Reviews of A New Kind Of Wilderness, The Marching Band, Good One and Magic Farm by MARIA DUARTE, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA
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Harpist Bzhezhinska takes inspiration from Coltranes to another level
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Alina Bzhezhinska
Inspiration
(Ubuntu)
LAST year was the 50th anniversary of John Coltrane's death and the 10th of his startling jazz-harpist wife Alice. They were an inspiration for London-based harpist Alina Bzhezhinska — hence the title of an album moved by her love for the couple's music.
She's accompanied on this album by three of Britain's top contemporary jazz musicians — saxophonist Tony Kofi, bassist Larry Bartley and drummer Joel Prime — and the opening track, Alice Coltrane's Wisdom Eye, begins with some serene solo work from Bzhezhinska, with only Bartley's delving bass alongside her, with her strings vibrating and singing poignantly.
Then it's Blue Nile from Alice Coltrane's 1970 album Ptah, the El Daoud, with Kofi's stately soprano horn blowing the theme, Prime's drums crackling and Bartley's heartbeat throbs underpinning the blessed desert shower of Bzhezhinska's bass.
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