Jazz Articles
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Matthew 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 ...
read moreAncient 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.
read moreMatthew 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 ...
read moreMatthew 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 ...
read moreMammal 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 ...
read moreChip Wickham: Cloud 10
by Peter Jones
Is it OK for music to be background? In other words, does all music have to be listened to with the same degree of concentration and freedom from distraction? It may be a moot question in these greatly distracted times. Here's another, related question: is the music you want on in the background necessarily inferior to the stuff you need to pay attention to? This new album from flutist/tenor saxophonist Chip Wickham is in the genre of spiritual ...
read moreJasmine Myra: Horizons
by Chris May
Unlike America, a country big enough to support multiple, more or less autonomous jazz scenes, England, like its European neighbours, is more suited to supporting a single centre. However, by a combination of talent and perseverance, a few artists have managed to create regional scenes which flourish independently of London. One such artist is the trumpeter, producer and record label director Matthew Halsall (interviewed here), who is based in the northern city of Manchester. Halsall's own albums ...
read morePortico Quartet: Terrain
by Geno Thackara
Much like the world of its creationthat of spring 2020, in the early phase of the Covid-19 shutdownthis Terrain is a landscape both familiar and strange. The ingredients of Portico Quartet's one-of-a-kind sound are recognizably there: the nebulous electronic soundscaping, the organic and gently compelling rhythms, the resonant tone of the hang drum which always feels beamed in from the beach of some distant planet. Like every album of theirs, though, it's a surprising step sideways from the previous one ...
read moreMatthew Halsall: Salute To The Sun
by Chris May
Trumpeter and composer Matthew Halsall is an inspirational figure on the British scene, as a musician and as the founder of the successful Gondwana Records label. Based in the northern city of Manchester, two hundred miles and a lifestyle away from London, Halsall debuted in 2008 with Sending My Love, on which he unveiled his distinctive spiritual-jazz take on the less-is-more modalism and lustrous sound of Miles Davis circa Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959). Since then, Halsall's bands have accelerated ...
read moreMatthew Halsall: Oneness
by Don Phipps
On Oneness, trumpeter and composer Matthew Halsall has fashioned a compendium of pieces that are fixed between spiritual meditative repose and poetry in motion. The collection of seven tone poems was recorded over three sessions in 2008 and are only in 2019 being released. In the liner notes, Halsall explains: I've always treasured these recordings and loved how vulnerable, open and free they are, but I just felt they were too subtle and sensitive to release early on in my ...
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