Keyna Wilkins, the Australian/ British composer, flautist, pianist and educator brings energy and intellectual vigour to all she does.

Based in Sydney, Australia, her music whilst rooted in Western Classical, stretches through flamenco, jazz and improvisation, this last promoted by her past studies in Australia with Tibetan Buddhist musician, Tenzin Cheogyal. She plays solo, in groups such as Ephemera Trio (currently on tour in Japan) and collaborates widely, notably over the last 9 years with six refugees who were summarily detained, many for years, by the Australian government.

With nine previous albums to her name, for this new one, The New York Sessions, Wilkins collaborates with members of a group in the USA who share her commitment to human rights, Musicians For Musicians (MFM). The sessions album consists of improvisations based on her own immediate impressions of New York interfacing with those of her New York-based MFM musical colleagues. The five-track album opens with improvisations around a poem read by percussionist David Belmont, ‘Random Thoughts on a Wrought Iron Railway.’

“A bus driver sings Sinatra in front of a green screen, as a cellist plays some Bach in the courtyard.” Thus opens the first track, setting the scene for the feel of the whole album. This first track alternates between such text, and the group’s improvisational musical responses to the text and to each other. Notable are the sometimes dissonant and often disrupting sax of MFM president SoSaLa (short for Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi), with Wilkins’ flute soaring over the whole matrix provided by the rest of this clearly accomplished band (personnel listed below*). Towards the end, SoSaLa’s jittery vocalisations and extended sax technique layer a sense of unease.

The remaining, slightly shorter, four tunes are as engaging, and for this listener easier to relax into. Both ‘132nd Street East’ and ‘132nd Street West’ are easy on the ears and calming, whilst highlight fourth track ‘Central Park At Dusk’ opening with an attractive, Japanese quality flute, evolves a somewhat Sun Ra vibe, before some lovely glissandos of keys lead to the end. Very lovely.

Final track ‘Why’ opens with SoSaLa vocalising urgently, whence everyone plays freely with some fun, syncopated bars heralding attractive trills on the keys overlaid with languid sax. The guitar reverbs at the end bring proceedings to a close.

This is an evocative and colourful collection of improvisations from Wilkins and her NY friends, who seem bound together by their level of improvisational chops as well as a shared moral compass. One hopes to hear more such collaborations in the future.

*Michael Kevin Walsh (keys), David Belmont (percussion and poetry), Kevin Kuhn (electric guitar), Ron Wasserman (electric bass), SoSaLa (tenor and soprano saxophone, vocals and clapping).

Keyna Wilkins’ website:  http://www.keynawilkins.com/

Keyna Wilkins’ Bandcamp page:   https://keynawilkins.bandcamp.com/

Jazz in Europe feature about Keyna Wilkins:  https://jazzineurope.mfmmedia.nl/2021/12/keyna-wilkins-composing-soundtracks-to-some-of-the-biggest-issues-of-our-time/