Back in stock: Jazz

Review: The pairing we didn't know we needed - Rod Stewart and Jools Holland - share their latest full-length album Swing Fever, a worthy throwback to the swing music of yore. A 13-track sparkling salute to the timeless songs of the big band years, and reignited by two giants of their craft, this unlikely dialogue between such titans has produced a convincingly diegetic and immersive work, avoiding any overt pratfall of pure anachronism by producing a roomy, spacious and overall future-present work of art, one which confidently reignites the feeling of Charlestonning and jitterbugging in school proms and/or formal bally occasions, until such quaint aerialisms can be performed no more, whether due to nostalgic satiation or mere exhaustion. With peerless dexterity, Stewart and Holland deliver their takes on timeless jazz classics like 'Ain't Misbehavin', 'Frankie And Johnny', 'Sentimental Journey' and 'Lullaby Of Broadway'.

Review: The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, a soul and funk nonnet from San Diego, have long blessed the Colemine modern funk sceptre with crumbled parfaits of funk topped with crumbly analog psychedelia and Afrobeat. With their new album, they ravage fresher sonic territories. Recorded between 2021 and 2024 in Lemon Grove, California, Gemini centres on their already-laid breakbeat-heavy funk-soul-jazz foundation, heard in tracks like 'Makin' Moves' and 'The Grifter', but they also draw influence from library music, spiritually-inclined jazz and exotica adjacents. Personifying the astrological Gemini - curiosity, versatility - 'Corporatocracy' stands out as special, welding an extended tabla solo to a wordless critique of the world's most egregious mega-firms.

Review: Powerful grooves from Mood Mosaic's latest series; most of the work here originates from the 70s, and a lot from those great years of the UK and US scene where it also seemed like there was plenty of folk in the music to boot. A few of these cuts are downright acid, and all are filled with great instrumentation; an approach that's a nice change from some of the more familiar Brit and US manners of the same generation. Titles include, among others: Nirvana's 'Nova Sketch', Fifty Foot Hose's 'Rose', Pyranha's 'Clepsydre', Kaleidoscope's 'Keep Your Mind Open', and more.

Review: With their sixth album in seven years, German jazz quartet Web Web return with a fresh touch: Plexus Plexus is more psychedelic and at times far "Krautier" than before, representing a speedy departure from their previous Web Max release. Special guest JJ Whitefield (The Poets Of Rhythm, Karl Hector & The Malcouns, Syrup) weaves a remarkable guitar thread throughout, gluing its sound together through solo intermissions, riffs and vamps. In his style, we hear everything from The Poets of Rhythm and Syrup to the more psychedelic vibes of Karl Hector & The Malcouns, injecting the record with the zoomed-out energy of 70s jazz-Kraut bands. Departing from their last record, Web Web have truly a back-to-basics approach through spontaneity, riffing on the back of an intense three-day recording sesh in Munich.