Tineke Postma
Freya
(Edition Records)
★★★★

AS SOON as you hear the reverie of notes of Dutch alto and soprano saxophonist Tineke Postma, you know you are in the presence of a profoundly original musical talent.

“I like to write multi-layered music with conceptual moments,” she says. And with her bandmates — trumpeter Ralph Alessi, pianist Kris Davis, bassist Matthew Brewer and drummer Dan Weiss — the sonic strata are continually reinvented from Alessi’s lucid horn and her own breathy lyricism over the rhythmic compulsion of Brewer and Weiss and Davis’s crystalline notes.

Freya is a Frisian goddess of creation, love and fertility and Postma, from Friesland in the north Netherlands, pays homage to her on the sublime gentleness of  Aspasia and Pericles, or the way she soars during In the Light of Reverence.

She brings a whole new lowland European sound into her music, wrapped in a fresh aural beauty.

Sarah Gail Brand Quartet
All Will Be Said, All to Do Again
(Regardless Records)
★★★★★

THE UNIQUE glissando trombone slides of Sarah Gail Brand are in full downhill power on her new and scintillating album, shared with three of Britain’s finest improvisers — dancing bassist John Edwards, pianist and electronics master Steve Beresford and the ever-surprising drums wizard Mark Sanders.

Exhaling the breath of fire and discovery all through the album, Brand is the true musical daughter of revolutionary trombonist Paul Rutherford,  particularly on the track A Constant Quantity and her duet with Edwards on Let’s Do Something While We Have the Chance.

Beresford creates a fizzing electric timbre which meshes seamlessly with Brand’s galactic soundscape on This One and on the final track Let’s Go, her horn of freedom forges a powerful excitation which recreates the wonder of their live sound.

If they’re playing anywhere near you, don’t miss them.

Dave Glasser
Hypocrisy Democracy
(Here Tiz Music)
★★★★

THE SON of Ira Glasser, long-time Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Dave Glasser is a scything New York alto and soprano saxophonist.

The longing for freedom bleeds out in his sound and his new album Hypocrisy Democracy is dedicated to “fairness and justice” for all Americans.

His quartet, with bassist Ben Allison, pianist Andy Milne and drummer Matt Wilson, have created a powerful musical commentary on today’s Trump-cursed America.

Glasser produces an agonising soprano saxophone sound on the track Justice, accompanied by Milne’s empathetic keyboard runs, Wilson’s thumping drums and Allison’s billowing bass.

The walking rhythm of It’s Nothing New suggests progress is gradual but unrelenting. Dilemonk remembers the great Thelonious in its quirky corners of sound and Glee for Lee salutes the great altoist and Glasser’s teacher, Lee Konitz.

Social insight and musical power pour out of this album, which is certainly one to relish.