GONDCD004 - Nat Birchall - Guiding Spirit

 

Guiding Spirit All compositions by Nat Birchall Buy the album from our shop here on the 24th May

Release date Monday 24th May 2010.

 

 

GONDCD003 - Matthew Halsall - Colour Yes

Colour Yes All compositions by Matthew Halsall Buy the album from our shop here

 

“Rain-streaked spiritual jazz from Manchester.”

The Independent on Sunday

 

“Grooving through time on the spiritual sunship.”

Mojo Magazine

 

“This is a record that is not afraid to look back but Halsall is definitely a modern musician with his eyes set firmly on the future.”

Jazzwise Magazine

“Halsall's admirable purity of tone and economy of notes mark him as a newcomer to watch.”

The London Evening Standard

 

“Just gorgeous. Manchester-based trumpeter Matthew Halsall's second album ploughs the same delicate, acoustic, modal jazz furrow as his debut, Sending My Love (Gondwana, 2008).”

All That Jazz

 

“I’m just so happy there’s a new album from this trumpeter from Manchester he’s called Matthew Halsall and the new LP is called Colour Yes.”

Gilles Peterson

 

“Manchester’s Matthew Halsall set a high bar with last year’s debut ‘Sending My Love’, a melodic and approachable set that sidestepped the boisterous and belligerent approach so prevalent amid the new wave of young British Jazz. ‘Colour Yes’ is an even more accomplished work, with the emotive horn lines of Halsall and right-hand man Nat Birchall joining the dots between classic British players like Michael Garrick and the art form's more contemporary exponents like Cinematic Orchestra.”

Mercury Music Prize

 

“A stellar second album from UK jazz trumpet talent Matthew Halsall -- with a soulful depth that pushes him to the forefront of the contemporary British scene!”

Dusty Groove America

 

“His striking melody, lyrical honesty and down-to-earth nature have smitten so many listeners. A purity of tone that recalls ‘A Kind Of Blue’-era Miles Davis and Chet Baker, infused with the transcendental calm of Don Cherry and Alice Coltrane, all meticulously ‘choreographed’ with a Swinscoe hand.”

Straight No Chaser

 

“Halsall has produced an album which offers meditative and poetic pieces and some bright, lively tempos. File under enjoyable, accessible and non-controversial.”

The Press (York)

 

“Halsall beautifully combines the modal jazz and spiritual lyricalness of John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, and Pharoah Sanders, with the stately grandeur an earlier generation of British improvisers and composers like Stan Tracey, Keith Tippet, and John Surman.”

Other Music Digital

 

 

GONDCD002 - Nat Birchall - Akhenaten

Akhenaten All compositions by Nat Birchall Buy the album from our shop here

 

“An album so exceptional it fell down the cracks of the Mojo filter...spatial sunship beauty...expansive and dreamy...lyrical heat haze hypnotism...this is the record you should be expanding the collective consciousness of the neighbours with. Truly transcendental.”

MOJO - Disc of the day 16/07/09

 
“Mindblowing work...a deeply spiritual player who comes off beautifully on this set..Birchall blows with a range of feeling that takes us back to the 70s best of Pharoah Sanders, Billy Harper and Clifford Jordan...hitting a groove that lets Birchall’s horn blossom wonderfully in sound - reaching forth with rich tones that are simply wonderful....”

Dusty Groove America

 
“Akhenaten is a beautifully stately performance...from the gentle 3/4 of ”Nica’s Dance” to the closing “Many Blessings”

Brian Morton, The Wire Magazine

 
“Outstanding and most enthralling...Birchall is a wonderful player who wears his heart on his sleeve and plays with much warmth and sincerity”

4 stars - Tony Hall, Jazzwise Magazine.

 
“ A quite remarkable album, Birchall captures the hypnotic flow of John Coltrane wonderfully on four extended hymn-like explorations. Think of Coltrane’s stark masterpiece ”Alabama” or parts of “A Love
Supreme”.

Chris Yates, Jazz UK

 

 

GONDCD001 - Matthew Halsall - Sending My Love

Sending My Love All compositions by Matthew Halsall Buy the album from our shop here

 

“A real pleasant surprise of the last few weeks of picking up music. A beautiful 5-track album…you know I’m always happy when I can find some new jazz, something fresh, new players, new generations, holding the flame, keeping it alight…new music from Matthew Halsall from Manchester, album called Sending My Love... “

Gilles Peterson - BBC Radio 1 Worldwide

The album was also in Gilles Peterson’s top 40 albums of 2008.

 
“A meditative player, one more into setting moods than high tempos, he’s made a fine album here, one that should appeal to those who revel in the reflective work of Miles Davis and Bill Evans.”

Fred Dellar - Mojo Magazine

 
“A really incredible album - a set that's filled with far more soul and feeling than you might guess from the youthful image on the cover! Matthew Halsall's a pretty young player, but his sound here is really amazing - not just on his own trumpet solos, but on the overall feel of the album - which is beautifully composed, and put together with a sense of spirit that takes us back to Strata East at its most sophisticated in the 70s!... Tremendous stuff throughout - a record that held us rapt from start to finish…”

Dusty Groove America
 

“It's an exquisite piece of jazz… especially 'Reflections' and 'Freedom Song'. Beautiful stuff and highly recommended!”

Fat City Records

 
“Jazz lovers... this one's a treasure. Matthew Halsall's "Sending My Love" is one of those rare albums that is truly more than the sum of its parts. While a lot of "nu-jazz" is either mawkish nostalgia, a too-clever pastiche of the old and new, or an awkward grope after something edgy. This just nails it on the head. This album doesn't try to recapture something lost or pose as something hip--it's just flipping beautiful, unpretentious jazz.”

Amazon UK 5.0 out of 5 stars a delightful album, 22 Oct 2008