The latest releases reviewed.
MIKE HOLOBER Wish List Sons of Sound ****
The latest from pianist, composer and orchestrator Holoberis an engaging example of his multiple talents, among them getting the right people to interpret his work. In this case they're exceptional, with Tim Ries (tenor/ soprano), and Holober part of a superior rhythm section completed by John Patititucci (bass) and the great Brian Blade (drums). The leader's seven originals are couched in performances full of incident, contrast, character and rhythmic flexibility, with lovely lines, great harmonic awareness and a notable ability to extract colour from such a small ensemble. Yet it's all done so deftly that the flow and arc of each performance is a natural, relaxed progression, a point readily appreciated, on first listen, in Holobar's imaginative redeployment of such familiar material as Lennon/ McCartney's Blackbird and an old standard, Nancy. www.sonsofsound.com Ray Comiskey
BILLY HART Quartet HighNote ****
Some of the routines worked out, but this is not a group where every "t" is crossed and every "i" dotted. It's essentially a blowing band, with a couple of the more original talents of the New York scene to fill the bill in Mark Turner (tenor) and the Bad Plus's Ethan Iverson (piano); Ben Street is on bass, with drummer Hart revelling in his role as leader. What's particularly striking is how Turner has transcended his Warne Marsh influences to find his own, highly original, voice, and how Iverson's growing distinctiveness as a soloist has a Monkish quirkiness about it. The quartet is also focused on letting the fluid and intense dialogue shape each performance; when they feel it's done, then, sometimes disconcertingly, they stop. But their work is full of surprise, and in Turner the band has a major soloist. http://uk.hmboutique.com Ray Comiskey
NIGEL KENNEDY Blue Note Sessions Blue Note ***
There's a jolly-good-time-was-had-by-all feel to this, for none more than Kennedy, who at least sounds more at home, jazzwise, than his old violin teacher, Menuhin did. And, surrounded by jazz aristocracy - Joe Lovano, Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette, Kenny Werner - and Hammond funkmeister Lucky Peterson, plus assorted percussion, he clearly had a ball. As a jazz soloist, however, he still has some way to go; cliches are seldom far away, he often succumbs to effects the electrified instrument can give and the device of tremolo appears with irritating frequency. In what amounts to several good-natured jam sessions the others play within themselves and, while the results hardly set the jazz world alight, the rhythm section is pure Rolls Royce. Kennedy's in Cork at the festival this weekend; judge for yourself. Ray Comiskey
