Emma Rawicz was 19 when she made her self-produced breakout album Incantation; just two years later, she is still a final-year conservatoire student in London, albeit one releasing on Germany’s star-packed and creatively open ACT label. The formidable jazz-horns virtuoso made her name by merging the smoky soulfulness of old-school sax troubadours into the rugged drive of post-bop tenorists from Joe Henderson to Chris Potter and Donny McCaslin. That would be impressive enough, but her new album confirms how inventively risk-embracing a bandleader Rawicz is becoming. On Chroma, she lets classy playing partners stretch out within her expanding compositional world of vocalised Latin-dance hooks, global-jazz rhythmic figures, and edgy, horn-led contemporary instrumentals.
