(38:58; Paola Tagliaferro) The first thing one needs to know about this album is that it is available in both English and Italian – Paola did send me both, but I decided to concentrate on this one, but the other is available as ‘Il Suono Delle Sfere’ if you are interested. Paola provides the vocals, and she has been joined by Pier Gonella on bass, Luca Scherani on piano and keyboards with Andrea Orlando on drums. This album is a thematic one, inspired by Ankh, the ancient Egyptian key symbolising eternal life, so after the introductory piece we head to the moon before reaching the sun and then heading out through various objects of the solar system named after ancient gods. It is quite fitting that this is a voyage through space, as that is very much a featured element in this album with the layers of the arrangement very distinct from each other with plenty of room, enough to drive a spaceship through. I have previously come across Paola from her work with Claudio Milano, and like him...

(37:52; Craft Recordings [2025 Edition] ) The last of the recent Craft Recordings/Concord remastered reissues of Miles Davis are both the newest album and the oldest recordings, as the sessions were from April 1954 and brings together songs which originally appeared on two 10” albums, ‘Miles Davis All-Star Sextet’ and ‘Miles Davis Quintet’, yet this was not released until 1957. Each of the sessions had Miles, Horace Silver (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Kenny Clarke (drums), but the two tracks on side one also had Lucky Thompson (tenor saxophone) and  J. J. Johnson (trombone) while the three tracks on side two had David Schildkraut (alto saxophone). I have no idea why, but David is the only musician not credited in the middle of the cover, which seems somewhat strange unless some art editor decided the text would be too small if he was included. The title cut is widely regarded as one of the most important early hard bop numbers, and at more than 13 minutes in length is an amazing...

(35:35; Craft Recordings [2025 Edition] ) I have literally only just reviewed this as part of the ‘55’ triple CD set, and here it is again, but one can really never have too much of this great album. Plus, unlike the ‘55’ set, this remastered reissue has the songs in the right order this time. Recorded on June 7th 1955, this finds Miles joined by Red Garland (piano), Oscar Pettiford (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums). There is such incredible purity, life and emotion in Miles’s playing that I know I would recognise his playing anywhere, but like any good leader he does not hog the limelight but instead makes sure there is plenty of room for the others to shine, with the rhythm section being incredibly busy while Red provides support or awaits his time to take over on the solo. Just six songs, 35 minutes of brilliance.  This has long been a favourite album of mine, as Miles is a true bandleader here, taking his band through the material in a way when sometimes he spends a long time...

(100:00; Craft Recordings) I am not brave enough to say that Miles Davis is the most important jazz musician of all time, but I will say that it is widely acclaimed that his 1959 ‘Kind of Blue’ is indeed the finest jazz album ever released, and I definitely agree with that notion. This triple album remastered set goes back to 1955 and revisits ‘The Musings Of Miles’, ‘Miles Davis Quintet/Sextet’, and ‘Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet’. The first of these was recorded on June 7th and finds Miles joined by Red Garland (piano), Oscar Pettiford (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums). There is such incredible purity, life and emotion in Miles’s playing that I know I would recognise his playing anywhere, but like any good leader he does not hog the limelight but instead makes sure there is plenty of room for the others to shine, with the rhythm section being incredibly busy while Red provides support or awaits his time to take over on the solo. Just six songs, 35 minutes of brilliance.  L...

(25:41; Rothko Records) After nearly 40 years of reviewing I still smile when I get an email from an artist saying they have been told to get in touch with me by another musician, especially when the person doing the telling is someone like Paul McLaney of Gramsci whose work I greatly admire. In this case the email was from Matthew Bosher, who is the bassist in Auckland post metal outfit Kerratta. Here he has a new project where he provides everything apart from drums where three tracks are performed by Corey Friedlander (8 Foot Sativa), three by H. Walker (Kerratta) and three by Daniel Bosher (Battle Circus).  I received this album a few months back, and it sat there in that month’s playlist until it was time for me to start listening to it, by which time I had totally forgotten where it had come from and that it was by a NZ artist. There is always a risk that I will overstate just how good an album is when it is from Aotearoa, us Kiwis need to stick together after all, but I had ...

(37:43; Melodic Revolution Records) It has been quite some years since keyboard player Lisa LaRue has released a new album, with her last being the 2018 retrospective, ‘Origins’. But now she is back with her latest, joined by her husband John Baker on guitar (plus vocals on three songs), One Heart on bass, drums and additional keyboards/guitars, and other singers in the form of Alexandra Livshitz and Jake Livgren. The result is an album which is fascinating, with the solo keyboard pieces taking us in one direction and the ones with vocals in another, so much so that one can only wonder if this could have been expanded into a double disc set with the vocal tracks on one and the instrumentals on the other, or maybe a third which contained only keyboards? Just asking, as this is something which is incredibly varied while also being fascinating. When asked about the album, Lisa says, “’Forged from Fire’ is a coming-of-(old)-age odyssey – a deeply personal, autobiographical work that captur...