My tastes in music are wide and varied. I can find myself foot tapping and singing along to anything from Billie Eilish – Bad Guy through to Janet Kay – Lovin’ You, much to the delight of my kids or diving into some minimal electro or deep dub.
However I have had a growing interest in jazz over the last decade. I first start to dabble about 20 years ago with the likes of Alice Coltrane, which moved onto a minor obsession with Miles Davies for a period and various other artists such as Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell and various artist from the amazing ECM Records label along the way.
Recently, due a number of radio programmes I listen to on either NTS or BBC Radio 6 Music, my love and awareness of the ever growing British Jazz scene has exploded. There’s so much good and varied jazz coming out of the UK at the moment that I feel compelled to shout about it…
To name but a few names that have crossed my Apple Music subscription or even, heaven forbid, CD purchasing over the last 12 months we have Matthew Halsall, The Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia, Sarah Tandy, Theon Cross, Ishmael Collective, Emma-Jean Thackray, Maisha, Greg Foat.. the list goes on.
I thought I’d do a quick synopsis/review/list of some of these artists, with my humble opinions, and perhaps share a track or two of my favourites from each, to help others to discover some aspect of this growing wealth of talent that might suit your tastes.
Matthew Halsall – whilst not setting the world on fire with jazz innovation, Matthew has become one of my favourite artists over the last few years, there’s rarely a day or mood where I don’t simply get lost in his playing. The Manchester based artist has a depth to his catalogue now that’s a tribute to his output, talent and commitment. My favourite album has to be his 2012 release Fletcher Moss Park, but his latest release Oneness carries the same drifting beautiful melodies and absorbing soundscapes. A favourite from Oneness for me is Life, a just beautiful journey:
SEED Ensemble – An ensemble of some really talented artists, led by alto-saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi (who is also a member of the great KOKOROKO). As with most ensembles you get a much fuller sound than you might get from solo artists, which delivers a lot of power through their tracks. Some tracks feature vocal artists such as XANA, weaving lyrical messaging into the music. Much more up tempo than Matthew Halsall’s music. Some delightful melodic keys over the break drumming and the barrage of brass that lifts you from your feet.
Nubya Garcia – Probably sitting somewhere between the two last artists in terms of sheer power, Nubya is a saxophonist by trade, but also plays flute. The brilliant Lost Kingdom’s on her short Nubya’s 5ive album creates some beautiful soundscapes, or Fly Free that takes me back to warm Summer nights living in my flat in Camberwell.
Emma-Jean-Thackray – The opening track, Make Do, on Emma-Jean’s stunning Ley Lines, just lowers you into a somewhat dreamy euphoric world, with the trumpet drifting over the soft vocals, organ and the abrupt sound of the tuba. The rest of the album delivers a similar journey of sounds, some of a similar euphoric nature, so far more dystopian and disruptive, but always finding its way back a beautiful, head nodding, melodic landscape of stunning music. Featured below is the lovely Red Bush.
A collection of some of my favourite tracks from some of the other artists is below that should give you taste of what else is out there…
Theon Cross – Activate
Greg Foat & James Thorpe – Photosynthesis
Ishmael Ensemble – The Chapel
It’s just all so rich!
I’m just skimming the surface here and I’m no aficionado of any jazz scene, but it’s hard not to be impressed by this wealth of musical expression. They say some of the most creative periods of countries output can come at times of heightened oppression and civil unrest, perhaps every cloud does have a silver lining. Who knows…
Drop me an email if you’ve got any tips on other stuff that I should have on my playlist right now.