With Steve Coleman, Julian Priester, Marvin Smitty Smith and Kenny Wheeler.

The great drummer with Wadada Leo Smith (who chips in a seventeen-minute tribute to Alice Coltrane) and Bill Frisell.

‘Following his ECM debut of duos with Markus Stockhausen, the pianist leads a strong cast through a programme of his compositions and sketches. Whether paying tribute to his mentor Lee Konitz on Honestlee, impressionistically conveying the glittering Melody Of A Waterfall, or generating impactful drama out of fragments of sound on Butterfly Effect, Weber continually draws fresh responses from his players.
‘The strong, grounded bass of Linda May Han Oh contrasts strikingly with Nasheet Waits’s fleet, fluid drumming, setting up new contexts for Ralph Alessi’s elegantly inventive trumpet and the leader’s highly creative piano playing.’

‘The double bassist says this will be his last solo album, the final chapter of his Journal Violone. It is a beautiful and moving musical statement. All the qualities we associate with Barres playing are here in abundance: questing adventurousness, melodic invention, textural richness, developmental logic and deep soulfulness.’

Evocative, engaging considerations of close relationships, a bit like a family portrait, centred on the German town of Ravensburg (home of the trumpeter’s grandmother), by a sextet including affective violin and two drummers, involving African percussion, homemade cymbals and bundles of brushwood, with ‘driving rhythm at the bottom end and soaring melody at the top.’

Silvio Rodríguez, Bartók and Satie, in amongst original compositions and improvisations, beautifully elucidated by Stenson’s uncluttered lyricism, Anders Jormin’s arco double bass and Jon Fält’s impressionistic drumming. Mompou’s Canción Y Danza succeeds perfectly this way.

From 1990 — a trio with oud, violin and percussion.

Melodic, texturally-inventive, often mesmeric pieces for both piano and prepared piano, including SB’s own compositions and spontaneous improvisations, as well as two versions of the traditional Arab song Lamma Bada Yatathanna.

The fourth Snakeoil; the second (following on from 2015’s You’ve Been Watching Me) to feature a quintet line-up adding guitarist Ryan Ferreira to the core lineup of clarinettist Oscar Noriega, pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith.
Reviews seem unanimous that it’s the best yet.
‘Characteristically action-packed in the Berne tradition (following on from AACM and his muse Julius Hemphill): powerful, dynamic, often fast-moving — yet also very clear in all its teeming detail. “We somehow achieved more sonic space by adding another player,” says Berne. It’s an impression maintained even when producer David Torn takes up his own guitar in a cameo at the climax of the modestly-titled Sideshow (in reality a 26-minute epic journey), soloing amid thunderous timpani, over a serpentine melody outlined by sax and clarinet.’