Tori Freestone Trio - El Mar de Nubes review | John Fordham's jazz album of the month

The Guardian 80

(Whirlwind)
The third album from this impressive trio shows formidable range, balancing free-jazz delicacy and bite

Tori Freestone is a contemporary jazz artist from the tips of her fingers to whichever toe she taps, but very personal routes have taken her there – from playing the penny whistle and the violin as a child (for family folk gigs with her musician parents), to shifting from college flautist to self-taught tenor saxophonist as a twentysomething – mesmerised by Wayne Shorter’s legendary collaborations with Joni Mitchell. All that patient gestation comes through in Freestone’s music now, a lean, mobile, unplugged and spontaneous agenda for just her tenor sax, occasional violin and voice, and quick-witted bass and drums from regulars Dave Manington and Tim Giles.