LINDA MAY HAN OH — The Glass Hours (review)

LINDA MAY HAN OH — The Glass Hours album cover Album · 2023 · 21st Century Modern Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
snobb
Malaysian-Australian bassist Linda May Han Oh came to the international jazz scene a decade ago as a comet, with her groovy, melodious and fresh contemporary jazz songs. On her new album, "The Glass Hours", the bassist continues exploring the more composition-based side of her music, characteristic for Oh's most current works.

Leading a strong electroacoustic quintet, Linda offers complex compositions with a lot of tension, filled with rising Portuguese star Sara Serpa's wordless vocals.

What looks interesting on paper doesn't always work all that well in real recording. So attractive Oh's earlier work's playfulness is gone here, these composition's complexity and borrowed classical elements add a lot of heaviness and dryness, which often sounds quite formal and a bit repetitive. Lyric-less Serpa's vocals vary from neo-classical to early 70s jazz fusion inherent and not always fits together. The album doesn't sound as a complete work, more like a collection of musical sketches and sometimes underdeveloped ideas from different times.

Ambitious work, which has its moments, but doesn't realize the potential in full.
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