QUATTRO NOVITA' DA NON PERDERE

Posto la newsletter di casa E.C.M. che annuncia le prossime quattro uscite. A prima vista direi che si tratta di un poker d'assi e che di questi album sentiremo parlare a lungo. Posso dare anche una notizia inedita, visto che per ora gli unici nomi annunciati ufficialmente sono quelli di Paolo Conte e Tony Bennet/Lady Gaga (sigh):  il gruppo di Jack De Johnette si esibirà nella prossima edizione di Umbria Jazz il 13 di luglio. Altra indiscrezione non ufficiale vede il Bill Frisell Guitar In The Space Age sempre a Perugia il 17 luglio.Four great jazz albums for ECM’s New Year The New Year on ECM begins with four major jazz albums. January 16 is the European release date for highly creative recordings with the Vijay Iyer Trio, Chris Potter’s Underground Orchestra, Jack DeJohnette, and the Kenny Wheeler Quintet.“Break Stuff” is the Vijay Iyer Trio’s first for ECM, and it dynamically references a huge range of sources from Thelonious Monk to Detroit minimal techno, considers Coltrane from West African rhythmic perspectives, concentrates large ensemble music written for collaboration with novelist Teju Cole into boiling trio pieces, pays thoughtful tribute to Billy Strayhorn, and much more. This alert and highly-focussed album reconfirms the Iyer Trio’s status as one of the brightest small groups of the present moment, both history-conscious and thoroughly modern.“Imaginary Cities” is an epic journey with Chris Potter’s Underground Orchestra, which incorporates his Underground quartet (with Craig Taborn, Adam Rogers and Nate Smith) and adds acoustic and electric basses and a string quartet. Potter’s compositions - including the panoramic four-movement title suite - are inspired, and the well-integrated ensemble provides a wonderful context for some of his most impassioned saxophone solos.“Made in Chicago” recorded live at the Chicago Jazz Festival, is a hurricane-strength performance from Jack DeJohnette and some of his oldest friends, including Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill. Issued at the start of the AACM’s 50th anniversary year, it’s a tribute to a great musical movement, and a powerful reminder of Jack’s deep roots in experimental jazz. Last, but no means least,“Songs for Quintet” is the touching and beautiful final album from Kenny Wheeler, recorded at London’s Abbey Road Studios, with Stan Sulzmann, John Parricelli, Chris Laurence and Martin France, and featuring nine fine Wheeler tunes, played with soul and empathy.