The Running Tide – Sandy Evans Trio
The Running Tide is an apt a name as any for Sandy Evans Trio’s latest studio album. It ebbs and flows seamlessly over 14 tracks, each of them a masterful display of jazz improvisation and virtuosity. The magic of the album, however, comes from much more than the trio’s technical musicianship. Above everything else, it is a powerful statement of beauty, hope and humanity. The track ‘Help Me, Heal Me’ was pre-written by Evans during the confines of COVID—since then, it has become a greater and broader expression of Evans’ personal confrontations with life, love and loss.
Dance, No One’s Watching – Ezra Collective
Dance, No One’s Watching—the third studio album by the 5-piece jazz quintet Ezra Collective—is a celebration of love, dancing and music. Uptempo, light-hearted and free, the record welcomes you into its immersive world of Afrobeat-inflected rhythms and soul-stirring syncopations. ‘Palm Wine’, the third track, boasts a delightful Latin groove and a horn melody that hooks you in an instant. ‘God Gave Me Feet For Dancing’ is another undeniable tune, featuring a heartfelt vocal performance from Yazmin Lacey and a generous dose of catchy brass fills. These songs, along with every other track on the album, connect and liberate us by sheer force of groove and rhythm, a soulful testament to the “unifying power of dance”.
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