Theon Cross, Wings/Back to Africa, New Soil ***

Of these tracks the crisscrossing reggae tilt of 'Back to Africa' is the better of the two. For Cross' best work as a leader to date seek out the much more engrossing Fyah especially if new to the likeable player who has put jazz tuba on the map …

Published: 16 Oct 2022. Updated: 18 months.

Of these tracks the crisscrossing reggae tilt of 'Back to Africa' is the better of the two. For Cross' best work as a leader to date seek out the much more engrossing Fyah especially if new to the likeable player who has put jazz tuba on the map like no other in recent years.

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Richard Galliano New York Tango Trio, Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series Vol.47: Cully 2022, TCB, The Montreux Jazz Label ****

Not the snappiest of titles for an album not that that matters. What does more to the point is that the Galliano sound is still so moving. Such tendresse. Nothing has changed in that regard over the years. Now in his seventies as majestic as ever …

Published: 15 Oct 2022. Updated: 18 months.

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Not the snappiest of titles for an album not that that matters. What does more to the point is that the Galliano sound is still so moving. Such tendresse. Nothing has changed in that regard over the years. Now in his seventies as majestic as ever the French master accordionist is with guitarist-cellist Sébastien Giniaux and double bassist Diego Imbert. But really all you need to do is listen to the grand drama of the Galliano sound isolated to the individual, everything peripheral is a mere bagatelle and a delicately decorative wrapping around his infinite conjuring of unbridled intimacy.

Galliano plays his own originals along with a range of Piazzolla, Satie and Serge Gainsbourg numbers. What moved us most here was the lilting take on Gainsbourg's Juliette Gréco inspired 'La Javanaise' (1963) and especially the moment when the Swiss audience sing back to him ever so distantly and tentatively at first. What a special moment it is.