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JMAN 098CD
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Nat Birchall charts new paths toward spiritual communion, connecting jazz with classical Indian influences guided by the wistful flow of the harmonium. Cosmic Language sees the UK-based saxophonist, composer, and arranger return to Jazzman Records with a cross-cultural approach: an exploration of the parallel musical paths of jazz and Indian ragas. Here he takes influence from spiritual jazz forebears such as Alice Coltrane and Yusef Lateef and introduces the Indian harmonium to his band, where it takes the place of the piano. Making new connections to realize his transcendental ambitions, it's a logical next step in making music as spiritual cleanser. The idea for the album was spawned from a one-off performance at a meditation center, the Maharishi Golden Dome in West Lancashire. Seeking to bring a band set-up that was fitting to the quiet-minded setting, Birchall brought the harmonium with him. A small pump organ, it's an instrument he'd been in possession of for many years but hadn't previously used in his music. Building on the spiritual context of that show, and the associations of that instrument, it led naturally to the musical approach undertaken on the album. Both the album and the show which preceded it were recorded with the same tight-knit group of players which have featured on Birchall's previous albums. All members of the group are part of the same like-minded circle of Manchester-oriented jazz musicians. Birchall has always channeled wide-ranging ideas into music that's simple to understand, and this album is no exception. Album opener "Man From Varanasi" is an ode to Bismillah Khan, one of Birchall's heroes of Indian music who hailed from the northern Indian city named in the title. It also sees him taking cues from the Indian raga tradition which, as with most other traditional Indian music, is a foundation which underpinned Khan's music. Crucially, the ragas tap into the idea of music as a means of spiritual release. Birchall sees spiritual experience as an essential part of day-to-day life: instead of brightly-lit, occasional entertainment in lugubrious concert halls, he considers it an everyday, vital source of inspiration. At a moment where jazz-influenced music is undergoing creative renewal and wider appreciation, it's an important perspective that's found resonance elsewhere.
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JMAN 098LP
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LP version. Nat Birchall charts new paths toward spiritual communion, connecting jazz with classical Indian influences guided by the wistful flow of the harmonium. Cosmic Language sees the UK-based saxophonist, composer, and arranger return to Jazzman Records with a cross-cultural approach: an exploration of the parallel musical paths of jazz and Indian ragas. Here he takes influence from spiritual jazz forebears such as Alice Coltrane and Yusef Lateef and introduces the Indian harmonium to his band, where it takes the place of the piano. Making new connections to realize his transcendental ambitions, it's a logical next step in making music as spiritual cleanser. The idea for the album was spawned from a one-off performance at a meditation center, the Maharishi Golden Dome in West Lancashire. Seeking to bring a band set-up that was fitting to the quiet-minded setting, Birchall brought the harmonium with him. A small pump organ, it's an instrument he'd been in possession of for many years but hadn't previously used in his music. Building on the spiritual context of that show, and the associations of that instrument, it led naturally to the musical approach undertaken on the album. Both the album and the show which preceded it were recorded with the same tight-knit group of players which have featured on Birchall's previous albums. All members of the group are part of the same like-minded circle of Manchester-oriented jazz musicians. Birchall has always channeled wide-ranging ideas into music that's simple to understand, and this album is no exception. Album opener "Man From Varanasi" is an ode to Bismillah Khan, one of Birchall's heroes of Indian music who hailed from the northern Indian city named in the title. It also sees him taking cues from the Indian raga tradition which, as with most other traditional Indian music, is a foundation which underpinned Khan's music. Crucially, the ragas tap into the idea of music as a means of spiritual release. Birchall sees spiritual experience as an essential part of day-to-day life: instead of brightly-lit, occasional entertainment in lugubrious concert halls, he considers it an everyday, vital source of inspiration. At a moment where jazz-influenced music is undergoing creative renewal and wider appreciation, it's an important perspective that's found resonance elsewhere.
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JMAN 088LP
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Akhenaten (2009) was the first album Nat Birchall released via the then brand-new Gondwana Records label in Manchester. Originally released only on CD, this is the first time this classic recording has been made available on vinyl. The album on the whole features a quartet, and is expanded to a quintet on the title track where UK trumpet virtuoso Matthew Halsall joins in with a stunning solo. The album explores deep, hymn-like themes at length, finding much to say on the relatively simple melodies and arrangements. Nat and his fellow band members play here with the selfless motivation and focus that's required to allow them to tap deep into the human psyche, producing music that is soulful and stately. Very different from most modern jazz styles played nowadays, the music has a timeless beauty that will stand the test of time. The album was enthusiastically received by music fans and critics alike, being unanimously hailed as a modern classic. Now is the time to hear this magnificent work, utilizing the unique atmospherics and sonic presence that only vinyl can provide. Only 600 copies pressed.
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JMAN 089LP
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Guiding Spirit (2010) was the second album by Nat Birchall for the fledgling Manchester label Gondwana Records. The follow-up to the remarkable debut of Akhenaten found him exploring different textures using percussion and instruments like the kora and the harp. It was also the first time Nat had recorded on the soprano saxophone, featured here on the songs "Keep the Light Shining" and "Higher Regions". Nat reveals a concept on the instrument quite unlike most other contemporary players of the higher-pitched horn, his sound more akin to the keening tone of the Indian shenai master, Bismillah Khan, perfectly in keeping with the music's more Eastern sounding leanings. The music here is firmly rooted in the modal jazz world of Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane and others who sought to expand upon the avenues of expression originally forged by John Coltrane in the heady days of the early 1960s. As has often been pointed out by commentators however, this is no pastiche or remake. This is the real thing, played absolutely in the now, but played from and in the spirit of then. Originally released only in CD format, Jazzman Records are proud to make this music available on vinyl for the first time. Only 600 copies pressed. Features: Matthew Halsall on trumpet and Rachael Gladwin on kora and harp.
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JMAN 082CD
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The music of saxophonist Nat Birchall joins a long-flowing conversation in jazz. His chosen tongue is that of the spiritualized musical discourse with a vital source that can be found in the sacred testaments of John Coltrane, and which was channeled most directly by his fellow travelers Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders and his wife Alice. Many others followed where Coltrane led, giving voice in music to the esoteric renewal of the soul and mind that lent spiritual strength to the black counterculture and complemented the political radicalism of the late 1960s and 1970s. This rich vein of spirit-music has rarely been tapped by British jazz musicians, and Birchall is one of the few to have been drawn to it with the conviction of heart that it demands. For these are the sonic and spiritual spaces where the colossi of an earlier age declaimed and confessed with sacrificial passion, from within the flames of revolution. Ultimately, it has been the sonic pathways offered by jazz that have provided Birchall with the clearest way to channel the resonances of the higher heights, wherefrom timeless musical messages might be revealed. "It seems to me that's it's the most direct way of tuning in to this higher source," reflects Birchall. "That music seems to me to display this connection to whatever this higher source, this higher energy, might be... You can hear it in other musics to a certain degree sometimes, but this seems to be almost purely of that nature. That's what really motivates me the most." All music is a spiritual communion -- it speaks to the old and the young in a language that is beyond language, it expresses and elicits emotion and thought at once, it is both bodily and mental, noise and silence, intention and accident. It is the dissolution of opposites, the fleeting noise made eternal prayer, the transubstantiation of spirit into sound. Music is the expression of unity, in which difference is both accepted and resolved, and from which a mended world might be born. To make music is, as Roland Kirk observed, to talk with the spirits. We are lucky that the music of Nat Birchall allows us to hear the sounds of their world once more. Played with Adam Fairhall: piano; Tim Fairhall: bass; Johnny Hunter: drums; Christian Weaver: congas, batá drum, various bells, shakers, and other percussion.
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LP
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JMAN 082LP
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LP version. The music of saxophonist Nat Birchall joins a long-flowing conversation in jazz. His chosen tongue is that of the spiritualized musical discourse with a vital source that can be found in the sacred testaments of John Coltrane, and which was channeled most directly by his fellow travelers Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders and his wife Alice. Many others followed where Coltrane led, giving voice in music to the esoteric renewal of the soul and mind that lent spiritual strength to the black counterculture and complemented the political radicalism of the late 1960s and 1970s. This rich vein of spirit-music has rarely been tapped by British jazz musicians, and Birchall is one of the few to have been drawn to it with the conviction of heart that it demands. For these are the sonic and spiritual spaces where the colossi of an earlier age declaimed and confessed with sacrificial passion, from within the flames of revolution. Ultimately, it has been the sonic pathways offered by jazz that have provided Birchall with the clearest way to channel the resonances of the higher heights, wherefrom timeless musical messages might be revealed. "It seems to me that's it's the most direct way of tuning in to this higher source," reflects Birchall. "That music seems to me to display this connection to whatever this higher source, this higher energy, might be... You can hear it in other musics to a certain degree sometimes, but this seems to be almost purely of that nature. That's what really motivates me the most." All music is a spiritual communion -- it speaks to the old and the young in a language that is beyond language, it expresses and elicits emotion and thought at once, it is both bodily and mental, noise and silence, intention and accident. It is the dissolution of opposites, the fleeting noise made eternal prayer, the transubstantiation of spirit into sound. Music is the expression of unity, in which difference is both accepted and resolved, and from which a mended world might be born. To make music is, as Roland Kirk observed, to talk with the spirits. We are lucky that the music of Nat Birchall allows us to hear the sounds of their world once more. Played with Adam Fairhall: piano; Tim Fairhall: bass; Johnny Hunter: drums; Christian Weaver: congas, batá drum, various bells, shakers, and other percussion.
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