Brian Landrus
For Now
(Blueland Records)
★★★★

FOR NOW is a sound anthology of baritone saxophonist and bass clarinettist Brian Landrus, playing with a virtuoso group including veteran drummer Billy Hart, pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Drew Gress and trumpeter Michael Rodriguez.

Landrus’s artistry is powerfully beautiful — listen to his deep melodism on The Miss, with its waltz-time flow. Hart’s drums are everywhere, enveloping the ensembles and soloists with a rousing empathy, as in JJ, where Rodriguez is wistfully lyrical.

A string quartet adds a layered serenity to the title track and the more familiar, stomping Invitation and throughout his solo rendition of Thelonious Monk’s Round Midnight, Landrus’s bass clarinet seeks new-found dimensions to the cherished theme.

More Monk ends the album, with Landrus and Hersch duetting on Ruby, My Dear. Hersch’s golden notes and Landrus’s lowdown loveliness are foils of memorable grace and leave the listener marvelling.

Gunter “Baby” Sommer
Baby's Party
(Intakt Records)
★★★★

GUNTER “BABY” SOMMER, born in Dresden in 1943, took his nickname from his youthful inspiration, the great New Orleans drummer Baby Dodds. In this duo album, his partner is the brilliant Viersen-born trumpeter, Till Bronner.

It’s a lively two-man shindig, with Bronner’s horn reaching skywards and earthwards, melodic and rumbustious by turns, while Baby’s slit drum, kitchen utensils and an array of percussive tools and surfaces make a compendium of compelling sounds.

Then suddenly, following a cosmos of improvisation, comes the familiarity of Danny Boy in the most outrageous of contexts. And how it resonates too, with Baby’s thunderous drums and Bronner’s moving lyricism.

The party finale is Duke Ellington’s In a Sentimental Mood, putting both virtuosi back in the tradition. Sommer rattles and pounds and Bronner soars and enchants as this most gripping and ever-surprising album concludes.

Andrew McCormack
Solo
Ubuntu Music
★★★★

ANDREW McCORMACK is a pianist who regularly excels, either in a duo with saxophonists like Jason Yarde or Jean Toussaint, or with his band Graviton.

So his album Solo is a new departure and an enthralling one too. “My mission in music is constantly evolving, and not necessarily in a straight line,” he attests. “I want to sharpen my playing and see what lies ahead, just beyond what I already know.”

Lucid yet complex, his musical brain and dexterity are constantly engaged in inventing tunes like Crystal Glass and the organic blessings of Weeds. In We See, he takes Thelonious Monk’s tuneful genius down a new and glittering timbral avenue.

As for the finale, the deep feeling of For All We Know has never seemed more intense and relevant. This is an album which goes beyond the familiar to a new sonic land, provoking the ears to listen and respond.