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Get The Blessing

Bassist Jim Barr once remarked that Get The Blessing were “total outsiders” and “the punk entry” when they won the 2008 BBC Jazz Award for Best Album with ‘All Is Yes’. Almost ten years later and five albums down the line, the same could still be said to hold true, albeit with a little more wisdom at their disposal.

Formed in 1999 to share a fascination with the improvisation and monophonic nature of Ornette Coleman’s earlier works, the line-up has remained the same with Portishead rhythm masters Jim Barr and Clive Deamer on bass and drums respectively, Pete Judge on trumpet and Jake McMurchie on saxophone. And all this despite other commitments for everyone, not least Deamer’s recruitment as Radiohead’s second live drummer in 2012. The band’s old friend and collaborator – and Portishead guitarist – Adrian Utley also makes the occasional guest appearance.

The Bristol-based four-piece can now boast a truly international fan base. Since the release of All Is Yes in February 2008, they’ve taken their musical vision round the world with successful tours and festival appearances in the UK, USA, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Dubai, Turkey, Macedonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Serbia.

Astronautilus is Get The Blessing’s fifth album (and third for Naim) and comes blazing out of Bristol chasing the tail of its predecessor, 2014’s Lope and Antilope. While Lope and Antilope saw the band dip their toe in mellower waters, Astronautilus was literally composed between crashing waves and deserted estuary sands, producing an album of pounding rhythms, spacious atmospheres and strongly-crafted melodies – plus, of course, the unpredictability and musical mischievousness that have made the band so exciting and successful.

Astronautilus has all the deep textures and open-sounding playing with electronics you would expect, but with a greater sense of structure and depth. On first listening it’s darker and subtler, but further listening reveals it to be an exciting and focused album, or as the band put it, “dark with a joyous soul.” With more adventurous improvisation and electronics coming into play, it seems a natural development and refinement of previous work. The mood of the improvisation has also coloured the more composed tunes, striking a perfect balance between the deliberate and the accidental.

Having enjoyed the process of taking themselves away from their normal environment to record the last album, Astronautilus was recorded while the band were holed up on a remote part of the Cornish coast, where the landscape and midnight beach rambles proved inspirational. It was on these walks that conversation turned to such matters as the stars and the sea, which in turn led to the titles – stars and fish, or puns on both.

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Album Review

Get The Blessing: Pallett

Read "Pallett" reviewed by Neil Duggan


Many artists describe their music as aural paintings. Bristol band Get The Blessing take that idea to the next level with their seventh studio album, Pallett. The album cover features a paint by numbers drawing of a wooden pallet to colour in (the limited-edition vinyl comes complete with wax crayons) and all the tracks are named after colours from an imaginary colour chart. Jazz should be fun after all. Get The Blessing are not easy to categorise, ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Get the Blessing Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam

Read "Get the Blessing Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam" reviewed by BIMHUIS


Get the Blessing can be placed among a number of bands innovating British jazz with contemporary rock, dance and hip-hop influences, like Portico Quartet, BadBadNotGood and GoGo Penguin. The infectious beats of this Bristol-based foursome come from bassist Jim Barr and drummer Clive Deamer, rhythm section of the legendary trip-hop act Portishead. Deamer is also live drummer for Radiohead. The mutant, spacey jazz tones come from Pete Judge (trumpet, electronics) and Jake McMurchie (sax, electronics). Their most recent ...

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Performance / Tour

Made In The UK Jazz Concerts Open With Get The Blessing In Rochester And Liane Carroll In Ottawa

Made In The UK Jazz Concerts Open With Get The Blessing In Rochester And Liane Carroll In Ottawa

Source: Jazz Services UK

2012 is the 5th year of the British jazz concert series, Made in the UK, which has brought more than 30 UK jazz groups to Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival since 2008. This year will see many of the groups performing in Canada for the first time starting tonight with the award winning singer-pianist Liane Carroll's appearance at Ottawa Jazz Festival. This evening will also see the first of nine nights of Made in the UK concerts in the Christ ...

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Performance / Tour

Stan Tracey, Get the Blessing, Ronnie Scott's and Gwyneth Herbert for Made in the UK in NYC

Stan Tracey, Get the Blessing, Ronnie Scott's and Gwyneth Herbert for Made in the UK in NYC

Source: Michael Ricci

This week sees the Made in the UK concert series return to New York at venues throughout Manhattan. Legendary jazz pianist, Stan Tracey, kicks off proceedings with two shows at Dizzy's tonight in his first appearance in New York since touring with the Ted Heath Orchestra in 1959. Tracey's 1965 recording 'Under Milk Wood' is widely heralded as one of the greatest albums in European jazz. At 83, he is playing as well as ever with ...

"They may well be the most original and exciting band on the British scene at the moment.” —Jazzwise Magazine

“GTB harness rock and jazz with uncompromising power.” —Time Out

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Pallett

Self Produced
2023

buy

Lope And Antilope

Written On Water
2014

buy

OC DC

Written On Water
2012

buy

O C D C

Written On Water
2012

buy

Bugs In Amber

Written On Water
2009

buy

Bleach Cake

Written On Water
2008

buy

Videos

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