Uma Aline Frazão

With Uma Elmo, his fifth album as a leader for ECM, Danish guitarist Jakob Bro presents a new trio featuring Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Spanish drummer Jorge Rossy. Astonishingly, given the trio’s musical synergy, the first time these three musicians ever performed together was for the album’s sessions at the Swiss Radio studio in Lugano, with ECM founder Manfred Eicher producing. Uma Elmo reaffirms the observation about Bro’s work by London Jazz News that “there is no hurry to this music, but there is great depth.” Among the album’s highlights is opener “Reconstructing a Dream,” a darkly lyrical reverie.

UMA MOHAN – Born in Chennai on 31st October 1966, into a family of musicians, was trained from her childhood by her mother and Guru Smt.P.L.Saraswathy Ram in classical carnatic music. Initially, after having had several experiential revelations, she began writing songs in Tamil, which she released. Then, she did a series of Devotional albums with songs from all languages including Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, and foreign languages like Singhalese and English. She also cut a solo CD in English-for Divine healing, called “Ocean Of Love” which was well received in Russia, Sweden, and India. At this point, her interest in the Vedas took over and she started coaching a group of youths to chant the Vedas, which on popular demand materialized as the Sacred Chants Series of 3 volumes released by Kosmic Music.

Clean Feed has done those of us on this side of the Atlantic a great favor, once again, by introducing us to the music of Portugal's new jazz artists. Pianist Sassetti is certainly someone that we are all going to hear much from in the future. His compositions have the technical sophistication of Chopin, played with the harmonic intensity of Bill Evans…all supported by the technique that reminds one a great deal of Keith Jarrett.

Sassetti is backed by a very strong rhythm section, especially veteran bassist Carlos Barretto. This trio has been working together for several years, and their tightness vouches for that experience.

Comes with our highest recommendation for an hour of very subtle, sophisticated jazz trio music. (Source: jazzloft.com)

The emphasis is on ballads during this program despite an occasional departure. Pianist Bernardo Sassetti and his Trio 2 (which is really a quintet) feature strong contributions from vibraphonist Jean-Francois Lezé and especially cellist Ajda Zupancio. Much of their music is quietly emotional and tinged with melancholy while never being sleepy. While one can think of some similarities to Bill Evans, Sassetti has a fairly original conception and can be quite dramatic. Ascent is a subtle recital that grows in interest with each listen. Scott Yanow, allmusicguide.com