Last Night of the World
Pastiche Records/Bandcamp
Fini Bearman (v, g), Tom Cawley (p, syn), Al Cherry (g), Matt Calvert (el g), Robin Mullarkey (el b, g) James Maddren (d) with guests Gwilym Simcock (p), Gareth Lockrane (af), George Crowley (ts), Zosia Jagodzinska (clo) and Alice Zawadzki (vn). Rec. date not stated
There’s a rare alchemy at work in vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Fini Bearman’s fifth studio album, a collection that transforms the specific landscape of South London into a universal exploration of human emotion and collective experience.
The album roars into life with an immediate sense of urgency, the angular melodic line and harmonic surprises of ‘Rise Up’ presenting a gritty portrayal of collective resistance. Whether it’s the delicate finger-picked guitar and beatific backing vocal harmonies of the title track – a gorgeous threnody to the earth’s curtain call – or the groove-laden ‘OKR’ featuring a pitch-perfect flute solo from Gareth Lockrane, Bearman demonstrates an extraordinary range of musical invention.
Each song is meticulously crafted, moving between moments of intimate vulnerability and sweeping energy. The haunting ‘Plz Call’ explores longing through looping phrases that suggest an emotional landscape forever on the brink of resolution, while ‘WWEMA’ transforms dramatically from its pure a cappella opening to an impressively vast wall of sound.
Most striking is Bearman’s ability to capture complex emotional states, from the existential wonder of the ecstatic, synth-drenched chorus of ‘Violent Universe’ to the sense of oceanic acceptance provided by the closing ‘Forgiveness’. Backed by a world-class band, this is an exceptional, unforgettable and profoundly beautiful collection of songs. Peter Quinn
Bugge Wesseltoft
Am Are
Jazzland
Bugge Wesseltoft (p, ky) with various combinations including Sveinung Hovensjø (b), Jon Christensen (d), Arild Andersen (b), Gard Nilssen (d), Rohey Taalah (v), Martin Myhre Olsen (saxes), Elias Tafjord (d), Jens Mikkel Madsen (b), Øyunn (d), Oddrun Lilja (g) and Sanskriti Shrestha (tbla, hp). Rec. 2019–2024
A very well-conceived and curated album project that brings together Wesseltoft’s collaborations with a variety of experimental trio combinations, plus one each of a solo performance and a duo performance. Despite the comings and goings of various personnel and the variety of approaches they bring, the album sustains an overall mood that frames both spontaneous interaction – the two tracks with Hovensjø and Christensen stand out – and those with an element of preplanning – Taalah, Olsen – which collectively over 10 tracks produces what used to be known as 'the album experience' before the era of single song downloads.
For many, of course, jazz has always been about the album experience, the ECM label the standout in this field; but in the age of self-produced albums this has often gone by the wayside. Not so on Am Are. With Wesseltoft mediating the ebb and flow of the music from keyboards (he is a natural leader) he’s created one of his best albums of recent times. Stuart Nicholson
Georgia Mancio / Alan Broadbent
A Story Left Untold
Roomspin Records
Georgia Mancio (v), Alan Broadbent (p), Andrew Cleyndert (b), Dave Ohm (d) plus FAME’s Studio Orchestra. Rec. November 2023–June 2024
Completing a critically-acclaimed trilogy following Songbook (2017) and Quiet Is The Star (2021), the latest collaboration between vocalist Georgia Mancio and pianist Alan Broadbent represents a compelling musical journey of emotional depth and artistic connection.
The album weaves together 10 songs exploring themes of memory, love, loss, and hope which showcase an exceptional songwriting partnership. Standout tracks include the poignant ‘From Me To You’, a sprightly, touching, light-as-air tribute to Mancio’s late father-in-law (a lifelong jazz fan), and the exquisite piano-vocal ballad ‘The Love I Left Behind (L’Amore Che Lasciai)’, which marks Mancio’s first time writing a lyric in her second language, Italian, with guidance from vocalist Diana Torti.
Prefaced by Cleyndert’s solo intro, the trio setting of ‘A Lark’s Lament’ seems to echo the unusually chromatic melodic line of ‘Cherry Tree’ from Songbook. Reflecting political turbulence on both sides of the Atlantic, the quartet arrangement of ‘Same Old Moon’ pulses with energy – great work here from Cleyndert and Ohm – while ‘Still We All Can Dream’ offers a hopeful counterpoint. .A second piano-vocal ballad, ‘Heart Of Hearts’, resonates with a bittersweet beauty: Broadbent’s wondrous pianism and Mancio’s tender lyrics fuse in the most powerful way.
And then, the final surprise: the remarkable orchestral title track where Mahlerian horn, tintinnabulating glockenspiel, tremolando strings and an utterly beguiling melodic line combine in ways which would have Bernard Herrmann nodding in approval. It closes one of the finest vocal jazz albums of this or any other year. Peter Quinn
Janette Mason
ReWired
JM Music/ECN
Janette Mason (p, comp, arr), Paul Booth (ts).Tom Mason (b), and Eric Ford (d). Rec. date not stated
It can be an act of courage for a jazz musician to take a rock or pop number and turn it into something else. Popular tunes may last for reasons other than their melodic complexity: few of them nowadays have a Tin Pan Alley, jazz standard, AABA structure.
For ReWired, jazz pianist Janette Mason has taken Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’, lifted it out of its minimoog eeriness, added some subdued drums and skilful bass, varied the chords and the dynamics and made something different – the essence of jazz, new from old, blue from grey. It works powerfully well.
Also impressively restyled is Bowie's ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’; it becomes an Afro-Cuban fantasy, independent of the memory of Bowie’s (oddly compelling) weird reedy vocals. Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Good 4 U’ is transformed, along with bass player Tom Mason and impressive tenorist Paul Booth, into a significant, solid entity. Kate Bush’s ‘Man With The Child In His Eyes’ grows up, with a beautiful bowed-bass solo and some intricate piano work. ‘Eleanor Rigby’ gets augmented chords, a jagged improv break, and a melancholy, Afro-beat slow fade.
There are standards here too: all-time great ‘Lulllaby of Birdland’ is slowed, pared, bass-heavy. ‘Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered’ gets a rippling broken-chord accompaniment in the first section, and intersecting, intricate shifts in time-signature. There’s one original, ‘Prayer for the Planet’, a lush, saxophone-led arrangement with hymn-like vocal background.
One of the most impressive of this year, the album amply rewards repeated listening. Beautifully produced and thoughtfully put together, it’s a tribute to Janette Mason’s distinguished musical career. Long may she continue to put out music of this quality, with this variety. Victoria Kingham
Nicole McCabe
A Song to Sing
Colorfield Records
Nicole McCabe (as, syn, p, perc, v), Paul Cornish (p), Logan Kane (b) and Justin Brown (d). Rec. 2025
As part of a discernible collective trend towards self-penned albums, this one has many hallmarks of good jazz composition – originality, diversity of pitch, mood and dynamics, and a way of driving consistently up ahead of the beat. McCabe’s skills and tone as an alto player are showcased, and there’s a welcome variety in comparison with her more frenetic last album, Mosaic.
This time some of McCabe’s spacious arrangements put one in mind of mid-career Wayne Shorter. The tracks are carefully organised, so that ‘A Change in Scenery’ is an actual change from the first track ‘Running Backwards’. Up-to-date electronic sounds are used throughout, with meticulous attention to their effects.
The variety continues: ‘Passages’ for example is based on a kind of middle-eastern pentatonic with an oud sound, but with some lovely Ellington-type harmonies and a very free, complex, improvised mid-section.
The subsequent tune, ‘Foraging for Truth’, is by contrast all ambient sound and reverb. The title track is a thing of beauty, a melody that meanders against a drumbeat, reminiscent maybe of Kamasi Washington’s hymn-like compositions, but with some interesting unexpected complexity.
McCabe plays on all tracks with assuredness and panache, and there’s authentic intensity and a sense of certainty about each number. She has built up a considerable following in the US both for teaching and performance, with so far only one date here in London. A fine album, one that augurs well for her next UK visit, keenly anticipated.
Victoria Kingham
Hedvig Mollestad Trio
Bees In the Bonnet
Rune Grammophon
Hedvig Mollestad (g), Ellen Brekken (b) and Ivar Loe Bjornstad (d). Rec. 4 and 5 January 2024
This is Mollestad’s Red. And not just because the album sleeve is drenched [king]crimson. She’s always been enamoured of the Fripp/Bruford/Wetton masterpiece, and with this return of the HM3 after a four year hiatus, she’s laid down another marker of fierce prog-jazz.
Those four years have been highly creative for Mollestad. Orchestrated works such as Tempest Revisited, Ekhidna and, most strikingly, Maternity Beat have seen her compositional skills blossom, while the loose-limbed Weejuns found her in a more improv context.
But the trio is her heartblood. From the massive power chords of ‘See See Bop’, the guitar tone is dirtier, the noise trip solos more skull cracking and the riffs deeper and darker than plummet ever sounded. ‘Golden Griffin’ is a vortex of invention within a joyous flight of a theme, while ‘Itta’, presumably inspired by the bullet hail of a game where a girl suffers trials in search of answers, starts with a megalith of industrial strength strongbox chords before taking off on a lyrical, soaring solo. But nothing can prepare you for the shock and awe of ‘Apocalypse Slow’, where ‘Red’ meets ‘Machine Gun’ via Live-Evil.
Mollestad claims the Trio is about fun. But in her music, humour and horror have always been uneasy bedfellows. With ‘Apocalypse Slow’ Mollestad and her dear collaborators have created music that profoundly echoes the horror of our times and our helplessness before it. Andy Robson