Bloom, the ACT debut of pianist and composer Bill Laurance as leader, marks the transition from the smallest possible form of musical interaction to a large-scale, broadband format: Following the internationally acclaimed ACT release Where You Wish You Were in duo with multi-instrumentalist and Snarky Puppy bandmate Michael League, Laurance now teams up with Manchester-based 18-piece string orchestra ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Crossover Jazz
How do you follow up a successful album like “Americana”? Released in April 2020, it not only received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, it has also registered streaming statistics approaching ten million. It brought together harmonica player Grégoire Maret and pianist Romain Collin, performing in a trio ...
Composer: Ennio Morricone (1928-2020)
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Kleiner Impuls, große Wirkung - dafür steht der Begriff „Butterfly Effect“. Schon der Flügelschlag eines Schmetterlings an einem Punkt der Erde kann eine Kette von Ereignissen auslösen, die an einem weit entfernten Ort gewaltige Veränderungen zur Folge haben. Im Falle des Duos von Saxofonist, Flötist und Klarinettist Magnus Lindgren und Pianist ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
"I love the music of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan," says Icelandic guitarist Mikael Máni. "I think that's the main reason why I often write songs for the guitar that could just as easily be sung." Those words bring us to the core of what "Guitar Poetry", Máni’s debut release on ACT, is all about. This album introduces an instrumentalist who brings ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Anna Gréta goes gentle...into her second album on ACT, “Star of Spring”. The Reykjavik-born pianist, singer and a songwriter, who has lived in Stockholm since 2014, has her own way of approaching the art of quiet, artful, deeply personal songs, often drawing inspiration from the beauty and power of Iceland’s natural ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
Any conversation about the piano trio in the European jazz of recent decades will inevitably touch on the topic of the "Nordic sound". The leading exponents of it – Jan Johansson, Bobo Stenson, Bugge Wesseltoft, Esbjörn Svensson… – have not just drawn on the vast palette of American jazz, they are also musicians steeped in the ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Viktoria Tolstoy's ACT debut album, "Shining On You" from 2004, can now be seen as a defining moment, marking the beginning of the continuing success story of popular jazz voices from Scandinavia. The music was written by Esbjörn Svensson, who also formed the core band together with Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström and was soon to become world-famous ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
When accidents happen, they are normally over in seconds, sometimes minutes; this one has been going on for 20 years. It is two decades since the members of Emile Parisien’s quartet played a jam session together. At the end, they looked at each other in disbelief. They had not just been hit by a collective musical ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Live at Cello Biënnale Amsterdam
Nesrine is a very versatile singer and cellist. In keeping with the current zeitgeist, she combines influences from pop, rock, minimalism, and North African music. Originally trained as a classical cellist, she played in Daniel Barenboim's East Western Divan Orchestra and in the Orquestra de la ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
Passacaglia is a multi-coloured musical dialogue between two unique characters who are leading figures in European jazz and contemporary music, Adam Bałdych and Leszek Możdżer. The repertoire ranges from free improvisations over works co-written by the musicians themselves to their ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
The duo recording by pianists Joachim Kühn and Michael Wollny marks the start of a collaboration between two extraordinary partners: the ACT label and Château Palmer, one of the most important Grand Cru wine estates in Bordeaux - and a constant companion of jazz. And it unites the worlds of music, wine and fine art in a unique way. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
"Groove jazz, that’s what we grew up with,“ says alto saxophonist Jakob Manz. "Marcus Miller, David Sanborn and the Brecker Brothers - they’re all in our DNA. But for The Jakob Manz Project’s second album, we also wanted new inspirations which would push us further". The main catalyst for this was a performance at the ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Christmas with My Friends VIII
Nils Landgren's "Christmas With My Friends" is a faithful companion at Christmas time and the repertoire is almost inexhaustible. The eighth edition also presents a varied selection of international, Swedish, traditional and modern Christmas songs as well as atmospheric secular popular songs in the familiar quiet and intimate mood. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
Geyser (Live at Royal Albert Hall - BBC Proms)
A stellar hour for one of today's prime composers and performers in jazz & beyond. It has been said and written many times - still, it simply can't be overstated: Norwegian Marius Neset is not only one of the most virtuoso and recognizable saxophonists of our time. He is also one of the most ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Crossover Jazz
"Mahler's Breakdown" turns the master's 5th symphony on its head: in a 50-minute techno version of the "Sinfonia Maledetta," the Jazzrausch Bigband unleashes its versatility and sheer force. In an arrangement by Jazzrausch chief composer Leonhard Kuhn, interspersed with energetic improvisations, the 15 band ...
Composer: Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Big Band
Júlio Resende has the profound ability to reinvent Portugal’s trademark deep, em otional m usic through the piano,” says the respected world music magazine Songlines of the Portuguese pianist/composer. Resende’s concept of Fado Jazz is a perfect example of how jazz has become a global language for free musical expression ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Latin Jazz
Again there is the catchy groove and the distinct melodicism that define the typical Shalosh sound. Again there is this three-piece compactness, which is already in the Hebrew "three" significant band name. "An Israeli power trio. Heavy jazz!", the German Rolling Stone and the Times critic heard a "promise". In Deutschlandfunk, there was talk of ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
Who doesn't long for clarity, calm, peace these days... We all know by now that there are no simple answers for the complex problems of our time, BUT: there are simple melodies that appeal to our sensuality, to our humanity, that open spaces through their simplicity. Stories that lie like a warm blanket over the mental overload in our brain. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
Four wins! The debut album of the German-Swedish supergroup "4 Wheel Drive" was the most successful jazz recording in Germany in 2019. And the media were not stingy with praise either. "Four first-league jazz players with pure joy of playing and a desire for good pop music", was the verdict of ZDF's heute-journal on the ingenious and enjoyable collaboration of ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
At the age of just twenty-one Emma Rawicz has already sown many of the important seeds for a major career. She clearly can be considered a part of the wave of Young British Jazz which has been making its mark worldwide. The North Devon-born saxophonist, whose Polish surname comes from her Warsaw-born grandfather, who settled in the UK during World War 2, has already led her band ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
