Jazz

Threeway
Harken!
Jazz Cat JCCD120

Steve Waterman trumpet, pianist Steve Lodder and electric bassist Ben Crosland celebrate their 20th anniversary with a fourth album on Crosland’s Jazz Cat label, exploring jazzy but accessible themes. Special guest is virtuoso guitarist John Etheridge, first on a bluesy workout called ‘AB4BC’ with Lodder on Rhodes, then in a great jazz solo on ‘Ambition’. This follows the gently expansive ‘Humility’ in a set of four tunes named for a school motto whose acronym is ‘Hark’, the others being ‘Resilience’ (with a rock beat) and ‘Kindness’ (shades of Bacharach). And the pastoral ‘Cairnbank’, with gentler guitar from Etheridge, Lodder on Hammond and subtly-reverb’d Waterman trumpet, shows how Threeway can soothe. SH

Sound Quality: 90%

Bill Charlap Trio
And Then Again
Blue Note 6532467; LP: 6532467

Pianist Bill Charlap first teamed with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington in 1997, recording then for Criss Cross and becoming regulars at the Village Vanguard. They first recorded live at the club in 2007, and this time the bop-blues title tune is by another piano great, Kenny Barron, also a Criss Cross artist back in the day. Later Charlap expounds superbly on ‘’Round Midnight’, referencing Monk with profound insight. He has the audience holding its breath for his exquisite chords on ‘Darn That Dream’ for example, and his solos always tell a story. This live set has many highlights but really, it’s just brilliant from start to finish. SH

Sound Quality: 90%

Oded Tzur
My Prophet
ECM 6514241; LP: 6516314

Born in Tel Aviv and once a student at the Jerusalem Academy, saxophonist Oded Tzur later immersed himself in Indian classical music and developed a microtonal technique he called Middle Path. He’s been based in NY since 2011. On his third ECM quartet album he’s joined again by the nimble Nitai Hershkovits, whose harmonic sleight of hand and cascading runs complement Tzur’s cross-cultural approach perfectly, making you forget that the piano can’t actually slide to microtones. Bassist Petros Klampanis again provides monolithic frameworks, with the help of new drummer Cyrano Almeida. Recorded in France, the album sounds great too. SH

Sound Quality: 90%

Elaine Delmar
Speak Low
Ubuntu Music UBU0165CD

Now in her 80s, Delmar, daughter of the famous Jamaican-born trumpeter Leslie ‘Jiver’ Hutchinson, started singing early. Here she chooses songs she’s performed over the years but never recorded, her trio sounding great on a Latin-tinged ‘It Might As Well Be Spring’ and a sparky ‘There’s A Boat Dat’s Leavin’’, while Andy Panyani adds flute to the title tune. Other songs have pianist Barry Green accompanying superbly on his own, or reveal guitarist Jim Mullen and bassist Simon Thorpe as sensitive duo partners. Delmar takes this look back on the longest of careers with musicians she calls ‘my musical family’ and they deliver for her with love. SH

Sound Quality: 90%