Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet, Spirit to All, Whirlwind ***

More stirring spiritual jazz here a sound that also sits well with the latest, but differently angled, release from Chip Wickham. While not as compelling as 2020's When Angels Fall there is a lot in its favour. Seven tracks, the pick in terms of …

Published: 21 Aug 2022. Updated: 21 months.

More stirring spiritual jazz here a sound that also sits well with the latest, but differently angled, release from Chip Wickham. While not as compelling as 2020's When Angels Fall there is a lot in its favour. Seven tracks, the pick in terms of originality is found in the open atmosphere of 'Slavic Spirits' and the band by contrast also do big no-nonsense brass-led themes instinctively well as heard on 'Harmony'. Bassist composer Wojtek Mazolewski is once again with pianist Joanna Duda, tenorist Marek Pospieszalski, trumpeter Oskar Török and drummer-percussionist Qba Janicki recording this latest which gets its UK release in late-September in a Warsaw studio last year. Pieces also include the avant-garde ‘The Year Of Magical Thinking,’ Duda using the strings of the piano to make these sound like a harp early on, the title of which is drawn from Joan Didion's 2005 memoir exploring personal loss. The Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet photo: press. Stream the title track

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The zen in a meeting of minds - Wadada Leo Smith, Andrew Cyrille and Qasim Naqvi's Two Centuries is an autumn avant highlight

The beautiful, painterly transcendentalism of 'For D. F.' is streaming and is one part of Two Centuries, a significant avant highlight in 2022 landing post abstract expressionist in a serene oasis of sound, a recording that represents the first …

Published: 20 Aug 2022. Updated: 21 months.

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The beautiful, painterly transcendentalism of 'For D. F.' is streaming and is one part of Two Centuries, a significant avant highlight in 2022 landing post abstract expressionist in a serene oasis of sound, a recording that represents the first small group release of any group instrumentation mix from the new Red Hook label launched last year after the acclaimed initial 5-star solo piano release Hanamichi by the master Masabumi Kikuchi in his final studio work.

''This is a special album, a lot of sweat and work has gone into it,'' says producer Sun Chung about Two Centuries. Shaped around modular synth, trumpet, and drums he continued in an email to us back in June to point out that ''when I put this group together, my guiding principle was to experiment with more atypical musical interactions, but equally important, to put together musicians who would be able to transcend any preexisting concepts and comfort zones.''

Two Centuries is the first meeting in a recording between the avant great poet of the trumpet Wadada Leo Smith and free-jazz legend drummer Andrew Cyrille and in the intergenerational and trans stylistic mix features electronica composer and drummer Qasim Naqvi. Sun Chung who formerly was a Munich based producer at ECM produced the Andrew Cyrille Quartet's The Declaration Of Musical Independence and the Cyrille, Wadada, Bill Frisell classic - Lebroba.

Two Centuries is out in October

Wadada Leo Smith, top left, Qasim Naqvi, Andrew Cyrille. Photo: Red Hook