Youn Sun Nah, 'Don't Get Me Wrong,' Warner ***

A mournful ballad that develops a skipping step change after the initial verse and chorus is the latest from Waking World and is OK on a first listen but grows on you every time you go back to it. The trumpet touch from Arielle Besson and acoustic …

Published: 7 Jan 2022. Updated: 2 years.

A mournful ballad that develops a skipping step change after the initial verse and chorus is the latest from Waking World and is OK on a first listen but grows on you every time you go back to it. The trumpet touch from Arielle Besson and acoustic guitar part from Thomas Naim on this Youn Sun Nah original melds well as part of the instrumental back drop even if the synthesised programming grates a little too much. Positioned towards an older certainly sophisticated pop and jazz-attuned audience the chorus lyrically is a gutsy accusation and feisty calling out in a sometimes bitter dialogue with an unheard interlocutor that has a Céline Dion kind of slant to it (and that might send some of you running for the hills). From what is something of a turning point of an album given that Waking World features YSN's own songs the signs so far following the release of the earlier and equally fine title track before Christmas are that the album certainly erases boundaries but may well leave some of the South Korean's jazz-inclined fan base behind. That said (and a pity if it happens) there is a mystery and a haunting presence the South Korean does so well to conjure as the mood against the odds turns sunny as the song fades away and shapes the mood into an ungeneric ultimately convincing universality of emotion no matter which tribe of music listener you belong to.

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Danilo Pérez and the Global Messengers, La Muralla Suite: 'Monopatia,' Mack Avenue ***

Full of surprises not least when the dreamy vocals burst through and later the Spanish language spoken word passage there is a lot of passion and narrative built into this accessible and yet very sprawling latinate chamber-jazz piece from the great …

Published: 7 Jan 2022. Updated: 2 years.

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Full of surprises not least when the dreamy vocals burst through and later the Spanish language spoken word passage there is a lot of passion and narrative built into this accessible and yet very sprawling latinate chamber-jazz piece from the great Panamanian pianist and composer Danilo Pérez. ''Monopatia'' in the title means ''pathways'' the piece drawn from the ''Glass Walls'' La Muralla Suite part of Crisálida (''Chrysalis'' in English) to be issued by Mack Avenue in March. Personnel include Pérez and his wife singer/saxophonist Patricia Zárate and a multi-national group who include Iraqi-Jordanian violinist Layth Sidiq and Palestinian cellist Naseem Alatrash. As ever Pérez is a restless composer who like his great mentor Wayne Shorter continues to develop his global vision with consummate fearlessness.