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Matt Carmichael
Claire Cope: Every Journey
by Dan McClenaghan
Consider British pianist, composer/ bandleader Claire Cope. She debuted as a fully formed artist via her excellent septet set Small World (Self Produced, 2020), a deftly crafted classical/jazz hybrid. On her second recording, the album at hand, Every Journey, she employs an eleven-piece ensemble, building on the atmosphere of her debut, painting translucent layerings and weaving a loose net of textures into gorgeous, expansive soundscapes. With composer-bandleader Maria Schneider as a major touchstone, Cope creates luminous arrangements. She cites Schneider's ...
Continue ReadingMatt Carmichael: Dancing With Embers
by Neil Duggan
Scottish tenor saxophonist Matt Carmichael captured attention with his first album Where Will The River Flow (Porthole Music, 2021), garnering over 8 million streams. His second album, Marram (Edition Records, 2022), developed his blend of jazz and Scottish folk, winning “Best Album" in the Scottish Jazz Awards. He follows this with Dancing With Embers, which changes focus to concentrate on song structure and a sense of intimacy, rather than improvised solos, resulting in an album that is more biased towards ...
Continue ReadingJoe Robson: Home
by Neil Duggan
Many artists draw inspiration from their homeland's folk traditions, which are often reflected in their compositions and playing style. This fusion is particularly evident in Scottish jazz, where prominent performers like Fergus McCreadie, Norman Willmore and Stephen Henderson incorporate strong folk elements. Guitarist Joe Robson advances this blend in his ambitious project Home, achieving a complete marriage of both genres across his ten compositions that make up the album. Supporting his vision are several similarly inspired Scottish musicians. ...
Continue ReadingAli Watson: Terrarium
by Neil Duggan
Scottish jazz has recently seen many artists find their inspiration from their landscape, history, geography and heritage. The effect on bassist Ali Watson has seen him mix Scottish folk with contemporary jazz and classical music to develop a musical style that strives to provide an escape from the unrelenting sensory inputs that can pervade modern life. His debut album is named Terrarium. Those with a horticultural interest will know that a terrarium is typically a sealed glass container ...
Continue ReadingMatt Carmichael: Marram
by Chris May
The first thing to register, within the opening few bars of Glaswegian tenor saxophonist Matt Carmichael's sophomore album, is how remarkably similar his sound is to that of New York's emerging saxophone colossus Oded Tzur. In an interview with All About Jazz in summer 2022, the Israeli-born Tzur named his primary formative influence as the great Dexter Gordon. Whether Carmichael cut his teeth on Gordon's Blue Note albums of the 1960s is not known, but it sounds well possible. Like ...
Continue ReadingMatt Carmichael: Where Will The River Flow
by Ian Patterson
Unless it dries up, the river will flow to the sea. A more intriguing question might be: where will the flow take Matt Carmichael? At twenty-one, in his final year at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the tenor saxophonist--a BBC Young Jazz Musician Finalist in 2020--is only starting out on his musical journey. But his assured debut as leader suggests that Carmichael will travel far. These nine originals, which draw heavily on Scottish folk traditions, herald the emergence of an ...
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Rob Cope
saxophone, soprano
William Chernoff
bassMusic
Isabel
From: Every JourneyBy Matt Carmichael
