Sales success for Nubiyan Twist

Worth noting because it is rare that a fairly new UK jazz act make the top part of the Official UK jazz and blues chart. Usually it is vintage reissues or compilations that achieve that feat. On our radar back in the autumn when singles from …

Published: 21 Mar 2021. Updated: 3 years.

Worth noting because it is rare that a fairly new UK jazz act make the top part of the Official UK jazz and blues chart. Usually it is vintage reissues or compilations that achieve that feat.

chart

On our radar back in the autumn when singles from Freedom Fables (Strut) began to emerge, Leeds/London collective Nubiyan Twist have energy and drive in quantity. Check out 'Tittle Tattle' from the release that features the Anita Baker-loving singer Cherise. The album also includes a guest slot from alto sax star/MC Soweto Kinch on the soulfully grooving 'Buckle Up'. The Twist are new in at no. 2 in the Official Jazz & Blues Albums Chart Top 30.

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Vijay Iyer trio's Entrustment *****

Refraining from listening back to the original Vijay Iyer trio that first emerged on the ACT label is deliberate. I loved Historicity (2009), however, above all from those days but this is a new day. It is early still in the experiencing of Iyer's …

Published: 20 Mar 2021. Updated: 2 years.

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Refraining from listening back to the original Vijay Iyer trio that first emerged on the ACT label is deliberate. I loved Historicity (2009), however, above all from those days but this is a new day. It is early still in the experiencing of Iyer's latest trio with only 'Children of Flint' which I liked and now 'Entrustment' from the new Uneasy available. 'Entrustment' I like even more from it, to me the piece sounds like an instant classic. Why so? Compositionally, sense of moment, interplay across the trio, a momentousness and more. Iyer is also entering deeper into the jazz cosmos on both tracks in the sense that his position within the canon is becoming clearer without avant trappings at all on this track.

The way Tyshawn Sorey above all punctuates the music rhythmically makes the trio distinctive. His use of mallets by the sound of it is quite distinctive and the way he emphasises the strong accents in a kind of padding-along-canter is unusual and keeps a lot of variety and interest throughout the trajectory of the piece. The decay after he uses cymbal that seeps into the pianism is beautifully recorded and adds urgency. There is a lot of coiled power in what he brings to the trio but it is more than that.

A lovely piece with approaching an Eastern scalar feel to the beginning and then a lot of development that delves into modal exploration harnessing a certain serenity and then eventually intensity. Not exactly a ballad, nor an elegy, I would call it a brooding meditation in nature. It's Iyer's most Ellingtonian statement in terms of poise and elegance within the compass of his own art.

There is a lapping, hypnotic, appeal to Iyer's lead piano part. The way he manipulates the elaborate trill at the beginning is one aspect of his playfulness and how he can command atmosphere and by the end of the piece there is a sense of the achieved state of tidal cascade that makes logical sense but can't be predicted as you listen.

Double bassist Linda May Han Oh is very understated. I guess it will be easier to determine her part on the better quality CD audio when that is available. However, her touch is very human and ideal in context. As mentioned in a previous post Uneasy out on 4 April besides Iyer originals includes a treatment of Geri Allen's 'Drummer's Song' and the standard 'Night and Day.' SG

Photo of Vijay Iyer: ECM