DAILY TELEGRAPH: The best jazz albums of 2016 (so far)

Daily Telegraph:

The best jazz albums of 20166: ALY KEÏTA, JAN GALEGA BRÖNNIMANN, LUCAS NIGGLI: KALO-YELE  (INTAKT RECORDS)

What would the combination of two Swiss jazz musicians and an African musician from Ivory Coast lead to? A limp specimen of flavourless “world jazz”, would be the sceptical response. In fact this CD is a delight. Clarinetist Jan Galega Brönniman and drummer Lucas Niggli were actually born in Cameroon, and seem to have a natural affinity for the idioms of African music. Aly Keïta plays the balafon, a kind of West African xylophone, and the kalimba, a tuned row of flexible metal plates plucked with the thumbs, known in the West as a ‘thumb-piano’. 

Composing honours are shared among all three, but the natural joyousness of Keïta’s pieces make them instantly recognisable as his. The two melody players swap roles constantly, first one supplying the repeating pattern underneath the melody line, then the other. Niggli’s drumming is so deft he often creates the illusion of shadowing the melodic patterns. It’s a proper meeting of equals, which is what makes this unlikely album so successful. ★★★★☆ IH]