Flo Perlin
Clay
(Propper Music)
★★★★★

THIS is a third, and a very fine offering from this Londoner with Iraqi and Belarusian heritage. An auteur music much in the chanson tradition that is crafted with consummate skill and a comprehensive vision.

A master guitarist with lingering bossa nova tonalities and rhythms, Flo Perlin’s narratives are simply poetic meditations on the endless adaptability of the human — hence the title Clay.

In the engrossing Mother Tongue “Well I tried to speak but I said none / I tried find my mother tongue / The house I knew was filled with doubt” her remarkably supple, melodic voice conjures effortlessly the mood of unforgetting a lost identity.

Clay and Where She Started From enchant — sung with subtle fluctuations in modulation and embroidered with delicate string passages. The richly orchestrated Friend Mine gently explores the ambiguity of simultaneously being one’s own best friend and worst enemy.

Elegant and edifying — solace for uncertain times.
 

Glasshopper
I’m Not Telling You Anything 
(Clonmell Jazz Social)
★★★★★

THE London-based trio Glasshopper have been around for a decade thrilling audiences with their audacious, devil-may-care attitude to jazz. And a highly rewarding quest it has been for both band and audiences.

Jonathan Chung (sax), Corrie Dick (drums) and James Kitchman (guitar) liberated jazz from its elitist and often pretentious environs by returning it to the people and imbuing it with a busking immediacy structured into vibrant arrangements that spellbind. Just listen to I Go To Bed By 10pm.

The meditative sax in the pulsating Major Hit or rejuvenating energy of Grunge, driven by exceptional drumming, mesmerise, while the compact When You Find articulates uncomplicated joy. Intricate guitar layers complete each piece flawlessly.

Playing with gusto and abandon, the trio agitate and enrupture and, refreshingly, they never overstay their welcome. Superb exponents of modern British jazz.
 

Zara McFarlane
Sweet Whispers: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan
(Eternal Source Of Light/!K7 Records)
★★★★★

TO INTERPRET Sarah Vaughn, a pioneering singer with a contralto ranging over of three octaves and who brought bebop to vocal jazz, would seemed an admirable if an unenviable undertaking fraught with risk. I approached this album with trepidation.

But all anxiety is dispelled by the initial passages of Walter Gross’ 1946 number Tenderly which sets the tone for Zara McFarlane’s mesmerising perception of her idol Vaughn. 

Her vocal tone, tempo and phrasing are innovative and distinct as are the arrangements and instrumentation. No mimicking or imitation here.

In Mean to Me, McFarlane’s favourite Vaughan song, she dwells melancholically on the confusion of the victim of a controlling partner: “You always scold me / Whenever somebody is near, dear.” With a captivating piano passage, it encapsulates the bold approach that is as uninhibited as it is celebratory in the year of Vaughn’s centenary. Exquisite!