jazz albums
Album Review: Colin Stetson – All This I Do For Glory
Well, this is some way from “a man shouting into a hoover bag full of saxophones”. I can’t remember who described one of the tracks from Stetson’s ‘New History Warfare: Vol 3’ in that way, but it had me scooting down the record shop. It was an accurate description of one of the tracks (Stetson …
Album Review: Thundercat – Drunk
Driving home from picking up my son at school the other day we were listening to Flying Lotus’ Until The Quiet Comes. I looked over to my son and said “What I love about this music is that it’s a perfect mix of woozy trip hop, groovy hip hop, and complex jazz chord structures.” My …
Album Review: Various Artists – Chris Sullivan presents The Wag – 4CD remastered
David Bowie, Keith Richards and Joe Strummer were just a few of the big names to frequent Londons Hotspot club of the 80’s ‘The WAG’, a ‘haven for misfits’ that would attract such a following it would fill the floors seven nights a week with its various themed nights. Over the years The Wag would host a multitude …
Album Review: Flame Tree Ft Nik Turner
Original Hawkwind Saxophonist and flautist Nik Turner recently joined Seattle-based experimental jazz ensemble Flame Tree (Dennis Rea on guitar, Paul “PK” Kemmish on bass, and Jack Gold-Molina on drums) for an unexpected way-out album of improvisation and freaky free form adventure. Jack Gold-Molina, who played in Spectral Waves with Dennis Rea, in the autumn of …
Album Review: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Twisted Nerve
In 1968 a British psychological horror film called ‘Twisted Nerve’ starring Hywel Bennett, Hayley Mills and Billie Whitelaw was released. Although now long forgotten, only to be referenced now and again by film critics of the obscure, it does have one positive, the soundtrack. Regarded as one of on’s finest works it was plucked from obscurity …
Album Review: John Coltrane – A Love Supreme : The Complete Masters
Music shouldn’t be easy to understand. You have to come to the music yourself, gradually. Not everything must be received with open arms. – John Coltrane, 1963 This is a sentiment that I can wholeheartedly agree with. There have been many instances over the years that I’ve come at an album and couldn’t find …
Album Review: James Taylor Quartet and the Rochester Cathedral Chior – The Rochester Mass
The James Taylor Quartet`s career has seen many changes since their formation in 1987, from Blow Up to the emergence of the acid jazz scene in the early 90`s there live performances have influenced many artists, and have seen them collaborate with The Manics, Pogues and U2 to name a few. This new release from …
Album Review: Troyka – Ornithophobia
Ornithophobia is the third album from experimental jazz trio, Troyka. Following on from their last recording, Live at Cheltenham Jazz Festival, which showed they could adapt their wilful experimentalism to other formats, the trio – keyboardist Kit Downes, guitarist Chris Montague and drummer Joshua Blackmore make their first outing for Naim Jazz, the sound of …
Album Review: Taylor McFerrin – Early Riser
Lets get this straight right from the off. Taylor McFerrins debut LP Early Riser is one of the albums of the year, and the fact that its taken this long since its release (nearly a month) to get a review together is a crime for which we here at Backseat Mafia are torturing ourselves with …
Album Review: Youngblood Brass Band – Lux Volumi
Seems there’s a bit of a renaissance for brass bands at the moment. Not the colliery sort, instead these genre hopping, New Orleans ensembles, packed full of incredible players that, as well as being able to do things on their instruments that are almost beyond belief, they have this groove that is just infectious. Across …