New releases last four weeks: Jazz

Review: American saxophone player and composer Clifford Jordan's 1990s Maple Shade Records albums are well thought of for their high-quality ideas. This release features a 1987 live quartet performance from a Baltimore jazz club in which Jordan delivers a mature, lyrical and swinging set encompassing standards like 'Round Midnight' and 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore' alongside his original compositions. The recording was meticulously captured with minimal microphones and high-quality cables so it achieves remarkable realism while blurring the line between live performance and studio recording. This is a definitive glimpse into Jordan's artistry at the height of his career.

Review: Spiritmuse Records presents Journey to Nabta Playa, the dialogic result of Angel Bat Dawid and multidisciplinary artist Naima Nefertari, as they team up to honour the ancient Nubian astrological site of the same name. An ancient Neolithic site in Egypt's Nubian Desert predating Stonehenge, Nabta Playa incorporates a stone circle whose lithic configuration aligns with celestial events. Fittingly, then, this clash-of-titans record astrologises celestial electronics and divines ancestral predestinations, sewing a starry sonic tapestry - in Bat Dawid's terms "this is not just an album, it's a constellation". Picking up where Don and David Ornette Cherry left off with 'Bishmillah', and carrying out such further original, summative sonic burial and resurrection rites such as 'Black Stones Of Sirius' and 'Procession Of The Equinox', we hear a dance of featuring flute, clarinet, and vibraphone, and enraptured voice.

Review: Upon its release in 1970, Donny Hathaway's latest album was met with critical acclaim but modest commercial success. The LP showcased Hathaway's extraordinary versatility, blending gospel, jazz, blues and soul into a cohesive whole. It was a rich tapestry of influences, marked by Hathaway's stunning vocal prowess and his ability to craft arrangements that felt both intricate and organic. The album also set the stage for his subsequent works, cementing Hathaway as one of the most important voices of his generation. Tracks like 'The Ghetto' and 'Tryin' Times' revealed his commitment to addressing social issues, while songs like 'Thank You Master' and 'Je Vous Aime' showcased his personal and spiritual depth. In the decades since its release, Everything Is Everything has grown in stature, celebrated as a cornerstone of soul music.

Review: A reissue on nice double vinyl for the sixth album from 'sophisti-pop' pioneer Jackson, fusing jazz, funk and soul elements with a post-punk spikiness and a very British outlook, pointing the way forward for the likes of the Style Council and a host of other 80s acts. It first surfaced in 1984 and although it's the first digitally recorded album he made, it's typified sonically by Jackson and producer David Kershenbaum's move to reject the sterile, dead acoustics of modern studios in favour of the Manhattan Masonic Hall, previously mainly used for classicx recording. The jazzy solos, sparkly sax and snazzy chorus of 'You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)' - with just a hint of Afrobeat groove to it too - are probably best known here, but all nine songs number among the Staffordshire-born musician's smartest output.

Review: An exciting, previously unreleased live recording of the iconic US jazz bassist Charles Mingus captured in Buenos Aires in June 1977. The performance features a stellar lineup with Ricky Ford on tenor sax, Jack Walrath on trumpet, Robert Neloms on piano and Dannie Richmond on drums, and now comes transferred from the original tape reels, recorded by engineer Carlos Melero, having been meticulously mastered by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab. This limited-edition triple album set is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Le Vinylist, and comes with an elaborate booklet featuring newly commissioned liner notes and interviews with artists influenced by Mingus. Released in with the authorisation of the Charles Mingus Estate, this is an exclusive offering for Record Store Day 2025.

Review: Recorded at the storied Slugs' Saloon in Manhattan's Lower East Side, this unified collection captures the Charles Tolliver-led Music Inc quartet in blistering form. New York runs through the musiciits restlessness, density, sharp corners. Tolliver, a Brooklyn-born trumpeter with a militant edge and lyrical touch, fronts a group that helped define the forward-looking jazz of the early 70s. Beside him are Strata-East co-founder Stanley Cowell on piano, bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Jimmy Hopps, all embedded in the New York avant-garde at the time. On pieces like 'Felicite' and 'Wilpan's', they stretch out with blistering force, melting structure into raw, insistent groove. Even in quieter momentsi'Ruthie's Heart', or the shadowy 'Repetition'ithere's a tension that never quite releases, the sense that every note is carved in real time. This is the first time both volumes are presented as one continuous document, expanded with three previously unreleased tracks. It's a vital capture of a quartet thinking collectively, improvising with unrelenting intensity and total mutual trust. The sound, newly remastered, gives space to the grit and nuance of the live sessioniCowell's cascading runs, McBee's deep pull, Hopps' unpredictable propulsion. There's no studio polish here, just a direct line to the spirit of a time and place, when New York jazz burned fast, political and free.

Review: Gilles Peterson remains a man with his finger firmly on the pulse and this is another album to prove it: International Anthem is a special double compilation highlighting the renowned DJ and curator's deep connection with Chicago's celebrated contemporary jazz label. Featuring selections drawn from Peterson's BBC 6Music, Worldwide FM and syndicated shows, the collection showcases standout tracks from the label's first decade and also included is an exclusive, previously unreleased live recording from Worldwide FM. Pressed on "Frozen Lake Michigan" coloured vinyl, this Record Store Day exclusive is part of International Anthem's "IA11" series-celebrating 11 years by honouring their past while shaping the future of boundary-pushing global sounds.