Iro Haarla

Magic Peterson Sunshine is an indispensable compilation for the European jazz lover. It is the culmination of tireless archival digging by London-based DJ and audiophile Gilles Peterson, whose obsession with the German label MPS (née SABA) has resulted in this handpicked treasure trove of material. The label has near-mythic roots, founded as it was deep in the heart of Germany's Black Forest by the reclusive Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, a.k.a. HGBS, whose house concerts and personal studio captured and released some of the most forward-thinking jazz of the 1960s. With over 500 recordings to his credit, a catalog surpassed only by producer Manfred Eicher of ECM Records in Munich, this is the merest slice of one astronomical pie.

Mathias Eick reflects on distances travelled in this intensely melodic set of original compositions, which makes an imaginative journey from Hem, the tiny Norwegian village where the trumpeter grew up, to the vast plains of Dakota in the American Midwest.

This album marked Vesala's return to ECM a decade after his last release for the label, Satu. Only one musician remained from his last appearance, Pentti Lahti. However, the aesthetic remains the same: a sensuous kind of free jazz with an air of ritual, and one tune from long ago reappears in a new guise ("The Wind" off the Nan Madol album). Most of the tracks here have something very distinctive about them, even if the instrumental lines wildly proliferate in the free jazz fashion. "Frozen Melody" opens with a beautiful introduction from Lahti that sounds like mid-period Coltrane. "Calypso Bulbosa" suddenly turns things electric and slightly funky with its electronic drums. "Fingo" bizarrely alludes to marching band music. The closing "Together" puts Björkenheim's electric guitar in the spotlight.

More hot sounds from ECM in the Krakatau vein. Vesala's ensemble Sound & Fury offers alternating doses of sizzling Euro-fusion and more traditionally minded numbers during the full reign of INVISIBLE STORM. "Gordion's Flashes" erupts with mad symphony of horns, keyboards, and drums, suggesting Bill Bruford's Earthworks and even John Zorn's more lucid moments. And then–suddenly, unexpectedly– there's the soft, Isham-like ruminations of "Shadows on the Frontier."

With its overt lyricism, strong themes and a sense of perpetual melodic invention, Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim’s new album quickly identifies itself as a classic-in-the-making. Themes of dedication run through Seim’s Helsinki Songs album, a set of tunes composed – for the most part – in the Finnish capital, and radiating tributes in many directions. Here are songs referencing Igor Stravinsky and Jimmy Webb, pieces dedicated to each of Seim’s gifted bandmates, and tunes that tip the hat, obliquely, to Ornette Coleman and Bill Evans. The quartet plays superbly throughout, with outstanding solos from leader Seim and pianist Kristjan Randalu. Helsinki Songs was recorded in Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in January 2018 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Eagerly awaited second ECM album by French-African drummer Manu Katché. Recorded in New York’s Avatar Studio in January 2007, “Playground” picks up where the best-selling “Neighbourhood” left off: in the interim the project has coalesced into a rip-roaring and fully-integrated band. Manu’s group, featuring a Polish/Norwegian confederacy of young players, is energized by his hard driving drums and by his compositions which invite spirited solos… Together, the quintet - whose strong new frontline features Mathias Eick and Trygve Seim - makes exciting, zestful music.

On their new album "Kammin Jaaretti," the renowned jazz trio Hot Heros craft mesmerizing forest jazz.

Hayden Powell is a trumpet player who specialises in jazz and other types of music where improvisation is involved.