RAY COMISKEYwith this week's jazz reviews...

Abram Wilson

Life Paintings

Dune ****

Wilson is a gifted young trumpeter and composer who doesn't so much inhabit different stylistic jazz genres as refuse to accept that they have to be compartmentalised. In a quartet with Peter Edwards (piano), Karl Rasheed-Abel (bass) and Graham Godfrey (drums), Wilson's playing hints at Louis Armstrong and Wynton Marsalis (but warmer, more expressive and melodically fluent), with elusive suggestions of Miles and Dizzy, and even a soupçon of feel for contemporary classical. The trick is making it all hang together and keeping it personal, which Wilson pulls off. The excellent originals are all his and there are wonderful trumpet solos, replete at times with growls and smears, illuminating every track, particularly Obama, The Eyes of Belladonna, Snake in the Grass, Chasing Mosquito Hawksand Breaking Point. And, in a good rhythm section, Edwards adds another attractive solo voice.

Gerald Wilson

Detroit

Mack Avenue ***

At 91, composer/arranger Gerald Wilson remains a craftsman to marvel at. His fourth Mack Avenue album centres on a six-part salute to Detroit in the big band mode that Wilson first came to fame with in the 1950s and, especially, the ’60s, including the trademark harmonic language.

However, the assembled band of West Coasters doesn't have quite the cohesion and bite of his earlier Mack Avenue dates, and at times the writing seems busy and overcooked. Only the latin jazz of Before Motownhas the zest that characterises both the writing and the playing of the previous albums. As if to underline the difference, the CD is completed by two previously unissued performances from 2007's Monterey Moodssession ( Everywhere and Aram), recorded in New York and delivered with the crispness and take-no-prisoners edge that are signature Big Apple. www.propernote.co.uk

Carla Bley

Carla's Christmas Carols

Watt ****

Do not adjust your set. Carla Bley, among the finest living jazz composer/arrangers, and blessed with a mordantly funny take on life . . . doing a Christmas jazz album? Yet, on piano, with Steve Swallow (bass) and the Partyka Brass Quintet, she successfully balances celebration and personal response. No refuge is sought in obscure Christmas material. Instead, Bley refreshes the familiar with beautifully crafted, subtle brass writing, exquisitely played. Thus, O Tannenbaumis almost straight, save for tart closing harmonies, while The Christmas Song; a glorious two-part God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemenin 5/4; an after-hours, old-time It Came Upon A Midnight Clear; a witty, affectionate Jingle Bells; and a memorable live O Holy Night (with a Joy to the Worldcoda) all reveal a jazz sensibility. Lovely solos, too, from Axel Schlosser (flugelhorn), Ed Partyka (bass trombone/tuba) and the rest. www.naxosdirect.ie