From the bluesy growl of the opening title-track, through a series of rousing, eccentric instrumentals, to the closing 'Throw Them Blues in the Recycling Bin' featuring the Voice of God Collective Junior League Choir, this is quintessential Billy Jenkins: teasingly satirical, genre-melding, passionate, deeply rooted in South East London.

Pianist Stefano Battaglia is something of an old hand at the percussion–piano freely improvising duo, having collaborated in the early 1990s with Tony Oxley and Pierre Favre, and with his current partner, fellow Italian Michele Rabbia, on an earlier ECM release, Re: Pasolini. On these eleven pieces, which range from deft interpretations of prearranged material (the musical prayer 'Antifona Libera', the wisps of melody that inform the title-track) through Maghrebi-influenced improvisations ('Cantar del Alma', 'Sundance in Balkh')...

The world of traditional folk music, characterised by trickery, down-to-earth wit and magic, that is illuminated by a Martin Carthy concert is perhaps best exemplified by the plot of one of the most striking songs he included in this mesmerising two-hour performance: 'Willie's Lady'.

Locating the vibrant, freewheeling music on this, Rolldown's second album, by identifying its roots in the freer 1960s Blue Note recordings (Andrew Hill, Eric Dolphy, Sam Rivers et al.) and in its home city Chicago's improvised music scene (Art Ensemble, AACM, Sun Ra) provides a useful shortcut for those new to the band, but might leave them unprepared for the thoroughly contemporary nature of Jason Adasiewicz's compositions, which bristle with all the viscerally affecting energy of the current avant-rock scene in which he used to operate.

'Allsorts' is the title of the Westbrooks' latest duo album (see CD Reviews), and the two sets of music they are currently playing on a short UK tour are comprised mainly of songs that appear on that asc CD. Like the album, their first set began with Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler's 'Stormy Weather', its touching vernacular exploitation of the pathetic fallacy making it a perfect vehicle for Kate's subtly dramatic delivery.

Mass (1971) Jubilant Sykes, baritone (The Celebrant) Morgan State University Choir; Peabody Children’s Chorus Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop Naxos By now, almost all our readers must have heard of this sensational recording and the string of awards it has garnered in the classical industry. After a long period of benign neglect, Leonard Bernstein’s acclaimed (or notorious?) masterwork has [...]

In Memoriam Soloists, Valley Festival Orchestra and Amherst College Concert Choir Lewis Spratlin conducting Streaming: Quartet for Piano and Strings Yvonne Lam. Violin; David Kim, viola; Christian-Pierre La Marca, cello; Xiang Zou, piano Navona Records “Sun, Sun, you bring us light. Never can we pay for the blessings that you give to us.” Thus begins a Mayan prayer to the Sun [...]

String Quartets (Complete) Ensö Quartet, with Lucy Shelton, soprano (Quartet 3) Naxos Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) listed three periods in his development as “Objective Nationalism” (1934–1948), “Subjective Nationalism” (1948–1958), and “Neo-Expressionism” (1958–1983). His best known works, the ballets Panambí and Estancia, are from the first period, in which he consciously used the folk music of his own [...]

Vivian Houle, vocalist Treize Drip Audio Mandrake (with Peggy Lee, cello) Molehills mumps (with Lisa miller, piano) Paperthin (with Coat Cooke, saxophone) Gratte-moi le dos (with Kenton Loewen, drums) Quiet eyes (with Ron Samworth, guitar) It’s not the moon (with Chris Gestrin, analog keyboards and live sampling) Betters and bads (with Jesse Zubot, violin) Finely tuned is my heart (with Jeremy Berkman, [...]

Tom Johnson Rational Melodies New World CD 80705-2 When he was a critic at the Village Voice in the 1970s, Tom Johnson (b. 1939) was one of the first writers to apply the term ‘minimalism’ to music. As time has moved on, many composers originally associated with minimalism have branched out stylistically; while certain gestural signatures may remain, [...]