Featuring new lyrics penned by vocalist Imogen Ryall, the trio’s arrangement of Carla Bley’s “Lawns” was one of the most exquisite things I’ve heard this year. For its melodic beauty and emotional sincerity, Anöna Trio’s One January Morning immediately installed itself in your heart. Adopted Londoner Michael Janisch’s Worlds Collide presented compelling small group playing of the very highest order, while the fascinatingly vast textural palette of Driftglass, the debut album from alto saxist and composer Cashie Kinoshi’s 10-piece SEED Ensemble, fused a myriad of influences – from Maria Schneider to electric Miles – into something utterly original.Įmilia Mårtensson’s Loredana featured music of enormous delicacy, subtlety and imagination, not to mention a predilection for the melancholic, as heard in the heart-rending Swedish folk song, “Jag Unnar Dig Ändå Allt Gott”. The four-horn front line and high-powered rhythm section of London-based septet Nérija provided a collective blast of camaraderie and joie de vivre with their debut album, Blume. With her characteristically confessional, sotto voce style, the US songwriter, vocalist and pianist Patricia Barber has ploughed one of the most distinctive artistic furrows in jazz, and Higher proved to be a persuasive addition to her singular discography.ĭrawing from prog, electronica, afrobeat and more, UK jazz continued to chart new vistas of expression.
Veronica Swift’s debut for Mack Avenue Records, Confessions, was nothing short of spectacular, displaying impeccable time, emotional depth, timbral beauty, first-rate arranging skills and a storytelling gift.