I’ve been a subscriber of Tidal since the start and have found it an invaluable tool for discovering new music and for listening to genres of music I’d previously believed I didn’t enjoy most notably Jazz.
Also it’s probably saved me double the subscription fee on buying records I end up not liking with only that one decent record on it and for sifting an artists or labels catalogue for the records I really enjoy and want to buy rather than buying blind because I have enjoyed a previous release.
Another great function of most streaming services is that if you travel a lot for work or pleasure then you can download as many records as you wish to listen off line.
So whilst my main source is and probably always will be a record player streaming is a really handy tool for me and for background listening it’s an excellent addition to my music.
A reunion of saxophonist Joshua Redman’s original acoustic quartet, 2020’s ebullient RoundAgain showcases his long-running creative friendship with bandmates pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Brian Blade. Redman first documented the sound of this group on his acclaimed 1994 album MoodSwing. Even then, the quartet was a supergroup in the making, featuring four of the most highly touted players of their generation. While they have continued to work together in various incarnations throughout their careers, RoundAgain is the first proper recording by the quartet in over two decades. As with MoodSwing, RoundAgain features all-original music with each player bringing along a composition. As each of the four musicians here have distinguished themselves as distinctive bandleaders in their own right, it’s fascinating to hear their individual styles come to the fore throughout the album. They kick off with Redman’s classical-leaning “Undertow,” an introspective and noirish piece built around a descending circular piano pattern from Mehldau. Conversely, Mehldau’s “Moe Honk” evokes the frenetic cartoon music of Carl Stalling as he and Redman chase each other like jealous hummingbirds over the song’s spiraling melody. Equally compelling is McBride’s “Floppy Diss,” a soulful, off-kilter blues that allows for some wryly inventive improvisational stretching out. We also get Redman’s funky, gospel-inflected “Silly Little Love Song,” and Mehldau’s harmonically nuanced “Father” with its wave-like 3/4 groove. The album ends evocatively with Blade’s dusky, rubato ballad “Your Part to Play.” Beginning with a sweetly attenuated bass line from McBride, the song builds slowly as Redman joins in, doubling the minor-key melody, before Mehldau and Blade push the group to the song’s peak: a mélange of brushes, cymbals, and woody hand percussion, crystalline piano flourishes, and Redman’s breathy sax tones. In some ways, RoundAgain feels like the perfect follow-up to MoodSwing, an album that could have arrived in the late '90s. Yet, it is hard to imagine Redman and his quartet summoning the same warmth and relaxed intensity that they do here without the decades of experience and deep familiarity they’ve cultivated with each other over the years.
Mare Nostrum’s biggest surprise isn’t its instrumentation – a trio of accordion, trumpet and piano – but how natural the combination sounds in its execution. Of course, Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, French accordion player Richard Galliano (who is of Italian offspring), and Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren are well-known, critically praised jazz musicians who have all been known to eschew musical boundaries and defy genre limitations, so the music on Mare Nostrum – an album co-led by all three – shouldn’t come as a surprise, nor should its quality, and yet not everybody would have expected such marvelous results. The 15 compositions on the album include originals by all three musicians and several covers, touching upon jazz, tango, classical music, and folk, reinterpreting Charles Trénet (“Que Reste-T-Il de Nos Amours?”), encompassing Antonio Carlos Jobim (“Eu Nao Existo Sem Voce”), and Maurice Ravel (“Ma Mère L’Oye”). There is an almost delightful sense of trust and ease among the three performers, who never take away their bandmates’ spotlights, and who find a balance between playfulness and restraint throughout the album. The music is evocative, as if it was the soundtrack to a missing Louis Malle movie, and much of it creates a warm feeling of gentle nostalgia, even on the more up-tempo tracks. Let’s hope these musicians meet again to record more music – Mare Nostrum is a precious gem.
With “Kind of Cool” Wolfgang Haffner moves between tradition and contemporary jazz, injecting new life into some oft he „coolest“ jazz standards. In the style of the legendary Modern Jazz Quartet and with the spirit of Cool Jazz these old jazz classics sound young at heart in timeless elegance - relaxed, sophisticated, trusting in themselves, finally one of a kind, thanks to the personality of the musicians involved. Three compositions by Haffner himself complement the album. It really needs an all-star band to play music such as this, and on “Kind of Cool” it’s no different. All the band members are international jazz stars, having proved themselves on the scene they are perfectly placed to relax and just let their passion, technique and sense of fun show the songs for what they are: Some of the most beautiful compositions ever produced in the 20th century.
Ref: ACT - IN THE SPIRIT OF JAZZ website
Pianist Jan Lundgren is a jazz musician much in the mold of such '60s icons as Dave Brubeck and Horace Silver. Lundgren’s measured and crisp technique give him an edge in bringing challenging, modern jazz to a wider more populist audience. He plays in an “in” style reminiscent of many late-'50s to early-'60s musicians but always seems to be able to add a harmonic nod toward the future. Similarly, Victor Young, one of the most prolific Hollywood composers during the 1940s, produced some of the most performed songs in jazz history. These “standards” with their unique combination of hummable melodies over complex harmonic arrangements fit perfectly with Lundgren’s style. This immensely listenable session opens with a gorgeous rendition of “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You” featuring vocalist Stacey Kent. Kent has a sweet, sprightly, utterly irresistible voice that is the perfect introduction to the rest of this well-paced album. Juxtaposed to Kent’s light, swinging approach is adventurous vocalist Deborah Brown who combines the best improvisatory abilities of Betty Carter and Ella Fitzgerald. Brown joins Lundgren and bandmates, bassist Mattias Svensson and drummer Rasmus Kihlberg on songs such as “Stella By Starlight” and “Beautiful Love.” Rounding out the disc is the legendary tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin who brings his ruddy, warm sound to the up-tempo “A Weaver of Dreams” and “When I Fall in Love.”
14: Erroll Garner: Concert By The Sea (Columbia)
Famed for his florid, virtuosic keyboard style, Pittsburgh-born Erroll Garner was heavily influenced by Earl Hines and Fats Waller but managed to find his own distinctive voice on the piano. Capturing Garner in an assembly hall in Carmel, California, in 1955, Concert By The Sea began as an unofficial recording made by a local broadcaster for US armed forces radio. Garner’s manager heard the tapes and persuaded Columbia to release them as an album, whereupon it sold by the truckload (by 1958, it was estimated to have made over $1 million in sales). Garner is accompanied by bassist Eddie Calhoun and drummer Denzil Best, and offers typically flamboyant renderings of standards such as ‘I’ll Remember April’, ‘Teach Me Tonight’ and ‘Autumn Leaves’. A vivid live portrait of a piano playing genius.
