A few recent Jazz titles you should check out!

 The Aum Fidelity label continues to impress with the finest of modern improvised American music, and it has two new titles you must hear. The Darius Jones Quartet "Book Of Mae'Bul" is the last of a trilogy, the best, and shows what jazz is, can be, and should be in the 21st century. It is quite unique, with overtones of A Love Supreme, Marion Brown, Tchachi, and Ornette, but really, if you are looking for the 1960's here, it is a wrong approach to the music. Now we have, walking the planet, musicians who came up after those giants, who absorbed their work as well as what was around them of their generation, who have created a new and compelling acoustic statement. Less of a screechfest than his previous work, Book Of Mae'Bul is challenging, magnificent, cleansing and looks forward while acknowledging where it came from. Highly recommended.

Even more compelling is the new CD from the great pianist Eri Yamamoto, "The Next Page", and here Eri Yamamoto builds on an already very impressive body of recorded work on Aum Fidelity, a working trio that has been together for long enough to be able to go to new places, here particularly there are more gospelish and blues based overtones and a refreshingly open organic approach making this a new height in Yamamoto's discography. It's one that I have listened to, and will listen to many times. Bill Evans is long gone. Now we are fortunate to be living in a era where for the crop around today Evans may have been one of several starting points, but where Jarrett, Tyner, Zawinul, and even the many great European pianists of the last 30 years have been absorbed together with other genres into what is still trio jazz, but of the moment. This is not to be missed.

 The United States continues to churn out an endless stream of hot looking young white female (so-called) jazz singers with the same old tired standards repertoire, all featuring languid, breathy vocals that are virtually elevator music for the Starbucks crowd. But in France, the real centre of innovative jazz today, that is not the case. There are many exciting and innovative instrumentalists and vocalists who aren't selling to the grandad market, but are pushing boundaries and expectations. Here is a new CD from Mina Agossi "Red Eyes" which features the great Archie Shepp on a couple of tracks. Shepp, of course, is rarely heard from these days - his embouchure is known to be shot, and the 'Fire Musc' days are long behind him. Or...maybe not. He plays a fiery tenor here on two tracks, obviously inspired by the artistry around him. And he also plays a mean bluesy piano, and sings. It's great to hear Shepp in 2012, yet, the stars here are Agossi and the music (Shepp and Agossi take on Hendrix' Red House!) which is smoking hot. Not a smooth ballads throwback, Agossi takes on contemporary songs, her own stuff, and out of the way material with a fabulous backing band - and a voice that is awesome, deep, blues at the bottom, the real soul, and a real feeling. This ain't no Diana Krall, thankfully, and sure isn't any Jacintha or Allyson. A killer record that should not be missed.

And to round things out - have you ever considered what the clarinet could be in jazz is the preconceptions of the instrument as a Dixieland or Swing era instrument were cast off? The answer is with Arun Ghosh, and the two CD's here - Primal Odyssey and Northern Namste, are the prime evidence. But you have to toss off another preconception - that of British Jazz. Ghosh places the clarinet into a potent new world context here, into a turbulent and potent world mix. It's a steaming hot mix, one that takes in very exotic places and a point of view that Ellington, Radiohead, Weather Report, Jef Gilson and others all come from the same DNA. This isn't a head/solos/head type of jazz, it's large ensemble music that weaves threads on many levels and tells stories. Fabulous music.