Jazz

This week's jazz reviews by RAY COMISKEY

JON HASSELL

Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street

ECM *****

Hassell's first ECM album in 25 years is a reminder of his influence on other trumpeters, such as Arve Henriksen and Nils Pettar Molvaer, and on electronic methodology generally, in which he is a master of aural collage or (his word) montage. The implications of a pictorial collage having a physical frame, while an aural one is framed only by silence, is a debate best pursued elsewhere, but Hassell's finest work here is strikingly sui generis. Remarkably, in the album's mix of live sampling, trumpet, bass, guitars, violin, laptops and looping, with its understated, evanescent, constantly shifting moods and motifs, it's the longer pieces ( Abu Giland Last Night the Moon Came) that have the most satisfying sense of a journey completed. But others, including Courtrais, Northlineand Blue Period,likewise share that uniquely vocalised trumpet sound and an otherworldly beauty that transcends cultural boundaries.

JULIAN ARGÜELLES

Momenta

Basho *****

Argüelles has played in and written for big bands before, but this live recording with the Frankfurt Radio Bigband may be his finest yet in the genre. There's a flourish, warmth and generosity to the music here, coupled with an individual sense of line, colour and contrast, that goes back to his late-1990s octet writing. Now it's writ larger and with even greater maturity and authority. The scope is wide. There are Iberian musical echoes in Barcelona 1936, a graceful, sweeping tribute to the hopes and horrors of the Civil War, and in the glorious Skull View. Hi Steve, a waltz, is sheer lyrical beauty, while Phaedrusis a cogent, swinging and imaginative big band performance. And in Evan's Freedom Passhe organises outside-the-envelope blowing persuasively. There's more to savour, including captivating solos from Argüelles on tenor and soprano, piano wunderkind Gwilym Simcock, and flugelhornist Axel Schlosser. www.bashorecords.com


JOE TEMPERLEY

The Sinatra Songbook

HEP****

What's notable about this Sinatra tribute is not that it's superbly performed. That's a given with people like Ryan Kisor (trumpet), John Allred (trombone), the talented young Dan Nimmer (piano) and leader Joe Temperley (on soprano and baritone). It is that Temperley and arrangers Andy Farber (alto/tenor) and James Chirillo (guitar), who both play here, and Frank Griffith, who does not, have evoked the musical climate that Nelson Riddle created for Sinatra in the 1950s without falling into pastiche. They've also kept the results firmly within the jazz fold. In seven octet performances, four quartets, one trio and one duet, the "jazziness" of the originals has been transformed into solidly swinging mainstream jazz. In their hands, Come Fly With Me, All the Way, I'll Never Smile Again, PS I Love You, Put Your Dreams Away, In the Wee Small Hoursand others become the best kind of nostalgia. www.hepjazz. com