Jazz

his month’s Jazz Choice (see left) heads up a selection of releases that do nothing to settle the old arguments regarding where jazz begins and ends, yet they all carry aspects of jazz into their own territories. Multi-instrumentalist ECM veteran , for example, gives each project a freshly-minted context that anyoffers hypnotic explorations of a range of instruments including the 12-string guitar, the (Andean stringed instrument), the (also known as the finger harp, originating from Africa) and more. A collector of instruments and musical ideas from many cultures, his career began at a time when world music also meant the quest for an actual ‘world music’ – a kind of global musical – in which mixing sounds and forms from multiple cultures was seen as desirable rather than appropriative. ECM’s lucid recorded sound serves the music perfectly, as ever. () ★★★★★