Sun-Mi Hong: Fourth Page: Meaning of a Nest evaluation | John Fordham’s jazz album of the month

Drummer/composer Sun-Mi Hong didn’t get to the place she is now and not using a combat for independence. She was once born in Incheon, South Korea, to a conservative circle of relatives and earmarked for a trainer’s existence, however her teenage dream was once to turn into a drummer. At 19, as the one lady in a not-overly respectful percussion magnificence, she were given wind of the Amsterdam Conservatorium’s jazz path, moved to Europe and met her band of skilful soulmates. Her evolving tune leans against a European chamber-jazzy sound with occasional American hints of Wayne Shorter, Paul Motian, or Ambrose Akinmusire. The Dutch jazz scene has feted her: the newest of its accolades, the Paul Acket award for an “extraordinary contribution to jazz”, will probably be offered to Hong on the big-time North Sea jazz competition this July.

This album continues her collection impressed by means of concepts of migration and self-discovery. The band’s signature sound of intently entwining brass and woodwind harmonies open the two-part identify observe: tenor saxophonist Nicolò Ricci and Scottish trumpeter Alistair Payne are improvisers of stylish form and stability, and mild thematic tone-painters, too. Quiet abstraction unveils the second one phase, sooner than canny slow-burn pianist Chaerin Im’s piano ostinato and Hong’s surging percussion ignite a crescendo: Hong continuously favours free-swinging Elvin Jones-like grooves by which the core of the beat roams in every single place the equipment. Soft horn sighs, cymbal sparkles, and Italian bassist Alessandro Fongaro’s rapid flutters color the plaintive Escapism, Toddler’s Eye is a springy folk-dance and the suite A Never-Wilting Petal confirms this imaginative band’s abilities for balancing storytelling with on-the-fly musical adventures.

Also out this month

Georgia Mancio, the multilingual UK vocalist who makes the faintest sound gleam, releases A Story Left Untold (Roomspin), the 3rd of a trilogy from her lengthy and ever-more attuned partnership with Grammy-winning US composer/pianist Alan Broadbent. These private and every now and then obliquely political items reinvent vintage songwriting, particularly within the elegant The Love I Left Behind.

At the opposite finish of the musical galaxy is Ledley (Impossible Ark), a electro-acoustic melange of tuba-like grooves, free-jazz sax traces, guttural noise and swish choral tones from trombonist Raph Clarkson, former Led Bib saxophonist Chris Williams and electronicist/manufacturer Riaan Vosloo.

And the nice Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii and her trio with long-time spouse Natsuki Tamura on trumpet and wild percussionist Takashi Itani unencumber Message (Libra Records). The thunderous Itani piles gripping new risks into the already attention-grabbing kaleidoscope of jazz/classical paperwork and headlong improv freedoms that she and Tamura so spiritedly proportion.