Music RECORDS JAZZ & WORLD
JAZZ TOMMY SMITH YOUTH JAZZ ORCHESTRA Emergence (Spartacus Records) ●●●●● Tommy Smith set up (and funded) this orchestra to encourage the cream of Scotland’s emerging jazz talent to flourish, and it is clearly working. There are only occasional passages on this fine recording where you might guess that you were listening to a youth band rather than a fully fledged professional outfit. Both the ensemble playing and the soloing achieves a very high standard, aided by an imaginative repertoire gleaned from the now extensive resources of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (which Smith also directs), ranging from Ellington and Basie to Steely Dan and Astor Piazzolla. (Kenny Mathieson)
JAZZ ANDY SHEPPARD, MICHEL BENITA, SEBASTIAN ROCHFORD Trio Libero (ECM Records) ●●●●● Saxophonist Andy Sheppard seemed a good match-up with ECM long before he actually made his debut with the label a couple of years ago. He now follows that release with this excellent trio project featuring Algerian bassist Michel Benita and our own Seb Rochford, who traces his interest in playing jazz to seeing Sheppard perform in his native Aberdeen as a teenager. It proves to be a highly compatible combination, with all three musicians making a full contribution to the subtle and imaginative development of the lyrical material, much of which was initially improvised, then more formally structured. (Kenny Mathieson)
WORLD BATIDA Batida (Soundways) ●●●●●
Having carved out a reputation for unearthing rare tracks of touchstone Latin musics, Soundways now champions hot sounds heard today on the streets of Luanda. Angolan/Portuguese DJ Mpula (aka Pedro Coquenão) creates electronic dance music based on samples of 1970s African classics that combine partying with social commentary. Probably best experienced in the club setting it was designed for and born out of, the album has pieces that work better on record than others: ‘Pronto Pra Batida’ evokes Zimbabwe’s Bhundu Boys; while ‘Saudade’s sensuously wistful melody entices. Other tracks stray into interminable repetition. Still, despite unevenness this is brave new music and Soundways deserve congratulations for taking the risk. (Jan Fairley)
CELTIC FUSION MARTYN BENNETT Aye (Long Tale Records) ●●●●●
Seven years after his tragic early death, wunderkind Martyn Bennett’s legacy lives on. Anyone who never experienced the live or recorded version of his multi- instrumental music (whistles, fiddles, piano, bagpipes) will surely gasp at the cutting-edge ways he created visionary music through reforging old traditions with the new.
This compilation, coupled with Sue Wilson’s spot-on sleevenotes, conjure up Bennett, contextualising him musically, historically, politically and spiritually and making his presence felt again in 2012.
While everything here is the beautiful work of a young genius, fusing uninhibited musicality and quirky ideas way ahead of their time with moving emotion, Bennett’s use of the Gaelic version of Psalm 118 involving Michael Marra is transcendent. (Jan Fairley)
86 THE LIST 1–29 Mar 2012
SINGLES & DOWNLOADS
What the world needs now is . . . more high-concept ephemera created by actual, proper artists like Martin Creed, who create minute-long folk ditties like ‘Where You Go’ (Telephone) ●●●●● amidst light switch-flicking their way to the Turner Prize and Scotsman Step-renovating.
If we could have more of this, please and less dog-eared funk workouts from the decidedly superannuated Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘Look Around’ (Warner Brothers) ●●●●● that would be just brilliant. It’s not going to happen, is it? Sigh.
Further disappointment ensues when a couple of artists we actually used to like make their long-awaited return to our cochleas with stone-cold duffers. Or at least a very uninspiring effort in the case of Ladyhawke’s ‘Black, White & Blue’ (Modular/Island) ●●●●●.
The line ‘This is real life / You can’t fight it’ is possibly a reference to the fact she always planned to come back with an unheard Sugababes B-side destined for the changing room playlist in TopShop.
The majestic ‘American Boy’ from Estelle with help from her pal Kanye seems a distant, faded memory after hearing ‘Thank You’ (Atlantic) ●●●●● featuring the kind of sugar-lump balladry which Beyoncé at least has the voice to hammer us with.
There’s precious little real respite to be found in the Byrdsian twang of Real Estate’s ‘Easy’ (Domino) ●●●●● although the ever-effervescent Viva Stereo’s ‘Wanderlust’ EP (viva) ●●●●● offers a ray of chiming indie-pop hope.
Only two serious contenders for Single of the Month present themselves, though, so they’re both getting it.
Step forward Psyche (pictured above) with ‘All Things Must Pass into the Night’. Their 4-track EP (Optimo Music) ●●●●● is a gorgeous slice of retro synth-pop from Canada, featuring a fairly addictive cover of ‘Goodbye Horses’, an Optimo classic. Sharing the top spot is Wounded Knee’s ‘Splashback Blues’ (download only, from iamwoundedknee.com, or woundedknee.bandcamp.com) ●●●●● a delightfully twee protest song in support of the noble campaign to keep Leith Waterworld open. After all, what words spell insurrection on the streets of Edinburgh more than ‘Oh, dear me’? (David Pollock)