jan 2020. Updated: 4 years.

First published in June 2019. Pretty unusual instrumentation first off, a trio of drums & electronics/trombone/guitar & electronics. And a pretty unusual start too, lots of airy intrigue giving way to a more driving sound. A studio album recorded in Italy in January last year, the tunes are mostly arrived at cooperatively among the three players, the style is more about mood and texture than ferocious flurries of notes. I am not sure if it all hangs together and certainly you need patience which is not always rewarded. However on the plus side Eivind Aarset is as compelling as ever and drummer Michele Rabbia, whose approach reminds me of Marilyn Mazur’s a little, challenges the listener to move beyond the orthodox to embrace a wide range of new sounds. An album that poses as many questions as it provides answers for.

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Mwandishi 4: 80 up this year

Herbie Hancock, Eddie Henderson, Bennie Maupin and Billy Hart, four members of the seminal sextet known as Mwandishi, all celebrate their 80th birthdays this year. Coming together after Herbie Hancock left the ''second great'' Miles Davis Quintet, …

Published: 1 Jan 2020. Updated: 4 years.

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Herbie Hancock, Eddie Henderson, Bennie Maupin and Billy Hart, four members of the seminal sextet known as Mwandishi, all celebrate their 80th birthdays this year.

Coming together after Herbie Hancock left the ''second great'' Miles Davis Quintet, the band took the Swahili name Mwandishi, and from 1971-3 on such albums as Mwandishi, Sextant and Crossings fused a groundbreaking array of styles that spanned continents and introduced metre altering sounds to jazz traversing the acoustic and electronic.

What will 2020 mean for these four giants of jazz? Herbie Hancock is expected to release an album this year, which if confirmed will be his first in a decade.

As for Billy Hart he will be out on the road and, for the benefit of Amsterdam readers in particular, a club date at top Netherlands club Bimhuis is in the book for March. As for Bennie Maupin there is no sign of any touring activity for now however Eddie Henderson, above, will be in London performing with pianist Will Barry, bassist Arnie Somogyi and drummer Stephen Keogh at Pizza Express Jazz Club on 11 March.