The Scotsman’s Jim Gilchrist writes, “driving jazz with lyrical condemnation of environmental despoliation and Brexit xenophobia.”
Joshua Jaswon Octet: Silent Sea (Ubuntu Music) ****
London saxophonist Joshua Jaswon and his pan-European octet deftly combine driving jazz with lyrical condemnation of environmental despoliation and Brexit xenophobia in an album which, after its perky opener, Maurice, is devoted to Jaswon’s suite, Reduce / Reuse / Recycle, based around poems by Rachael Boast, Maura Dooley and Scotland’s present Makar, Jackie Kay. Anna Serierse’s vocals float serenely over Johannes Mann’s limpid electric guitar in the suite’s introductory Silent Sea, before things take on edge, joined by Jaswon’s alto sax over flickering drums. That drive is further cranked up for Extinction, with Kay’s excoriatingly satirical lines – “no trees, no plants, no immigrants” – intoned hypnotically over urgent pulsing, with trumpeter Miguel Gorodi and tenor saxophonist Marc Doffey among purposeful soloists. Dooley’s Still Life With Sea Pinks is infused with a beaty imminence hinting at rising sea levels, adding to the album’s clarion eloquence. Jim Gilchrist