Europe Jazz Media Chart - June 2023

It is only the truly great ones in music, like Ralph Towner, that make virtuosity in technique sound so easy, releasing emotions that hit you right away. From the very first tones of album opener Flow to the last tones of Empty Stage, the closing song of the album, you are completely captivated by his magnificent playing. It pulls you completely out of time and let you be in the moment for a moment. Towner's playing time eludes you, gripped by the quality of everything you hear. At First Light, recorded earlier this year at the famous Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano, where Manfred Eicher and his team have made so many other splendid recordings, is a perfect album, a masterpiece of a musician who devoted his full life to music and lets us hear everything he has in him once again in 11 glowing compositions. At First Light is a masterpiece.

In A Short Diary, when Sebastian plays the silence, nothing but the essence is left to Kit; and the message will surely stay in your ears...

Bassist, singer, and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello makes her Blue Note Records debut with The Omnichord Real Book, a visionary, expansive, and deeply jazz-influenced album that marks the start of a new chapter in her career. Following her 2018 album Ventriloquism, Meshell returns with an album of new original material that taps into a broad spectrum of her musical roots. Features a wide range of guest artists including Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Joel Ross, Jeff Parker, Brandee Younger, Julius Rodriguez, Mark Guiliana, Cory Henry.

According to these little teenagers: "jazz for those who are reluctant to jazz..."

The music of PESH defies easy classification. It is a fusion of interestingly composed modern jazz and improvisation. Despite the different backgrounds of the band members, the sounds of the album form a coherent whole and the expression of the band is surprisingly orderly. The music is very inspiring, modern and at the same time strongly influenced by jazz history.

Pianist Kasia Pietrzko has emerged as one of the most cherished and popular musicians of the new jazz generation in Poland. Fragile Ego is her third outing as a leader, following Forthright Stories (2017) and Ephemeral Pleasures (2020). Surprisingly, her newest effort is the first album by a woman instrumentalist released in the venerable Polish Jazz series since it was launched nearly 60 years ago. In a set of original compositions, Kasia is joined by two more experienced colleagues: Andrzej Święs on bass and Piotr Budniak on drums. With their sure support and interaction, she can allow herself to play with abandon – her music unfolding as a story full of drama and emotions, replete with folksy melodies and classical motifs. At once impressionistic and expressionistic. Sensitive (fragile) and personal (ego).

The debut album from the award-winning project, which combines an open view of the instrumental side of jazz with a mainstream approach to jazz vocalism. In their original compositions, the quartet juxtaposes a song-like vocal formula - where the melody and the arranged accompaniment parts are heard - with an open space for improvisation.