Europe Jazz Media Chart - March 2025

For some reason there are not that many real creative masters of the accordion within the jazz genre. Here is one! Portuguese João Frade (b. 1983) got his first accordion when he was seven years old, and ten years of studies followed. He now works as a composer, arranger, sideman and producer. Apart from the unique Portuguese Fado-tradition he is inspired by jazz, classical music as well as folk music. João Frade has developed an eclectic and cosmopolitan language and the interplay with bassist Munir Hossn and drummer Micael Olivera is of the highest order – several excellent guests get plenty of space and further broaden the scope of this release.

Lysis is a deeply human, touching album.

Latvian saxophonist and Latvian Radio Big Band artistic director Kārlis Vanags has released a massive sounding album for his jazz trio and two orchestras, dedicated to the legendary Sonny Rollins LP Saxophone Colossus. Although the influence from Rollins is not hidden, this is Kārlis Vanags’ original music, which features the bright expressions of double bassist Edvīns Ozols and drummer Artis Orubs, as well as the powerful sound of the Latvian Radio Big Band and Liepāja Symphony Orchestra. The three-part cycle, recorded at a concert in the Latvian city of Liepāja, is likely to appeal to both jazz and classical music lovers.

Luis Nacht, sax / Demian Cabaud, double bass/ Jeff Williams, drums. All that baggage is filtered by the contemporary sensibility of three enormous musicians who are not content with imitating genre clichés; Nacht, Cabaud and Williams take that tradition and reimagine it from a current perspective to create an album as personal as it is complete.

V Апофеоз (V Apotheosis) is a live album by Ukrainian saxophonist Andrii Barmalii, a strikingly bright figure on the local jazz scene. It marks his second full-length release following the explosive debut Autoportrack, where he made a bold statement as a music producer. While rooted in jazz and improvised music, his distinctive aesthetic draws from techno, dub, rock, and experimental influences. This time, however, the album takes an acoustic form, featuring an outstanding lineup of Ukrainian improvisers —Oleksandr Yavdyk (drums), Yevhen Pugachov (guitar), Maryan Karpinskyi (guitar), and Stanislav Diachenko (bass). Karpinskyi and Pugachov also appeared in previous album reviews at the Media Chart. V Апофеоз presents a striking contrast of raw intensity and poignant melodicism— as they say, it is an “immersive artistic act”, because it is the fifth part of the long-term project called Do Lia (which means “destiny” in Ukrainian,  but also the notes C and A in solmization).  After all, we have been growing up on the music of Ambrose Akinmusire, which I can still hear in everything they do. Listening to this album, you can feel what it means to carry the unbearable, to long for lost freedom, yet remain ready to dedicate a lifetime to fighting for it.

Knut Kristiansen (born 1946) is the very veteran of the jazz scene in Bergen. His piano playing is characterized by the fact that Thelonious Monk is in his spine. And over the years he has collaborated with relatively much younger musicians, which he also does on his new album Volum. Here he collaborates with tenor saxophonist Aksel Røed, bassist Magne Thormodsæter and drummer Sigurd Steinkopf, and alongside his own compositions, in the Monk tradition, we get compositions by Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Esa Kotilainen / Nils Aslak Valkapää, which the relatively young band performs with great conviction.

With his new, strikingly titled album Blame It On My Chromosones, Alex Koo picks up the pace relentlessly after his solo outing Etudes for Piano from two years back. This time in trio form with double bassist Lennart Heyndels and drummer Dré Pallemaerts as heroes alongside Koo and with American trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire as a guest. That he has always been extremely talented and eager to learn may be obvious but as fascinating as he continues to grow is quite surprising. Like compatriot Bram De Looze, Koo plays without hesitation with the world's greatest jazz musicians and they watch and listen to him with as much attention as he pays to them. For ten pieces, the adventure is full present, it seems like Koo wants to showcase everything he is currently at. And what a delightful excess of ideas and class that is. In Heyndels and Pallemaerts he has his ideal companions who are equally adventurous and challenging.

Amado's tenor saxophone intertwines with Maranha's sombre and nebulous organ, which, in an infinite drone, inflicts a constant weight; Amado's tenor saxophone flutters, rough, sometimes even poetic. Organ and saxophone combine their registers which, although contracting, merge into a block of sound. One of the most surprising encounters of the year results in a memorable album.