Jasmine Myra - Horizons - Import CD

Credits:

Jasmine Myra

Description:

Jasmine Myra is a saxophonist, flutist, composer, and bandleader based in Leeds. In 2018, a year after graduation from its famed conservatory, she was selected to take part in Jazz North Introduces, a program that supports emerging jazz artists in northern England. She issued the Jasmine EP in 2019 and it wed funk, hip-hop, and post-bop. Her music attracted the attention of trumpeter Matthew Halsall, who signed her to his Gondwana label. The music on Horizons is markedly different. Her quintet is now an octet, supported by a string quartet. The album was written in solitude during the pandemic and it is musically seamless, fully yet intimately integrated, and beautifully sequenced. While the influence of British jazz composer/trumpeter Kenny Wheeler is evident, Myra reflects a solidly individual, sophisticated signature. Her soundworld is rich in color, subtlety, and spirituality with an economic elegance of approach. "Prologue"s opening moments belong to flute, piano, cello, and guitar. The lyric line is soulful, sweet, and minimal. Alice Roberts harp burnishes the piano as strings float in the backdrop, framing the winds and a crescendo underscored by percussion. By contrast, electric piano, upright bass, and drumkit introduce the title cut before Ben Haskins delivers a breezy electric guitar solo. Winds, Myras alto sax, and Anna Chandlers soprano sax deliver the winding head. Haskins adds a blues-based solo that later rises atop a simmering Latin groove as piano and horns extrapolate on the harmony. Roberts harp is buoyed by Haskins intro on "1,000 Miles," and Chandlers pastoral folk melody is expanded harmonically by Jasper Greens piano and Myras multi-tracked flutes. The theme flows, swoops, and turns as the ensemble deliver an interlocking statement, increasing the tempo by half before double bass and a rim-shot snare introduce Myras alto solo atop a loping groove. "Words Left Unspoken" is a contemplative showcase for harp and string quartet. In "Morningtide" a double bass sets a bubbling, tempo-shifting vamp as entwined saxophones, flutes, acoustic piano, and cymbals offer extended harmonies from harp and guitar to frame Chandlers resonant soprano solo. The martial snare on "Awakening" is appended by plucked harp, spacy electric guitar chords, and minimal bassline. Chandler states a bluesy theme encompassed by flute, alto, and strings. As the dynamic swells, Myras deep blue alto guides the ensembles transition toward post-bop. Closer "New Beginnings" melds soul-jazz, nu-jazz, and post-bop with exotic textures, while layered flutes, piano, and tom-toms circle a strummed harp. Myras alto underscores the fingerpopping groove while setting the stage for Greens swinging, crystalline piano solo. She re-enters to carry it out on a modal blues tip. Horizons is not viscerally dazzling, which is a good thing. Myras sublime writing and arrangements, combined with her consummate control as a bandleader and highly developed creative instincts, make this album as spiritually evocative and auspicious as it is ambitious musically. This is one of the years best jazz album debuts. ~ Thom Jurek

Tracklisting:

1.Prologue
2.Horizons
3.1000 Miles
4.Words Left Unspoken
5.Morningtide
6.Awakening
7.The Promise
8.New Beginnings