The great Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem explores a new sound mix in this hauntingly elegiac new release. ECM stablemates Dave Holland and Django Bates return from his last recording, the gorgeous Blue Maqams eight years ago. But the quartet is completed not by a drummer (Jack DeJohnette on the recording; Nasheet Waits when they toured) but by the rich cello voice of Anja Lechner.

Her contribution is very much to the fore – she might be co-leader but for the fact the Brahem is the composer throughout. And her sumptuous tone helps ensure the new quartet furnishes chamber jazz of a particularly high order. Holland, who first recorded with Brahem alongside John Surman back in 1998, and Bates are less prominent but superbly supportive throughout. Bates, more familiar as a leader and composer, takes centre stage enough to remind us what a resourceful improviser he is on piano. The bassist, meanwhile, shines playing with just the oud on The Eternal Olive Tree – a complete album by Holland and Brahem in duo would surely appeal.

The oud also duets with the cello on In the Shade of Your Eyes and Brahem steps aside for the final piece, Vague, to give us a piano, bass and cello trio, as if to underline that the record is about the music he wants to create, not his (considerable) instrumental prowess.

That music is steeped in memory and melancholy. Brahem completed these pieces in 2023, but come the recording the onslaught in Gaza was very much on his mind Even without knowing that – the CD now comes with an unusually long (for ECM) essay on Gaza by Adam Shatz – the titles convey an abiding sense of loss. After the Last Sky references a book about Palestine by Edward Said, the title taken from a line by the poet Mahmoud Darwish, “where should the birds fly, after the last sky?”. Endless Wandering speaks to displacement of peoples. Never Forget, and The Sweet Oranges of Jaffa stand out among other hymns of remembrance here. There are moments of celebration, too, but even they have a poignant overcast. The mood of this quietly impassioned recording is epitomised by Edward Said’s Reverie, which in under three minutes somehow evokes feelings which that most articulate of men might have had difficulty putting into words: patiently piercing music that will stay with you.

Release date is 28 March 2025 

from https://ukjazznews.com