“Your Requests”, Laila Biali’s third album on ACT, shows a very different side of the craft of the Canadian pianist/vocalist from its predecessors. Both her self-titled debut album, which won the Canadian Juno Award for Best Vocal Jazz album in 2019, and also its successor, “Out of Dust” (nominated for the award in 2021), ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
The 2022 Jazzfest Berlin performance by revered, iconoclastic reedist Peter Brötzmann, Moroccan Gnaoua adept Majid Bekkas playing the two-stringed, camelskin-backed guembri, and Chicago-bred drummer Hamid Drake, documented as Catching Ghosts, is historic. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Ghana has an ancient tradition of story-telling, so the continuance of this great heritage can take many forms... and not just ones that involve the voice or words. Peter Somuah spins tales which come from his instrument: as a young trumpet-player, he embarked on a fascinating search for his identity between the Highlife music of his native country, Miles ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Crossover Jazz
"Jakob Manz will always surprise you," says pianist /keyboardist Roberto Di Gioia, who produced the 21-year-old's new album alongside Siggi Loch. "It is widely known that Jakob can play the saxophone unbelievably well, and also that he can take it in just about every conceivable direction in modern jazz. What is less appreciated is how authentic he ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
In “Voices”, Mathieu Saglio, with his quartet and a fascinating roster of guest vocal soloists from many countries, follows a bold dream. “Voices” builds on the success and the momentum of Saglio’s previous ACT album “El Camino de los Vientos'' (2020), a 'varied musical journey through the Mediterranean, Africa and Asia.'(JAZZTHETIK). Both Fono Forum ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
Swedish bassist/cellist Lars Danielsson is a master improviser, who completely engages listeners by taking them on journeys of both pleasure and wonder, with themes which are always expressive and song-like. He is far too classy and refined a musician to indulge in superficial virtuosic display. Danielsson's well-honed, naturally lyrical ...
Composer: Lars Danielsson
Genre: Classical
Subgenre: Classical Crossover
Les Égarés is more than a record. It’s play space, a locus of musical life, a poetic asylum inhabited by two twosomes who for years have excelled in the art of crossfertilising sounds and transcending genres. They are Ballaké Sissoko (kora) and Vincent Segal (cello) on the one hand and Vincent Peirani (accordion) and Émile Parisien (sax) on the other. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Crossover Jazz
With "Wille", its second album, the Vincent Meissner Trio shows that young, complex, crisp piano trio jazz does not have to come from the USA, England or Scandinavia, like many famous current representatives. Totally contemporary music, with heart and brain, whether in the form of original compositions or re-constructions of Whitney Houston, Louis Cole or The Beatles.
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
After adventures in the most diverse formations and musical styles, World jazz icon Nguyên Lê returns to the trio format with which he once founded his international career. Together with the Canadian Chris Jennings, one of the most sought-after bassists on both sides of the Atlantic. And the Moroccan percussionist Rhani Krija, whose ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Fusion
"Silent World" is perhaps the most personal album of drummer, composer, and bandleader Wolfgang Haffner yet. A master of clarity, focus, and reduction - accompanied by Dominic Miller, Nils Landgren, Till Brönner, Bill Evans, Rhani Krija, and many more. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Snarky Puppy founder, multi-instrumentalist and Grammy winner Michael League and cossover piano icon Bill Laurance take us to an imaginary place full of beauty, peace and energy. Musical escapism, world jazz 2.0 and an invitation to a place where we wish to be. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
With “Resonanzen” (Resonances) Johanna Summer has extended her extraordinary art and deepened the way she re-tells the music of classical composers through improvisation. The album spans a wide range, starting with Bach, Schubert, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Ravel and ending with Mompou, Ligeti and Scriabin. ...
Genre: Instrumental
Subgenre: Piano
The release of HOME.S., the only existing, previously unreleased solo album by pianist Esbjörn Svensson, is nothing less than a sensation. The recordings were made in Svensson's Swedish home - just weeks before his tragic death on June 14, 2008, after which they rested undiscovered on a hard drive in his wife Eva ...
Composer: Esbjörn Svensson (1964-2008)
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Modern Jazz
There is a great succession of musical discoveries coming out of Sweden right now, and it never ceases to amaze. In this instance, the well-honed skills of jazz musicians are aligned with an strong sensitivity for songwriting. The three women and two men who make up "Dearest Sister" form a band in the fullest sense. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Vocal
Thirty tracks from three generations of musicians marking thirty years of ACT, with Nils Landgren as driving force. Not just a retrospective, but above all an insight into the present and future of the discovery label “in the Spirit of Jazz”. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Compilations
The Gallery Concerts II (Jazz Poetry) [Live]
The two Swedes Jan Lundgren and Hans Backenroth are musical storytellers, their playing is without any vanity and full of vivid stories. Qualities that Lundgren has already demonstrated with his own projects, the pan-European success trio "Mare Nostrum" and in duos with trombonist and singer Nils Landgren and bass icon Georg Riedel. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
It is no exaggeration to say: Norwegian tenor saxophonist Marius Neset plays in his own league. In addition, he is one of the most fascinating and versatile composers in jazz and far beyond - which, among other things, currently takes him as far as London's Royal Albert Hall. Downbeat states, "Marius Neset is not the future, but the present of ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Verdi, Wagner, Beethoven, Bach...Germany’s premer jazz bassist Dieter Ilg has instigated several creative projects, in which he has taken the great composers of Western classical music off in new directions. Here, alongside pianist Rainer Böhm and drummer Patrice Héral, his focus turns to Ravel. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
"As an improviser, you often find that it‘s not the compositions themselves you‘re playing, but your own memories of them. And as these memories come back to you in the moment, they assert their continuing existence in the here and now," says pianist/composer Michael Wollny. In other words, songs are like ghosts. Wollny‘s new album "Ghosts" is a gathering of some of the ghosts that regularly haunt him. ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Contemporary Jazz
Magic Moments 15 (In the Spirit of Jazz)
Thirty years ago, music producer/publisher Siggi Loch moved on from his highly successful role as the European head of WEA (now Warner Music Europe) in order to fulfil a dream he had harboured since his youth, and set up his own independent jazz label, ACT. There have been more than 600 releases on the label since then; they stand as a ...
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre: Compilations
![Cover The Gallery Concerts II (Jazz Poetry) [Live]](https://storage.highresaudio.com/web/imgcache/12f02d4bc32e2f469ade894044200669/649vkh-thegallery-master_350x350.jpg)
