Joe Lovano Trio Tapestry
Garden of Expression
(ECM)
★★★★

DEDICATED “to the spirits of humankind that have fallen victims to the Covid-19 virus,” Garden of Expression is an exemplary album, full of spacious and reflective instrumental jazz.

There is little to distinguish between individual tracks but the set is more about creating a particular mood, something US veteran saxophonist Joe Lovano, accompanied by pianist Marilyn Crispell and Carmen Castaldi on drums, is able to do in spades.

All masters of their instruments, the restrained music feels as much about the silences as what is played. Crispell’s playing provides an undulating lightness to proceedings, while Castaldi’s soft drumming acts as a cushion for his bandmates. The romantic Night Creatures is particularly lovely.

A moving record that sounds more European than American, file alongside the similarly brilliant work of other ECM greats like John Surman and Andy Sheppard.

Cassandra Jenkins
An Overview of Phenomenal Nature
(BaDa Bing)
★★★★★

HAVING worked with artists like Craig Finn and Eleanor Friedberger, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Cassandra Jenkins was getting ready to tour as part of Purple Mountains when frontman David Berman killed himself in 2019.

Understandably, his ghost haunts her new record. “After David passed away/My friends put me up for a few days/Off the coast of Norway,” she recounts on the regenerative New Bikini.

But the record is about much more than just grief and loss. From the meandering instrumental closer Ramble to the glacial Hailey (“New year, new you”), it’s full of beguiling, ruminative folky-jazz songs.

Best of all is Hard Drive, an extraordinary spoken-word narrative that floats on top of some exquisite, lonesome saxophone, with Jenkins detailing a number of everyday epiphanies, from learning to drive to running into an acquaintance and visiting an art exhibition.

Phenomenally good.

Black Country, New Road
For The First Time
(Ninja Tune)
★★★★

I CAN’T remember the last time a new band was as hyped as much as Black Country, New Road has been.

Luckily the Cambridge-born seven-piece’s debut album is often brilliant, with their psychedelic, jazzy post-rock thrillingly shifting musical gears — usually several times over the course of just one song.  

With their squealing saxophone, jagged guitars and lengthy tracks it can be quite difficult listening, though it’s compellingly catchy too.

Emotions are heightened by Isaac Wood’s almost spoken-word sardonic vocals. The unhinged, surreal epic Sunglasses finds the protagonist — called Isaac — on a surreal visit to his girlfriend’s family house (“Mother is juicing watermelons on the breakfast island,”) with name checks for Kanye West, Scott Walker, Bedales private school and, er, Danish crime dramas.

Strangely comforting, it’s great to hear a young British band capture the zeitgeist with so many innovative ideas.