What’s new to discover in jazz this month? This is our April 2023 selection of albums that have already been released. These got our full attention and should be worth your time! The albums are ordered by their release date.

Jazz April 2023 Selection

After the extraordinary descension (2021, Eremite Records) Natural Information Society comes back—without Evan Parker, but with the core ensemble.

The music is comprised of the ensemble’s signature languid, repetitive, hypnotizing patterns. However, instead of exploring the transcendental side, as they did with descension, Since Time is Gravity allows us to look inwards and have a deeply honest moment with ourselves:

Joshua Abrams: bass, guimbri; Lisa Alvarado: harmonium; Mikel Patrick Avery: drums; Josh Berman: cornet; Kara Bershad: harp; Ari Brown: tenor saxophone; Hamid Drake: conga, tabla, tar; Ben Lamar Gay: cornet; Nick Mazzarella: alto saxophone; Jason Stein: bass clarinet; Mai Sugimoto: alto saxophone, flute
Release date April 14, 2023

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Eva Novoa is a Spanish-born, New York-based pianist, composer, and improviser. Her music blends elements of jazz, contemporary classical music, and free improvisation to achieve emotional depth and lyrical beauty.

As the cover art certainly aims to express, the music in Novoa/Kamaguchi/Cleaver Trio – Vol. 1 is steep but also sensitive. Its fresh explosions of technical virtuosity carry deeply emotional moments:

Eva Novoa: piano, Fender Rhodes, Chinese gongs & whistling; Masa Kamaguchi: bass; Gerald Cleaver: drums
Release date April 14, 2023

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Mats Gustafsson gathered nearly the entire Swedish jazz scene for an exceptional concert during the 2022 Stockholm Jazz Festival, including his “Fire!” (i.e., Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin) and his extended “Orchestra” for a total of 40+ musicians. We talked with some of the audience, and they were all ecstatic about it! This release is the concert, mixed by Jim O’Rourke himself.

It opens slowly and beautifully, with a “Melodie Nelson” inspired orchestration, but Serge Gainsbourg’s vocals are replaced by Mats’ unique saxophone, and so it goes for nearly two hours, with an intensely calm tension, in which chaos is compressed into a tight density, just to explode now and then.

Echoes is part of the selection Best of Jazz 2023 (So Far!)

Mats Gustafsson: baritone saxophone, flute, conductor; Johan Berthling: double bass, electric bass; Andreas Werliin: drums; Signe Krunderup Emmeluth: alto saxophone; Anna Högberg, Julia Strzalek, Lars Göran Ulander, Mette Rasmussen: alto saxophone, flute; Dror Feiler: alto saxophone, flute, bells; Niklas Fite: banjo; Alberto Pinton: baritone saxophone, clarinet, bass flute; Daniel Gahrton: baritone saxophone, flute; Andreas Röysum: bass clarinet, clarinet, flute; Christer Bothén: bass clarinet, guimbri, Ngoni; Amalie Stalheim, My Hellgren: cello; Isak Hedtjärn: clarinet; Elsa Bergman: double bass; Martin Hederos: electric piano, organ; Mats Lindström: electronics; Reine Fiske: guitar; Per Texas Johansson: oboe, bassoon, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, flute; Juan Romero: percussion, berimbau; Sten Sandell: piano; Alex Zethson: piano, synthesizer; Per Ruskträsk Johansson: sopranino saxophone, bass flute; Elin Forkelid, Fredrik Ljungkvist, Joe McPhee: tenor saxophone; Maria Bertel, Mats Äleklint: trombone; Niklas Barnö, Susana Santos Silva, Tobias Wiklund: trumpet; Goran Kajfeš: trumpet; Heiða Karine Jóhannesdóttir Mobeck, Per Åke Holmlander: tuba; Kjell Nordeson: vibraphone, glockenspiel; Anna Lindal, Josefin Runsteen: violin; David Sandström, Joe McPhee, Mariam Wallentin, Tomas Öberg: vocals
Release date April 14, 2023

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When talking about adversity and struggles, Gogo Penguin should be an inspiring model of resilience.

If the album was not convincing at first play, as it lost us in some Ship of Theseus’ thoughts, after three or four spins, we realized that they achieved a lot more than we were expecting. They are clearly ahead and already finished with reinventing themselves, delivering an outstanding album in which the music is as dramatic and melodic as ever. Bravo!

“Emotive, cinematic break-beat trio GoGo Penguin are back […]. Bursting with the optimism of new beginnings, with a new drummer, a new record label, (Sony Music electronica and neo-classical imprint XXIM Records), and a subtly updated and developed sound, the band are ushering in a more sonically liberated era. ”
–Gogopenguin.co.uk, About

Everything Is Going To Be OK is part of the selection Best of Jazz 2023 (So Far!)

Chris Illingworth: piano; Nick Blacka: bass; Jon Scott: drums
Release date April 14, 2023

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Oblong Aplomb is an album by pianist Matt Mitchell, a piano-drums duet in two parts: Oblong with Kate Gentile and Aplomb with Ches Smith. Both parts are composed of 12 tracks each—yes, that is more than two hours of advanced music over 24 tracks! It is certainly intense, but it contains so much excitement for the brain and the ears in its strangely diverse scope that at no point will you feel like you’ve had enough; instead, it leaves you craving even more!

(review coming soon)

Oblong Aplomb is part of the selection Best of Jazz 2023 (So Far!)

Oblong (tracks 1-12):
Matt Mitchell: piano, compositions; Kate Gentile: drums, percussion
Aplomb (tracks 13-24):
Matt Mitchell: piano, compositions; Ches Smith: drums, gongs, percussion, vibraphone, glockenspiel, tam-tam, timpani
Release date April 14, 2023

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Hamilton de Holanda is a Brazilian bandolinist. He started playing the Brazilian mandolin at the age of five and was soon recognized as a prodigy. He has since become one of the most important figures in the revitalization of choro music. Holanda is known for his virtuosic playing style, which combines the technical precision of classical music with the improvisational spirit of jazz, and the infectious rhythms of Brazilian music (see his Wikipedia page).

Flying Chicken combines Brazilian music, pop-rock, and jazz in an exquisite improvisational fusion that is as entertaining as it is exciting.

Hamilton de Holanda: mandolin; Salomão Soares: piano; Thiago Big Rabello: percussion
Release date April 14, 2023

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Alexander Hawkins is known for his technical mastery of the piano, his adventurous improvisational style, and his ability to blend different genres and styles into a cohesive musical vision, all of which he perfectly achieved with Togetherness Music (Best of Jazz 2021) and Break a Vase (Best of January 2022).

He is certainly a fearless explorer of the boundaries of jazz and improvisational music, which always makes his next release a surprise. Carnival Celestial definitely confirms his capacity to keep pushing the limits of what is possible, both with the piano and in music more broadly. Exceptional!

“Hawkins, Charles, and Davis clearly have moved the piano trio forward and stretched its conceptual horizons with Carnival Celestial, and in doing so, they have contributed to its ongoing vitality”
–Bill Shoemaker, liner notes

Alexander Hawkins: piano, synthesizer, sampler, percussion; Neil Charles: double bass, percussion; Stephen Davis: drums, percussion
Release date April 21, 2023

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Volume 2 contains some fresh sounds. Here are words excerpt from the press release: “Call it whatever you want, jazz, meditative, ambient, repetitive and winding organ lines, steady and insistent beat, steady and subtle basslines, wild free jazz, [a] meeting of electro and afrobeat, fields of experimental electronics, [and] dub groove rhythm section interludes.”

To perfectly sum up Volume 2, it’s ‘lush tranquillity’.

Quin Kirchner: drums, percussion, sampler, electronics; Daniel Van Duerm: acoustic and electric pianos, organ, mellotron, electronics; Matthew Lux: bass, electronics
Release date April 21, 2023

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Oceans And offers another unique experience, as described in the introduction. Jazz? Yes, but only partially. Jazz is its foundation and its impulse, but it is expressed in a much broader sense of the word. Of course, what else can you expect from artists that have gathered a saxophone, an accordion, and a cello?

“The breathtaking music, created by Tim Berne, Aurora Nealand, and Hank Roberts can be deservedly and on all accounts deemed: profound, probing, intriguing, distinct, intricate, raw, courageous, mysterious, and thoughtful. The group’s concerted effort to achieve a cohesive blend is a refreshing relief. An honest crusade of in-depth imagination, this music is a beacon of light in an unsettling world. […] It stimulates the brain, animates the imagination, and charms the heart.”
–Baikida Carroll, liner notes

Tim Berne: alto saxophone; Auroara Nealand: accordion, bass clarinet, voice; Hank Roberts: cello
Release date April 21, 2023

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This album has a unique sound, grounded somewhere between Berlin and Helsinki, in a parallel universe where jazz is as futuristic as Germany can be, and as sharp and clear as the light can be in Finland:

“When you watch nacre under the microscope you can see it’s made of different layers, which almost look chaotic. That reminds me a lot of how we recorded the music for the album. We kept adding layers with synthesizers, guitar, vibraphone, and additional flute and sax solos in a pretty random way and a short amount of time. I love exploring a creative process which becomes somehow irrational. Live, we always start a new process with these compositions, and that takes us into new territory each time around.”
–Tilo Weber

Tilo Weber: drums, percussion, vibraphone; Elias Stemeseder: harpsichord, celesta, synthesizers; Petter Eldh: double bass, acoustic guitar | Featuring: Anna-Lena Schnabel: alto saxophone, flute; Bastian Duncker: ney
Release date April 21, 2023

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Note:

On April 30, International Jazz Day will be celebrated all over the world.

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April 2023 – New Jazz Albums Selection

• Natural Information Society – Since Time Is Gravity (Eremite Records)
• Eva Novoa – Novoa / Kamaguchi / Cleaver Trio – Vol. 1 (577 Records)
• Fire! Orchestra – Echoes (Rune Grammofon)
• GoGo Penguin – Everything Is Going To Be OK (XXIM Records)
• Matt Mitchell – Oblong Aplomb (Out Of Your Head Records)
• Hamilton de Holanda Trio – Flying Chicken (Sony Music Entertainment)
• Alexander Hawkins Trio with Neil Charles and Stephen Davis – Carnival Celestial (Intakt Records)
• KVL – Volume 2 (Astral Spirits)
• Tim Berne, Auroara Nealand, Hank Robert – Oceans And (Intakt Records)
• Tilo Weber – Tesserae (We Jazz Records)

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Playlist

Listen to these tracks on our Spotify playlist ↗.