James Davison and Misha Mullov-Abbado: ‘Moon Beans’

Bass players have really pulled out some stonking music in 2025 and 2026 is starting strong, with my latest discovery - ‘Moon Beans’ from Misha Mullov-Abbado and trumpeter James Davison.

Starting with the Scott Joplin classic Maple Leaf Rag, the album provides a delightful sound in a collaboration between trumpet and bass that is fairly unusual. Taking a track from the earliest days of jazz at the end of the nineteenth century and then interpreting classics from nearly every decade since is pure genius.

Adding in a couple of originals - one by Misha and one by the duo together - makes this a complete collection of tracks that show the bass/trumpet combo off perfectly.

James Davison has a brilliant career as a trumpet and flugelhorn player across the UK, appearing with many of the best classical and jazz ensembles. Bassist, composer and arranger Misha Mullov-Abbado is another talented and in-demand musician and it was a delight to chat with him for Harmonious World last summer. The pair have worked together many times and this is their first album where the two of them develop their improvisation together across different genres. 

The Antonio-Carlos Jobim bossa nova Chega de Saudade/No More Blues follows perfectly from the Joplin before the Jimmy van Heusen Polka Dots and Moonbeams from 1940 and then the original Subsonic Glow by Misha. We then head back to Ellington with Just Squeeze Me (But Please Don't Tease Me) and then the surprising Maxwell’s Silver Hammer by Paul McCartney.

The duo’s own Sunday’s Mudbath is insistent and dynamic with both players pulling everything out of the bag, wringing it out and stuffing it back in. The trumpet takes it up a notch and the bass keeps the groove in a way that Misha has made his own. Then James drops out and that bass just sings! This is one track I REALLY want to hear played live.

The last two tracks on this rather wonderful album are That's A Plenty from Lew Pollack and possibly one of the finest jazz tunes ever written - Thad Jones’s A Child Is Born. James and Misha really hone that final track on the duo’s debut. I look forward to hearing them live together sometime soon.

But first, you need to get hold of Moon Beans when it releases on 9 January.