Michael Janisch: Paradigm Shift | Album Review

Paradigm Shift
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Artist: Michael Janisch
Genre: Jazz
Label: Whirlwind

When US bassist Michael Janisch set up a record company in London five years ago, it was to release his own music, but Whirlwind has since become one of Europe’s busiest and most creative independent labels.

So busy, in fact, that it is now all of those five years since Janisch released a record of his own.

Paradigm Shift – recorded live, reworked in the studio, and lavishly spread over two discs – is an emphatic end to that silence.

The density of the music suggests a musician eager to get back to the front line – a busy record from a busy man – and his talented group, in particular saxophonist Paul Booth and keyboardist Leo Genovese, find plenty to say on the subject of the bassist’s involved and involving tunes.

Cormac Larkin

Cormac Larkin

Cormac Larkin, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a musician, writer and director