JAZZ

Latest releases reviewed

JEREMY PELT November MaxJazz  ***

Pelt, one of the best trumpeters on the US scene, has always kept in touch with the tradition while trying to forge something fresh out of it. Here the approach by his current, highly accomplished quintet - JD Allen (tenor), Danny Grisset (piano), Dwayne Burno (bass) and Gerald Cleaver (drums) - perhaps harks back to Miles Davis's early 1960s work. It's a good jumping-off point for anyone with bop roots. And if Pelt's band isn't the equal of that stellar outfit. it's not all their fault. The material, all by the leader, is not particularly striking, and it seems to encourage a certain similarity of tone. The quintet engages thoughtfully with the music - Pelt, Allen and Grissett are more than capable soloists, Cleaver is outstanding in an excellent rhythm section, and there's fine playing on every track. But the results evoke admiration rather than engagement. www.MaxJazz.com

DAVE O'HIGGINS In the Zone Jazzizit ***

For his latest album, British tenor and soprano saxophonist O'Higgins has turned, somewhat surprisingly, to the bop idiom, albeit with some post-bop touches. He's a fine player, gifted enough to tackle anything from bop onwards persuasively. Here he uses a quartet with a Tom Cawley-Sam Burgess-Sebastiaan De Krom rhythm section on one session, and trumpeter Martin Shaw added on another. What emerges is what might be expected: crisply played hard bop with the usual devices - unison themes, chase choruses and solos. It's skilfully done, with Cawley, on piano, perhaps the most consistently interesting soloist on a programme of attractive originals by O'Higgins, Fred Lacy, Steve Grossman and Lee Morgan, and three relatively little-used standards. Fans of the idiom should find much to enjoy. www.jazzizit.co.uk

ARUN GHOSH Northern Namaste Camoci ***

Ghosh is a young British-Indian clarinettist and composer whose gift for melody and rhythm has been hailed as an attractive new take on Indo-Jazz fusion. With its various small-group combinations of bass, sitar, tenor saxophone and percussion (tabla, bayan, dholak, drums, tambourine, vibes), as well as overdubbing, which allows Ghosh to play clarinet and piano, harmonium or guitar, the music is easy on the ear. And it swings. As a synthesis of jazz and north Indian influences, it works well enough. Ghosh wrote all the material (except the lovely O amar desher mati, by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, and the traditional Greenhouse), placing his clarinet centre stage as a melody and improvising instrument. If this establishes a certain homogeneity, it also limits the tonal possibilities; much of the interest, too, is rhythmic. But its charm and accessibility are undeniable. www.camoci.co.uk