Jazz

Mark Turner
Patternmaster
ECM Records 8808124; LP: 8835501

Once again, an album title from a sci-fi novel, in this case by Octavia E. Butler. And again, the saxophonist's long-established quartet thrives on his deeply intuitive partnership with trumpeter Jason Palmer, creating or implying harmony in a way that's almost spooky. You simply forget that there's no chordal instrument. As with Return From The Stars (2022), the mixing and mastering was done at Studios La Buissonne near Avignon – but this time, according to the credits, the tracks were recorded there as well, rather than in New York. The sound is relaxed, reverberant but well balanced and natural. So although it might seem that nothing's changed, Turner and his quartet just get better and better. SH

Sound Quality: 90%

Eddie Gripper
Americana
MultiRingo Records MR0001

Home was the Cardiff-based pianist's 2023 debut album, but this time he looks away, back to a six-week trip he'd made the year before, down the American west coast from Alaska to Los Angeles, sketching most of the pieces here on the way. With Clem Saynor and Patrick Barrett-Donlon on bass and drums, Gripper's neatly turned and engaging pianism evokes the passing scene from the sunny calm of 'Third Beach' (Vancouver) to the persuasive swing of 'Ocean's Avenue' (Santa Monica). But the lovely 'One For The Road' is really an elegy for the pianist's father, and he closes with a cover of Paul Simon's 'American Tune' that hints at deeper issues. SH

Sound Quality: 85%

Joachim Kühn
Joachim Kühn & Young Lions
ACT Music ACT8044-2; LP: ACTLP8044-1

Beginning his career in Leipzig as a young concert pianist, Kühn left the GDR in 1966 with the help of older brother Rolf, a leading jazz clarinettist. He turned to free jazz and even worked with Ornette Coleman, becoming Germany's pre-eminent jazz pianist. At the end of 2024, at 80, Kühn wrote a set of music, envisioning a new young band to play it. He'd discovered marimba player Andrés Coll, then added trumpeter Jakob Bänsch and finally the bass and drums team of Nils Kugelmann and Sebastian Wolfgruber. After rehearsing Kühn's challenging pieces for four days, they recorded this, an album of astonishing virtuosity and intensity. SH

Sound Quality: 85%

Nduduzo Makhathini
The Myth We Choose
Blue Note 5743107; LP: 5743108 (two discs)

For Makhathini, influenced by American spiritual jazz as well as fellow South Africans, music can be a ritual in which 'Composer, performers and audience become equal partners, facing the sounds that inspire self-reflection with open hearts'. In an album of 16 varied tracks, guests include Shabaka (with a flute solo), while Makhathini's life companion Omagugu sings a searching 'What People Say', which reappears later as an electronic soundscape by DJ Black Coffee. And after 'Imvunge KaNtu', urgently celebrating the Bantu concept of the sacred life force ntu, comes a striking contrast in 'Unembeza', with its gentle gospel piano. SH

Sound Quality: 75%