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Matthew Cliffe

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4
Album Review

Matthew Halsall: Bright Sparkling Light

Read "Bright Sparkling Light" reviewed by Geno Thackara


Like an author adding a surprise epilogue when you thought the novel was all wrapped up, Matthew Halsall turns out to still have another turn up his sleeve. An Ever Changing View (Gondwana, 2023) offered the musical equivalent of a seaside creative retreat--the kind of vacation that inevitably seems too short, yet would also feel less special if it actually went on much longer. Fortunately there turned out to be enough unused material to make a complementary EP alongside the ...

7
Album Review

Ancient Infinity Orchestra: River Of Light

Read "River Of Light" reviewed by Chris May


Since 2008, when he released his first album, Sending My Love, Yorkshire-based trumpeter and Gondwana label founder Matthew Halsall has been the catalyst for the emergence of a regionally distinct, Northern English sound in which spiritual jazz is the primary ingredient. This is unusual in England, a small country where most roads lead to London. The latest beneficiary of Halsall's energy is bassist Ozzy Moysey's Ancient Infinity Orchestra, which, like Halsall, is based in the city of Leeds.

7
Album Review

Matthew Halsall: An Ever Changing View

Read "An Ever Changing View" reviewed by Geno Thackara


Whatever view Matthew Halsall is sharing here, it is drawn from life and correspondingly picturesque--not just always changing, but always colorful and fascinating. This View comes partly from the sea-and-sky vistas he enjoyed while creating it, splitting time between England and Wales. Partly, it also comes from a couple of years collecting a trove of percussive odds-and-ends, and cheerfully playing with all the organic sounds they offered. Tinkering with those tones, with no strict framework in mind, he produces a ...

4
Album Review

Matthew Halsall: An Ever Changing View

Read "An Ever Changing View" reviewed by Chris May


Based in the northern English city of Manchester, trumpeter Matthew Halsall debuted on record in 2008 with Sending My Love (Gondwana), a stylish take on the meditative end of the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. Halsall's emergence pre-dated by over half a decade that of the London alternative scene vanguarded by musicians such as Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings, and his trajectory has continued to progress quite apart from it. This is unusual in England, a small ...

17
Album Review

Matthew Halsall: Salute To The Sun

Read "Salute To The Sun" reviewed by Chris May


Trumpeter and composer Matthew Halsall is an inspirational figure on the British scene, as a musician and as the founder of the successful Gondwana Records label. Based in the northern city of Manchester, two hundred miles and a lifestyle away from London, Halsall debuted in 2008 with Sending My Love, on which he unveiled his distinctive spiritual-jazz take on the less-is-more modalism and lustrous sound of Miles Davis circa Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959). Since then, Halsall's bands have accelerated ...

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Concerts

May 3 Fri

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Bright Sparkling Light

Gondwana Records
2024

buy

An Ever Changing View

Gondwana Records
2023

buy

River Of Light

Gondwana Records
2023

buy

Salute To The Sun

Gondwana Records
2020

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