Brooklyn (2015)

Like so many of the best adventures, the transatlantic trio of Irish drummer Stephen Davis and American trumpeter and pianist Ralph Alessi and Kris Davis grew organically out of a series of happy accidents… Steve Davis explains: "The group started with me writing some music originally for trumpet and piano. I had written other stuff for my London based group Human, which had a similar vibe but this music was more introvert, had lots of little hidden things within it. I won an Arts Council grant which enabled me to work on my writing and travel a bit, so I headed for New York.

A&R was co-ordinated by Gospel legends Ira Tucker — from the Dixie Hummingbirds — and Ralph Bass, veteran producer with Savoy, King and Chess. The label was run by Timmy Thomas, who had recently smashed with Why Can’t We Live Together, for another TK spin-off, Glades. Operations were overseen by Henry Stone himself, unlikely King of Disco, who had recorded a young Ray Charles, and pushed forward James Brown. They drew in artists from all over the US, from St. Louis, Columbus, Memphis, Brooklyn, Cabrini Green in Chicago: unknowns like Camille Doughty, reluctant to jeopardise her job at GM (‘Generous Motors’) in Detroit, and huge-sellers like the revered Brooklyn All Stars, who started out on Peacock in 1958.

Brooklyn was gentrifying but still affordable during the ’90s, when another wave of Boomers and post-Boomers — Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, Tim Berne, Craig Taborn, Robert Glasper, and Arturo O’Farrill among them — entered the mix. That wave also included bassist Joris Teepe, born in the Netherlands, now 56, who is the fulcrum of this kinetic, sophisticated, endlessly creative trio recital. During those years, Teepe lived in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood, around the corner from Prospect Park, not far from the residence of drummer Billy Hart, 78, originally from Washington, D.C., who both propels and unifies the proceedings from the first note to the last with fresh, shamanistically intuitive ideas.

Untold Stories is the third album from talented pianist Shai Maestro's trio, featuring Jorge Roeder on bass and Ziv Ravitz on drums. Recorded both at live shows and in studios in Brooklyn and Paris, this release sees the trio explore their musical and personal evolution as an ensemble, expressed through 8 original compositions.

Helping listeners to escape reality - which has been known to grate, on occasion - has long been a noble aim of many musicians. One of the most effective ways to do that is to create imaginary soundtracks for impossible science-fiction films, the darker and more un-Hollywood-like, the better. Another method is to take inspiration from great works of architecture - which, as Goethe cogently noted, “is frozen music”. The latter route is used by Brooklyn producer Jonas Reinhardt (aka Jesse Reiner) on his sixth album, "Palace Savant".