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Alice Zawadzki/Fred Thomas/Misha Mullov-Abbado: Za Górami review – beautiful music and absorbing stories


Seven years after a supposed one-off gig, the jazz-immersed trio release their debut album full of uniquely conveyed songs drawing from European, Latin and Sephardic Jewish sources

In 2022, Thomas, already an ECM artist, pitched the songs for Za Górami (the title means Behind the Mountains) to label boss Manfred Eicher and the trio recorded these tracks in the ethereal-sounding Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano, Switzerland, each containing an absorbing story (all translated in the accompanying booklet). Young Los Angeles experimental jazz and Indian-classical vocalist Sharada Shashidhar unveils how her playful, pitch-vaulting voice – reminiscent of Kate Bush – and ensemble nimbleness points to a creative, style-splicing future on Soft Echoes (Leaving Records). And exciting jazz-funk pianist Neil Cowley ’s many fans will cheer his reunion with his old acoustic trio on Entity (Hide Inside), a signature collection of punchy hooks and evocatively dreamy reveries – the smoky, Spanish-tinged slow-burner, Marble, sets the scene.

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Photo of Alice Zawadzki

Alice Zawadzki

Photo of Fred Thomas

Fred Thomas

Photo of Misha Mullov-Abbado

Misha Mullov-Abbado