Which critic

1. feels that the group's current album proves they now have a clearer sense of musical identity?
2. says that the album affected his mood in an extremely positive way?
3. praises the album for its sense of drama and deeper meaning?
4. believes that it is the result which is important, not the process through which it was achieved?
5. believes this album lives up to expectations?
6. suggests that the group has taken a very free approach in their adaptation of certain established musical pieces?
7. mentions that the music featured on the album has been chosen due to the impression the original artists had made?
8. expresses surprise that all the performers can successfully create a reasonable sound together?
9. feels that two musicians' very different approaches to musical performance are complementary?
10. praises a previously unknown musician for standing out as an extraordinary performer?
11. states that one musician in particular has become the symbol for a musical trend?
12. mentions a musician's decision to take up jazz in order to invent and play music without preparation?
13. expresses uncertainty as to what reaction the music is supposed to provoke?

Jazz Albums: Pick of the Month

BBC Music Magazine reviews this month's new jazz releases.

A. Ian Carr - Lynne Arriale Trio: Inspiration

It's always thrilling when a new star shines in the "jazz universe", but pianist Lynne Arriale is an exceptional talent. After training in classical piano, she turned to jazz because she wanted "the challenge of combining performance and composition on the spot". She says she was mainly influenced by artist Keith Jarrett, but it's clear she has her own concept of how jazz music can be played to an audience and this is what lies behind the frequent creative surprise of her work. Not only this, there's often a magical rapport between Arriale and her trio colleagues, Anderson and Davis. "Inspiration" is a celebratory investigation of the songs, composers and performers that have made their mark on them over the years. They take a few daring liberties with some of the pieces: "It don't mean a thing" by legendary musician Duke Ellington is given a slow, tender performance, but over a reggae beat; Thelonious Monk's "Bemsha Swing" begins with the whole trio making up the music as they go along, during which fragments of the original melody gradually emerge, a rhythm is established and the crazily inventive piano phrases magnify Monk's peculiar style. This is a great album.

B. Richard Cook - Instant Composers Pool Orchestra: Oh, My Dog!

Dutch jazz artists have been stereotyped by some music critics as very theatrical and this image is largely a result of the light-hearted approach of Han Bennick, Misha Mengelberg and Willem Breuker, the three musicians who founded the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra concept nearly 40 years ago. The three have now been joined by six others, and their album "Oh, my dog!" will not confound their reputation: it's comic and theatrical, as well as urgent and rather profound. The opening four-minute improvisation, "Write down exactly", is a little miracle of nine people making a decent noise without getting in each other's way. Musician Ab Baars pays peculiar homage to the composer Charles Ives with "A close encounter with Charles's country band" while Misha Mengelberg's "A la Russe" starts as a stately Russian folk-tune before gradually transforming into mild disharmony. Michael Moore plays his pieces with a tight delivery that is an excellent counter to Baars' gloomy style. It is a bizarre world, where you're never sure whether you should be grinning or flinching in alarm. Serious fun!

C. Chris Parker - Bobby Previte & Bump: Just Add Water

Since rising to prominence on the crest of the "downtown-style" wave in the early eighties, drummer/composer Bobby Previte has epitomised that influential movement's open-eared adventurousness: in other words, its restless search for inspiration from diverse music styles. His own projects, ranging from the electronically oriented Empty Suits, to the futuristic sounding rock band Latin for Travellers, draw on everything from minimalism to film music, as well as jazz and rock. But whatever the genre in which his widely disparate bands operate, Previte himself is right at the centre of the action. "Just add water" is thoughtful and carefully constructed, yet I also found it infectiously exuberant and irresistibly uplifting. All the band members, save the peerless electric bassist Steve Swallow, are long-time Previte associates, and the rapport between them - particularly on such vigorous pieces as the lengthy, rousing "Put away your crayons" - is the key to the album's considerable subtlety and power.

D. Stuart Nicholson - Wibutee: Eight Domestic Challenges

Wibutee made its debut album in 1999, but it has taken until this, the ensemble's second album, to define its voice. Wibutee has dropped the keyboards and vocals heard on its first album and replaced them with a sampling machine. This modern piece of technology has given many previously "traditional" jazz artists the opportunity to explore a whole new world of sounds. Hakon Kornstad, the group's leader, clearly demonstrates that he is well up to the challenge on this album. A prodigiously gifted young man, he also leads his own Kornstad Trio, but with Wibutee, however, all the members of the group are equal and are all concerned to focus their considerable individual talent into making an integrated collective sound. As might be expected from a contemporary jazz group, there is a certain amount of eclecticism; a broad selection from, for instance, contemporary classical music, house music and free jazz. But of course it is the end not the means that counts, and on a track like "First there was jazz", the group achieves its artistic purpose through its insistence on perfection and clarity.