Gondwana 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Mathew Halsall's Gondwana label is one of contemporary jazz's finest - a buy on sight imprint that deals only in quality. Enter this superb new album River Of Light from Ancient Infinity Orchestra. The band is made up of 14 members all lead by double-bassist and composer Ozzy Moysey. They are based in Leeds which has long disco had one of the Ukase most vibrant jazz scenes and this collective proves that with its mix of saxophonist Matt Cliffe with others on drums, bass, keyboards, harp, violin, cello, two tenors, alto, oboe, flute and percussion. This album taps deep into the spiritual jazz realm and is one of beauty, philosophy and meditative sounds.

Review: When it was first released on CD, Inspirations caused quite a stir. It was then made available on wax for the first time and soon sold out. Now we're treated to a welcome reissue that sees Los Angeles jazz singer Dwight Trible cover some of the songs and artists that shaped his formative musical years, with a little help from Manchester-based bandleader, arranger and trumpeter Matthew Halsall. Highlights include a rousing, near riotous cover of Nina Simone favourite 'Feeling Good' a spiritual, harp-laden rendition of Hal David and Burt Bacharach's 'What The World Needs Now is Love' - a radical departure from the original, featuring one of Trible's greatest vocal performances to date - and a poignant, heartfelt version of Leroy Hutson and Donny Hathaway's still relevant 'Tryin' Times'.

Review: Manchester jazz and broken beat cats GoGo Penguin are masters of the long player, with several behind them on labels like Gondwana Records, Blue Note and Sony. It is now to the former they return with a Deluxe Edition of V2.0. As always their broken beats and magical musical interplay are on full show with pianist Chris Illingworth's classically-styled melodies next to the dance energy of the bas from Nick Black and stickman Rob Turner. Plenty of rich structural and harmonic ideas are explored in free form here with this version coming on gatefold translucent light green vinyl.

Review: Matthew Halsall's Gondwana label is seeing a busy August what with the imprint flooding our jazz charts with reissues and, of course, new releases such as this wonderful collaborative effort from The Gondwana Orchestra and Dwight Trible. Trible's voice is like silk, running up and down the delicate waves of melodies from the collective, with "Colors" and "The Creator Has A Master Plan" both capable of making the toughest of audiences feel utterly uplifted. On the flip, "Love Is Everywhere" shines bright amid a flurry of flutes and intricate drum percussions, while "You've Got To Have Freedom" rides off a much smoother, deeper sort of vibe that's got a little funk at its core. Wicked.

Review: As part of his Gondwana label's 10th anniversary, masterful Manchester trumpeter and contemporary jazz trendsetter Matthew Halsall has put together a special deluxe edition of his beautiful "Colour Yes" album with thick reverse board sleeves, silver block letter foiling and two printed inner sleeves. First released in 2009, the album showcases Halsall's deeply emotive style across the 8 achingly good, supremely spiritual tracks that glow with gorgeous piano playing, gently lilting drums and his own fantastic leads.

Review: Second time around for Matthew Halsall's sixth solo album, Salute to the Sun, a set that many critics cited as being among the best contemporary jazz albums of 2020. As the title suggests, it's unarguably Halsall's most summery album to date, with the celebrated bandleader and trumpeter - accompanied by some of Manchester's most accomplished players - offering up a swathe of relaxed, life-affirming compositions that combine modal and contemporary jazz themes with gentle, Latin-influenced rhythms, breezy instrumentation (harps, kalimbas, marimbas and so on) and subtle nods towards Charles Stepney and Terry Callier. Some of the woodwind and brass solos are similarly superb, while the album's sun-soaked, easy-going atmosphere is alluring whatever the weather.

Review: These days, trumpeter, composer, arranger and band-leader Matthew Halsall is among the most storied names in British jazz, but that wasn't the case when he released his debut album "Sending My Love" in 2008. It seems fitting, then, that he's decided to re-introduce us to the album via a first ever vinyl edition that also includes a previously unreleased piece from the period, the bittersweet, slowly unfurling melancholy that is "This Time" (a cut that sounds like it should be soundtracking messy big screen break-ups and montages of unhappy lovers walking slowly in the rain). The original set remains a fine collection of modal-influenced jazz, with Halsall's various emotion-rich solos playing a far more prominent role than they have on his more recent albums.

Review: The Alt label hits its second record with a sterling cast of wayward techno bods in tow. Things fire up in a tough and trippy manner as Delta wrings all kinds of tricky noises out of his gear and keeps the bass brooding in the low end, but hold tight for a perfectly 90s chord progression in that pad line. Cabanelas has a bleepy mission on 'Sambu Y Los Morsas' which flits between creepy passages of tension and acid tweaking drops. Z@p keeps things melancholic while adhering to the record's over-arching old-skoool outboard vibe, and then Justin Drake and Quinn Whalley sign the record off with a slice of proto trance for the deepest of 90s-tinted dancefloor reveries.

Review: Following 2014's When The World Was One, Halsall and the Gondwana collective continue their spiritual jazz adventure with another immaculate narrative. Now with much more vocal prowess, singer Josephine Oniyama plays a lead role in the story, adding consistency and personality to the Halsall's swooning, cinematic odysseys. Highlights include the Hathaway-style half spoken/half sung "Badder Weather", the frenetic double bass and brushed drum crescendos of "The Land Of", the (lark) ascending strings and oriental scales of "Cushendun" and the smoky, faraway Coltraneisms of the title track. Modern jazz doesn't get any more authentic than this.

Review: Gondwana label head Mathew Halsall has his own superb new album arriving any time now, but before that comes Octava, a second and equally sublime offering from LA's deep-jazz masters Phi-Psonics. Halsall calls their sound "beautiful, humble and honest" and so it proves here with these deeply meditative sounds led by bassist Seth Ford-Young and featuring Sylvain Carton on woodwinds, Mitchell Yoshida on electric piano, and Josh Collazo on drums. Inspirations are as diverse as yoga, philosophy, jazz and classical but all finished with their own uniquely spiritual take and a lasting feeling of hope and optimism.

Review: For their latest new album on Gondwana, and seventh full length overall, Portico Quartet draw on American minimalism and ambient music genres as well the work of the cult Japanese composer Midori Takada. They composed and recorded most of it last year and it features three movements of their typically elegant and graceful sounds. The tracks are all built around central, repeating tenets which weave in and out of one another to hypnotic and beautiful effect. Often reaching for the cosmos, the delicate drumming and serene pads all instantly grab your attention and then take you on beautifully immersive rides.

Review: A unique collaboration between Milo Fitzpatrick of Portico Quartet, and Jordan Smart of Mammal Hands, Vega Trails' 'Tremors In The Static' hears these two mega-accomplished musicians bring nine spaced out forays through melodic, solo double bass. Taking their name from the Carl Sagan novel Contact (the Vega system), Influences from Swedish fiddle to Indian Classical are woven into a minimized tapestry of ambient instrumental sounds. Verbed-out folk jazz for your pleasure.

Review: Chip Wickham is a jazz musician and producer who divides his time between Spain, UK and the Middle-East, and who has made a name for himself with a series of beautifully crafted solo albums that draw equally on the hard swinging spiritual jazz of Roland Kirk, Yusef Lateef and Sahih Shihab, alongside the music of British jazz legends such as Tubby Hayes and Harold McNair. 'Cloud 10' rests easily on this broad spectrum of influences to paint an impressionistic picture of the slickness that nu-jazz has to offer today.