Ashley Slater: Merry Jazzmas!

I'm breaking the habit of a lifetime and mentioning the 'C' word in November - only because singer, composer and trombonist Ashley Slater is a good friend and he's produced the album that you need for every gathering you're planning over Christmas.

This album has been a closely-guarded secret throughout 2024, with Ashley barely mentioning it more than once a week across social media. Now that's it's finally arrived in your listening ears, you're going to love Merry Jazzmas!

Featuring a bevy of brilliant musicians, every track was crafted by the witty Mr Slater (listen out for "One and one makes true") and the arrangements show them all at their finest. There's Gary Alesbrook (trumpet), Iain Ballamy (sax) Mark Edwards (piano), Mark Fletcher (drummer), Jamie McCredie (guitar) and Mark Preston (guitar).

Ashley has always been a self-deprecating and amusing musician and human being. He's worked with some of the big names including Thomas Dolby, Carla Bley and everyone in Loose Tubes (basically a Who's Who of UK jazz in the 1980s): he's also had significant mainstream musical success with Freak Power (with Norman Cook) and Kitten and the Hip.

Merry Jazzmas is a delightful collection of original tracks, including an international Feliz Navidad and the rather naughty Santa's Snoring. Just occasionally, Ashley gives us all a glimpse of his sensitive side - the gorgeous Every Child and Christmas Hymn in particular (with some gorgeous Iain Ballamy sax). Then there's the country-influenced Home for Christmas which will make the perfect Christmas Eve track on every radio station.

Out now, Merry Jazzmas brings all the jazz kitsch you will ever need. I suspect some of these tracks will become ear-worms, just as Ashley's hit with Freak Power - Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out has.

Comments

Maria Schneider: Live at The Barbican

Tonight’s performance in the main hall at London’s Barbican Centre confirmed Maria Schneider ’s position as one of the finest composers of our generation. Working with the sublime Oslo Jazz Ensemble (formerly Denada), Schneider presented a selection of tunes from her ‘Data Lords’ double album from 2020 and the result was simply extraordinary. Photo credit @Hilary Seabrook With a host of Grammy awards and a Pulitzer Prize nomination for Data Lords , Schneider has proved her right to stand on the Barbican stage in front of one of the finest ensembles in the world. Her music allows every member to shine, individually and collectively. Sax players who double on clarinet, bass clarinet, flute and alto flute, trumpets and flugelhorns, an accordion and multiple percussion pieces wielded by the drummer collectively provide a range of timbres, textures and dynamics that thrilled this audience. The Data Lords compositions celebrate everything that is wonderful about nature, as well as all ...

Big Wade - 'Piano Man' out now

Big Wade and Black Swan Theory collectively blends funk, soul, jazz and everything that fills the cracks between those genres: his new album - Piano Man - on all major streaming platforms ahead of the Piano Man Tour 2024 , which has dates across the US. Piano Man brings a selection of original and covers, including a stunning version of Autumn Leaves , which reinvents the song as the funky, electronic Autumn . Big Wade's voice takes the song's melody and improvises around and around, with backing vocals and a deliberately sparse arrangement underpinning the song. Similarly, on Children of the Ghetto , the lead and backing vocals blend in with the soulful musicians of Black Swan Theory. Electronics are used with dexterity, often expanding the vocal lines, as in the ethereal and ghostly opening of Don't Let Me Go . However, the tools never dominate - simply adding depth and layers to the funk. Never more than when Big Wade enters a new world in Interludes , including vocals...

The Darius Brubeck Quartet: Live at Jazz Cafe Posk

My first visit to Jazz Cafe Posk in London's Hammersmith coincided with the 60th anniversary of Posk - The Polish Social and Cultural Association - and the first performance in the club by pianist and composer Darius Brubeck. Photo credit @ Hilary Seabrook Darius was 10 when he joined his father on a historic tour of Poland. The Dave Brubeck Quartet toured Poland from 6 to 18 March 1958, just three years after the communist regime's ban on jazz was lifted. Without a doubt, this was the biggest jazz event in post-war Poland, with the archetypal and hugely successful outfit of Dave Brubeck (piano), Paul Desmond (alto sax), Eugene Wright (bass) and Joe Morello (drums). Sixty years later, in 2018, Darius took his own quartet - the same one he brought to Posk in May 2024 - to Poland for a significant tour, recorded and released as the Live in Poland album. Several of the tracks from this album were in the set at Posk and this quartet displayed in depth the benefits of playing to...

Hilary Seabrook - writer, podcaster, musician

Search This Blog