The latest releases reviewed

MIKI N'DOYE Tuki ECM ***

Originally from Zambia but Oslo-based for more than 30 years, N'Doye makes his ECM leader debut mixing jazz and African music in a programme of originals deeply immersed in his homeland roots, on which he uses mainly kalimba (or thumb piano), chants and sings in Wolof and Mandingo, and plays assorted percussion. With the jazz elements coming from Jon Balke (keyboards and prepared piano) and Per Jorgensen (trumpet and vocals), plus more percussion from Helge-Andreas Norbakken and vocals from Aulay Sosseh and Lie Jallow, the bias is strongly towards a kind of communal groove, polyrhythmic, light and powerful. Subtle and curiously full of charm, there's a hauntingly insinuating delicacy to the music which, while it may not be for everyone, somehow grows on you. www.musicconnection.org.uk

Ray Comiskey

Hays seems to have found his move to New Mexico psychologically liberating, for this solo piano outing is remarkable in its range of mood and approach. On Humming Bird Song, sampling allows him to accompany a native American Indian vocal, and baroque hints are woven into the fabric of his Open Range and the gorgeous Improvisation. There are echoes of Debussy in the intros to the glorious Nursery Rhyme and the sonorous, quasi-religious Sacred Circles. Both of these, along with a graceful, balletic Fire Dance, epitomise his gift for reconciling harmonic surprise with linear inevitability. And an oblique, personal take, pianistically and vocally, of You Are My Sunshine is another success. On a couple of pieces he seems a bit seduced by effect, but overall this is a notable album, diverse but whole, by a remarkable musician. www.actmusic.com

Ray Comiskey

BILL CHARLAP Begin the Beguine Venus *****

Here's the classic piano trio format, with Charlap accompanied by Jay Leonhart (bass) and Bill Stewart (drums), though to call it straight-ahead, while accurate, does less than justice to this buoyant, subtle, swinging and imaginative treatment of some of Cole Porter's finest and best known songs. This trio has worked together before, and it shows in their relaxed and flexible approach. Charlap is in expressive form, inventive both harmonically and in developing his solo lines; Leonhart maintains a constantly supportive yet fluid dialogue with him; and Stewart mixes the rhythmically adventurous and the straight ahead with sure judgement. On the face of it, this is yet another visit to familiar territory with no diversions out where the trains don't run, but it's hard to deny the sheer vibrancy, skill and hard-earned nous involved. www.cadencebuilding.com

Ray Comiskey