The bard rests on his laurels, and swipes left and right
Jazz album reviews with Chris Searle: February 17, 2025
New releases from The Jim Mullen Quartet, Caroline Kraabel/John Edwards, and Matthew Muneses/Riza Printup
MARIA DUARTE cherishes the flashes of absurd humour and theme of community healing in a documentary set in a Soviet-era Black Sea sanatorium
ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review The Courageous, The Cut, Christy, and On Swift Horses
TOM STONE sings the praises of one of the oldest open-air festivals in Britain
Chris Searle speaks to accordionist KAREN STREET
MAYER WAKEFIELD speaks to Urielle Klein-Mekongo about activism, musical inspiration and the black British experience
Jim Mullen Quartet
For Heaven’s Sake
(Stunt Records)
★★★★
THE veteran Glaswegian guitarist Jim Mullen is on swinging form here. Recorded in Copenhagen with an organ trio, he plays an eclectic range of tunes from The Touch of Your Lips, Ellington’s Caravan and Bobby Timmons’ This Here, to unlikely versions of Swanee River and When in Rome.
Accompanied by Ben Paterson’s organ, Kristian Leth’s drums and the Paul Gonsalves-inspired tenor saxophone of Jan Harbeck, Mullen’s appetite for melody and lyricism is in full fettle.
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