The energetic and inventive Amsterdam-based Danish guitarist Teis Semey released “Mean Mean Machine”, his third album in just three years, on the Zennez label in November 2021. Lauded and awarded prizes for his experimental approach, he sees the album as an attempt to fuse the punk and free jazz that he buried himself in during lockdown with the Scandinavian songs of his childhood, found in a book his grandmother left to him when she passed away. The result is seven tracks of guitar-fuelled, nearly-danceable jazz with a finger on the pulse and a fist in the air, and also a flaming response to the critical state of the world and an homage to the extreme beauty that still exists. Semey’s Quintet formed in 2017 and has toured extensively.

Teis Semey (g), Alistair Payne (tpt), José Soares (alto sax), Jort Terwijn (db), Sun Mi Hong (dr)