Wolfgang Haffner has been a prolific drummer on the German jazz scene ever since his 1983 debut at the tender age of 18—the year he joined legendary trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff’s band. In the years that followed, Haffner has infused his unstoppable groove into an impressive number of sessions (appearing on no less than 400 albums alongside some of the greatest modern jazz musicians). He’s also produced nearly twenty records under his own name, each one showcasing his fantastic sense of casting and leadership, as well as his talent for composing and arranging.After a stunning trilogy of recordings that put a modern spin on cool jazz (Kind of Cool) and Spanish and Argentinian tradition (Kind of Spain & Kind of Tango), Haffner is back with Silent World. This album is considerably less referential, containing only original tracks. Heading up a small band composed of the faithful and talented trumpet player Sebastian Studnitzky and pianist and keyboard player Simon Oslender, Haffner welcomes a sparkling array of prestigious guests (including saxophonist Bill Evans, trumpet player Till Brönner, guitarist Dominic Miller, trombonist Nils Landgren and keyboardist Eythor Gunnarsson) to produce a cool and sophisticated jazz-fusion that develops a shape-shifting landscape and pulsates with minimalist grooves. With this landmark album, Wolfgang Haffner thoughtfully and assertively establishes a true sonic and compositional signature. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz

The new British jazz scene seems to be an indefinite source of talent, maintaining its creative flow with this first solo album released by Moses Boyd. Fans of the movement will already know that this eclectic young drummer has played alongside Shabaka Hutchings, Zara McFarlane, Nubya Garcia, Joe Armon-Jones, Theon Cross and Ashley Henry but also that he makes up one half of duo Binker & Moses, the wild project he pursues with saxophonist Binker Golding. The album Dark Matter sees Boyd as more of a producer than a drummer, with a wide narrative detailing who he is and what he represents: a musician dreaming of becoming the next Max Roach or Tony Williams, all while growing up listening to Dizzee Rascal and Wiley as well as more Caribbean style rhythms, reggae and electronic music. The power of Dark Matter comes from the way in which it brings together a huge cast of varied icons to create a single snapshot of today’s London. Rich in sound, the album’s DNA is made up of jazz but takes us on a journey from afrobeat (BTB) to dubstep (2 Far Gone) before a detour via post-rock (What Now?). With the voices of Poppy Ajudha, Obongjayar and Nonku Phiri and double bass from the ex-Jazz Warrior Gary Crosby, Moses Boyd has created an orgy of off-the-wall rhythms. An album even more unclassifiable than those made by his friends of the same UK jazz scene. Invigorating. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Kate Davis' journey continues to be fascinating. A one-time Presidential Scholar of the Arts, Davis is a conservatory-educated musician who started her journey as a bass-playing jazz prodigy who once recorded a very straight album of Christmas favorites. While living in Brooklyn may have provided the spark, the multi-instrumentalist Davis eventually morphed into a confessional indie rock solo singer-songwriter, suddenly changing her sound and look on 2019's Trophy, which was recorded after co-writing "Seventeen," a successful Sharon Van Etten single. To authenticate her place in the indie rock world, she next recorded a song-by-song cover of indie loner Daniel Johnston's Retired Boxer album. Secure in her new milieu, Davis is back with Fish Bowl, a collection of confident originals produced by Tim Bright and with Davis on most instruments; it's an album on which she mulls her new self and interactions with others. While she's still learning about arranging rock tunes, her lyrics, flecked with kernels of self-doubt but also fresh discovery about herself, are a very telling chronicle of the changes she has been through—testing how much of herself to reveal or withhold. On the love song "Ride or Die," which is acoustic in the verses and loud and electric in the choruses, Davis hilariously describes what being in a relationship has done to her self-image, "I feel like a crummy pie/ A shriveled fucked french fry." The verses in "Call Home" end with "We'll shut ourselves off to the world that we knew/ And create a new place to call home." In the cleverly-titled "Fructify" she admits "We're way too young to/ Know when we should leave the party." Finally, in Fish Bowl's most polished and complete tune, "Consequences," she ponders the value of confessionalism: "Without being emotional/ Just going through the motions/ Of one big self-sabotaging empty bitch." Led by energetically strummed acoustic guitars, "People Are Doing," where Davis plays guitars, bass, and keyboards, shows (as does the entire album) that Davis has also become a strong, sure vocalist. Filled with a growing musical presence, one that's rapidly found its footing, Fish Bowl confirms not only that Davis has surging talent but also that finding yourself can be worth the search.  © Robert Baird/Qobuz

The Congos' 1977 release, Heart of the Congos, produced by maverick Jamaican genius Lee "Scratch" Perry at his Black Ark studio, remains a roots reggae classic, and is arguably the high-water mark of Perry's unique sound. By inference, Heart of the Congos was also a peak for the Congos, as well, which made their follow-up, Congos Ashanti, an immediate disappointment. Recorded at Harry J's for Columbia Records, Ashanti (done without any assistance from Perry) had a smooth, slick and glossy feel, and where Perry's trademark watery Black Ark sound had made the previous album seem rich, deep and mysterious, Ashanti turned the group's greatest strength (Cedric Myton's soaring falsetto) into its biggest weakness. Myton's vocals on most of this album are simply irritating, unhinged from Roy Johnson's clear tenor (and Perry's kitchen sink rhythm bed), they bounce around in the ether like a Rastaman on helium. The songs aren't particularly striking, either, at least not enough to overcome the mainstream production, and even with crack Jamaican session musicians like Sly Dunbar, Willie Lindo, Ernest Ranglin and Tommy McCook aboard, Congos Ashanti sounds pretty generic. Listeners curious about this duo should definitely check out Heart of the Congos, one of the greatest records ever to come out of Jamaica, but should approach anything else by the Congos with lesser expectations.© Steve Leggett /TiVo

This is a fun little record -- and unfortunately the last for this group with hot, catchy songwriting not too over the top with '80s cliché. Clever wordplay is a strong point in their songwriting -- akin to Elvis Costello without all the sarcasm. Not a weak song here -- every song is loaded with smart pop hooks and intelligent lyrics -- the only weak point coming with the use of the name "Frankie" as the character in an otherwise fantastic song "15 Minutes in the Sun." Single "I Don't Mind at All" is very pretty, with syncopated rhythms, string arrangements, and great acoustic guitar work by Lyle Workman. Great closing number -- "Coma" -- has an unexpected, almost transcendental ending. The listener also finds nice percussion work on "What's Wrong With This Picture" -- a sad song about infidelity. One of the finest examples of '80s power pop one is likely to find.© Mark W. B. Allender /TiVo

Gerry & the Pacemakers are fated to eternal comparisons to the Beatles, their onetime Merseybeat rivals who rapidly eclipsed the quartet in popularity and accomplishment, leaving them as something of a pop culture punchline. In the wake of the Beatles, it was hard to look back at Gerry Marsden and his irrepressibly cheerful music and think it was in the same league as the Fab Four, or any of the British Invasion groups that followed. That may be true, but Gerry & the Pacemakers shouldn't be judged against such R&B-schooled rockers as the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Kinks but rather against the stiff, starched rock & roll of pre-Beatles Britain. Compared to this prim, proper pop, the skiffle beats and bouncy melodies of Gerry & the Pacemakers seem fresh, almost serving as a bridge between formative English rock and the bright blast of the Beatles -- who were contemporaries of Gerry & the Pacemakers, so this doesn't quite parse exactly, but seen this way the band doesn't seem like a joke, so it's easier to enjoy what the group had to offer.Even armed with this perspective, sitting through the four-disc, 123-track set You'll Never Walk Alone: The EMI Years 1963-1966 can be a bit of a long slog, and not just because this contains a full disc of stereo mixes in addition to some songs showing up sans strings or in other variations. Discounting these variations, You'll Never Walk Alone still serves up far too much too Gerry & the Pacemakers for anybody but the dedicated, but that doesn't mean this isn't instructive. First, this does confirm that they were a good singles band with the best of their hits -- the quite lovely "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" and "Ferry Cross the Mersey," the infectious "It's Gonna Be All Right," and depending on mood, maybe "How Do You Do It" -- holding up quite well. Outside of the singles, there aren't too many hidden treasures. Every once in a while there's a surprise like Marsden's delightful Beatlesque rocker "Think About Love" or a chirpy cover of the early Lennon-McCartney trifle "Hello Little Girl," and the group shows some aptitude on covers of Jerry Lee Lewis and Hank Williams, but for the most part this is pleasantly cheerful Merseybeat and not much more. The exception is the live Gerry in California EP; culled from a concert at Oakland in October 1964, the complete show of which is released here for the first time, this live performance shows the band to be more energetic on-stage than on record, turning in a fun performance showcasing a band that's eager to please. That eagerness translated into politeness in the studio, where they were only too happy to follow the lead of their producers and create polite, well-scrubbed pop whether they were happily singing Merseybeat or singing middlebrow pop like "Strangers in the Night" just when their peers were branching out. Gerry dipped his toe into folk-rock with a not-bad version of Paul Simon's "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine," but that was an anomaly -- by the end of his run at EMI, soft pop like "Guantanamera" was more his speed, which may explain why Gerry & the Pacemakers faded from the view just when their peers got psychedelic. You'll Never Walk Alone proves that the band just wasn't made for those times. Nevertheless, there's an enduring innocence to their music that does make this a pleasant nostalgia trip (or piece of pop archeology, depending on your point of view), at least in small doses.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

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