Latest release reviewed

JOHN TAYLOR/STEVE SWALLOW/ GABRIELE MIRABASSI
New Old Age
EGEA
****

The piano-bass-clarinet instrumentation recalls Enrico Pieranunzi's gorgeous Racconti mediterranei album, and some of the all-original material, notably Taylor's title track, Swallow's Arise, Her Eyes and Mirabassi's gloriously romantic Hotel Danubio have similar grace and charm. But this equally lovely recording is much more about improvisation and the freedom of group interplay than its predecessor, and all three players are unflaggingly inventive in responding to each other and the music. In what is probably one of Mirabassi's finest sessions on record, Taylor is inspirational and, though Swallow takes a typically modest-seeming role, the music is inconceivable without him. www.harmoniamundi.com


TOM O'HARE/GUNTHER FISCHER
Featuring James Williams
MoodJazz
***

This fine example of mainstream jazz is Williams's swan song; the pianist died last year within months of the recording. Intelligent choices distinguish the programme, with unhackneyed pieces by Tom Harrell, Jimmy Heath, Steve Swallow, Lee Morgan, Thad Jones and Milt Jackson, plus a pair of seldom-played standards. Probably the strongest soloist, O'Hare is in splendid form, his vibes strongly reminiscent of Jackson, while Fischer is more forthright than usual – and Williams, effective in a good rhythm section with Michael Hauser (bass) and Myles Drennan (drums), shows why he was so much admired by other musicians. The group peaks on a striking By Myself and Jay Beckenstein's Morning Dance. www.moodjazz.com


HILARY BOW
Sean Nova
Bow Records
**

Bossa nova as gaeilge? Why not? Especially when you surround yourself with the cream of Irish jazz musicians, have one of our best jazz writers do the arrangements, and pick some prestigious Irish poets to translate. But Ms Bow, a pleasant singer, is unswinging in this context and has to handle lyrics of mind-numbing banality. The originals were hardly literary triumphs, but to limit the cúpla focail to them and then straitjacket the results into existing melodic lines and metres would defeat the combined talents of the late Mairtín Ó Cadhain and Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Gunna. Excellent musicians do their best to serve the misguided concept, but the sense remains of an ex-something or other being flogged to expiration. Bizarre. www.bowrecords.com