JAZZ

Under the direction of its founder, the late Carl Jefferson, the Concord Jazz label was a haven for straight-ahead mainstream swing. Its new corporate identity within the Universal group has seen the label branching out in more radical directions. New Orleans-born Christian Scott’s second album is a heady amalgam of jazz-rock era Miles Davis with strong and upfront influences from rock, hip hop and soul, all woven into a dark, densely textured, largely slow-moving and always broodingly atmospheric soundscape inspired by the post 9/11, post-Katrina traumas in America.

Scott’s trumpet floats through and across the heavyweight rhythmic accompaniments on guitar, piano/keyboards, bass and drums (plus saxophone on selected cuts) in effective fashion, and with a similar effect to some of Norwegian trumpeter’s Nils Petter Molvaer’s genre-bending experiments. Brother J from X-Clan adds a vocal contribution to the final track, a reprise of the album’s title track.