Jazz
Challenge Records · 21 August 2026
“Graz” (7:41) opens the album and carries the name of the Austrian city where Martín Iaies has settled; “Delfina’s Way” (7:05) is for a younger sister and “El Donny” (6:14) was written when he learned he was going to be a father. People, Places — PEOPLE. PLACES. Music for Large Ensemble in full — is eight pieces for an ensemble of a dozen-odd musicians, halfway to a big band.
Iaies, born in Argentina, plays electric guitar and writes every composition and arrangement here. The solos are shared out: Zan Cesar on trumpet on “Delfina’s Way”, Jordi Roviró’s flugelhorn and Andreas Reisenhofer’s drums on “Zamba del Chaguanco” (8:40), Alana Macpherson and pianist Thomas Quendler on “18/5” (8:07), Maximilian Kreuzer’s bass on “El Donny”.
Klaus Gesing comes in on alto on the zamba and on “Cyclical Loss of Hope” (5:05), and on bass clarinet on “In an Unknown Mood” (8:56), the longest piece in the programme.
The record is presented with Gesing’s name on the cover and Gesing is on three of the eight tracks, one of them the bonus that closes it. The other five are the ensemble alone, and that is where the limit of the writing shows: skilfully made, full of harmonic colour, but always at the same temperature, with no passage that breaks the calm they come with as standard. The zamba, the only piece on the album Iaies didn’t write, turns out to be the one that brings the most contrast.
Fifty-five and a half minutes, released by Challenge Records on 21 August, with “Graz” and “Zamba del Chaguanco” issued as singles on 24 July and 7 August. Before it came Rewind & FF (Club del Disco, 2018) and New Beginnings (ears&eyes Records, 2023), the latter already with Reisenhofer on drums.
Rating: 7.0/10
Text by Aina Torrents