Jazz Articles
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Vega Trails: Sierra Tracks
by Andrew Hunter
There is something about watching the evening sunlight move across a distant mountain range that draws a response from even the most jaded soul. The colours, the shimmer in the air, the sense of scale--it is a scene made for peaceful introspection and contemplation. Sierra Tracks by Vega Trails is Milo Fitzpatrick's response to moving to central Spain from England. Portico Quartet, the band Fitzpatrick is better-known for, chose their name while playing under a portico to shelter from the ...
Continue ReadingPhi-Psonics: Expanding to One
by Andrew Hunter
Expanding to One, Phi-Psonics' third album, was recorded over six live sessions in front of a small audience in a record shop in Pasadena, with the core quartet of Seth Ford-Young (leader and bass), Josh Collazo (drums) Sylvain Carton (sax and flute) and Randal Fisher (sax) supplemented by 11 additional musicians including Jay Bellrose (recently heard playing with the Jeff Parker IVtet). The tracks they recorded over those dates, and which now make up the four sides of double LP ...
Continue ReadingSvaneborg Kardyb: Superkilen
by Chris May
Denmark's Svaneborg Kardyb, comprising keyboardist Nikotaj Svaneborg and drummer Jonas Kardyb, are in direct line of descent from Brooklyn's Benevento Russo Duo, composed of keyboardist Marco Benevento and drummer Joe Russo, the second generation jam band who lit up the mid 2000s with psychedelic groove and whose Best Reason To Buy The Sun (Ropeadope, 2005) was the movement's highwater mark. The Danish duo has its own personality. It is more jazzy, less psychedelic and more digitally enabled ...
Continue ReadingParadise Cinema: returning, dream
by Geno Thackara
Was this made in a studio or beamed in from a jungle on some faraway planet? Perhaps a little of both--Jack Wyllie's saxophone does often find some alien- sounding contexts, as often shown by the futuristic electro-jazz-ambient sound sculpting of Portico Quartet or the wilder psychedelic fusion of Szun Waves. When it comes to Paradise Cinema, the sound is closer to the ground in more ways than one--its self-titled debut (Gondwana, 2020) came from some time soaking in the sounds ...
Continue ReadingJasmine Myra: Rising
by Chris May
The British alto saxophonist, flautist and composer Jasmine Myra is based in the north of England, which is far enough away from London to have its own distinctive jazz scene, much of which is in the ambit of auteur, trumpeter and producer Matthew Halsall, who founded the Manchester-based Gondwana label in 2008. More about this can be found here, in a review of Myra's first album, Horizons (Gondwana, 2022). Horizons was an auspicious debut. Recorded with a ...
Continue ReadingMatthew Halsall: Bright Sparkling Light
by Geno Thackara
Like an author adding a surprise epilogue when you thought the novel was all wrapped up, Matthew Halsall turns out to still have another turn up his sleeve. An Ever Changing View (Gondwana, 2023) offered the musical equivalent of a seaside creative retreat--the kind of vacation that inevitably seems too short, yet would also feel less special if it actually went on much longer. Fortunately there turned out to be enough unused material to make a complementary EP alongside the ...
Continue ReadingAncient Infinity Orchestra: River Of Light
by Chris May
Since 2008, when he released his first album, Sending My Love, Yorkshire-based trumpeter and Gondwana label founder Matthew Halsall has been the catalyst for the emergence of a regionally distinct, Northern English sound in which spiritual jazz is the primary ingredient. This is unusual in England, a small country where most roads lead to London. The latest beneficiary of Halsall's energy is bassist Ozzy Moysey's Ancient Infinity Orchestra, which, like Halsall, is based in the city of Leeds.
Continue ReadingMatthew Halsall: An Ever Changing View
by Geno Thackara
Whatever view Matthew Halsall is sharing here, it is drawn from life and correspondingly picturesque--not just always changing, but always colorful and fascinating. This View comes partly from the sea-and-sky vistas he enjoyed while creating it, splitting time between England and Wales. Partly, it also comes from a couple of years collecting a trove of percussive odds-and-ends, and cheerfully playing with all the organic sounds they offered. Tinkering with those tones, with no strict framework in mind, he produces a ...
Continue ReadingMatthew Halsall: An Ever Changing View
by Chris May
Based in the northern English city of Manchester, trumpeter Matthew Halsall debuted on record in 2008 with Sending My Love (Gondwana), a stylish take on the meditative end of the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. Halsall's emergence pre-dated by over half a decade that of the London alternative scene vanguarded by musicians such as Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings, and his trajectory has continued to progress quite apart from it. This is unusual in England, a small ...
Continue ReadingMammal Hands: Gift from the Trees
by Neil Duggan
At first glance, Mammal Hands may seem a traditional jazz trio, but their perspectives on the jazz landscape offer enticing and engrossing new directions. Gift from the Trees is their fifth album and shows a new maturity in sound and feel. It draws on influences from folk, electronica, modern classical and ambient to produce a fresh and enveloping sound. The trio--saxophonist Jordan Smart, pianist Nick Smart (yes, they're brothers) and drummer/percussionist Jesse Barrett--all jointly contribute to the compositions. Jordan Smart ...
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