Description
Who would have guessed that a group of musicians in the brash English city of Manchester would, in 2010, be rekindling the astral jazz forged by saxophonistPharoah Sandersand harpist and pianistAlice Coltranein the late 1960s? But it’s happening, and happening with luminous conviction. The musicians are centered around trumpeter Matthew Halsall’s Gondwana Records label. Saxophonist Nat Birchall’sGuiding Spiritis Gondwana’s fourth releasefollowing his ownAkhenaten(2009) and Halsall’sSending My Love(2008) andColour Yes(2009)and is played by the same small grouping of musicians heard, with a few changes, on the other three albums. The most significant difference between the four discs is that Birchall wrote the music forGuiding SpiritandAkhenaten, and Halsall that forSending My LoveandColour Yes. This leads to small shifts in emphasis: Birchall’s discs evoke astral landmarks such as saxophonistJohn Coltrane‘sA Love Supreme(Impulse!, 1965), Sanders’Tauhid(Impulse!, 1967) and Alice Coltrane’sPtah, The El Daoud(Impulse!, 1970); Halsall’s discs follow a similar route and add trumpeterMiles Davis‘ acoustic mojo circaKind Of Blue(Columbia, 1959) to the mix.
Guiding Spiritfeatures all the elements which defined first-generation astral jazz: a generally sunny melodicism, strong bass ostinatos and piano vamps, vocalized horn playing and trippy, “exotic” percussion heavy on the bells and rattles. In a sense, the music is revivalist, but Birchall and Halsall approach their material with such sincerity and engagement that the results are timeless. The six tracks onGuiding Spiritare not the well-crafted replications typical of revivalism, but creative, quirky and full of unexpected twists and turns. All About Jazz
Label: Jazzman
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo
Released: 2016
Genre: Jazz
Style: Modal
File under: Jazz – Saxophone
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