REV. KM WILLIAMS "JUKIN'IN THE HOLY LAND" "LIVE IN ISRAEL"

How many active bluesmen today can claim to stock a homemade, single string cigar box guitar in their arsenal and play it while wearing a priest’s collar, all while being backed by a percussionist and washboard player who prefers to use his hands over drumsticks and spoons? There’s only one, and his name is Reverend K. M. Williams.Born in 1956 in Clarksville, Williams grew up in Red River County in Northeast Texas, where he soaked in the sounds of blues and R&B music broadcast from WLAC radio out of Nashville. Artists like John Lee Hooker, Blind Willie Johnson, and R. L. Burnside all made strong impressions on Williams as he was coming up, and one of his first introductions to guitar came in the early sixties at the hands of an itinerant blues player believed to be Elmore James. It would be almost two decades before Williams’ career started to take off, but that long journey has led him to open shows for legends like the Holmes Brothers, Little Milton, and Robert Jr. Lockwood, and he shared a bill with Mavis Staples in Europe, where he has returned three times and performed in front of thousands.The Reverend is a bona fide ordained minister in the Holiness Church and has been performing his unique brand of earthy gospel blues regularly in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area since the nineties. He calls himself the Texas Country Blues Preacher, and for good reason. I tell people all the time that gospel music and blues are basically the same. I always said that with the blues, you’re asking questions about life, or you’re just expressing how you feel about what you’re going through. And gospel is the answer to those questions. But it’s still the same feeling. I play gospel music the same way I play blues—honest and funky, just real. REV.KM WILLIAMS
 

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MATTHEW HALSALL & THE GONDWANA ORCHESTRA "WHEN THE WORLD WAS ONE"

Manchester based, DJ, bandleader and trumpeter Matthew Halsall is one of the UK’s brightest talents. A gifted trumpeter with a beautiful, expressive tone, his music draws on his love of the transcendental, spiritual and modal jazz of Alice and John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, as well as the glories of ‘60s British jazz. His albums ‘Sending My Love’, ‘Colour Yes’, 'On The Go', 'Fletcher Moss Park' and 'When The World Was One' released on his own Gondwana label have won him a legion of fans across the world and acclaim from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Jamie Cullum and Radio 3’s Late Junction, MOJO, BBC Music Magazine and even BBC 6 Music.Your album personnel:  Matthew Halsall (trumpet), Nat Birchall (tenor sax), Lisa Mallett (flute), Keiko Kitamura (koto), Rachael Gladwin (harp), Taz Modi (piano), Gavin Barras (bass), and Luke Flowers (drums). Mr Halsall never fails to impress. This is a tour de force of understated but expressive brass work. Gondwana has all the hallmarks of the spiritual jazz label for the now generation. MATTHEW HALSALL THE GONDWANA ORCHESTRA
 

NAT BIRCHALL QUINTET "LIVE IN LARISSA" DIVINE HARMONY IN DUENDE JAZZ BAR

Nat Birchall is one of the UK’s most special musicians, a spiritual, soulful saxophonist who has drunk deeply from the endless well that is the music of John Coltrane. A modest man, Birchall is happy out of the limelight but nonetheless has found international acclaim for a series of fine albums on Matthew Halsall’s Gondwana label as well as more recently his own Sound Soul and Spirit imprint. This, his sixth album, is his first ever live recording and is released on vinyl and download only. A decision Birchall took on listening to the tapes and thinking the music really suited the warmth of vinyl. It features the core band from his last recording World Without Form: pianist Adam Fairhall, vibist Corey Mwamba, bassist Nick Blacka (GoGo Penguin) and drummer Paul Hession. They all bring something to the music as Birchall explains: “Adam has been in the band since the beginning and he's there because he understands the music and plays with conviction. Corey is in the band because of his unique approach to playing, it doesn't actually matter that he plays vibes. I asked him to play because of his playing, not his instrument. He is a free spirit but knows when to play and when not to play. Nick is a great bassist who has a great ability to improvise strong melodic lines within his accompaniment, which is actually pretty rare. Paul is a very great drummer who can play seamlessly throughout a piece if it goes from "time" to free tempo and back again, and makes it sound natural”. The recording came about when Birchall played two nights at the Duende Jazz Bar in Larissa, Greece in May 2013 – where, despite the tiny stage, the warm welcome and overwhelmingly positive reaction to the music inspired the band to reach deep within themselves for two nights of truly inspired music. Thankfully the tapes were rolling and despite the tiny stage and proximity of the mics (a nightmare for mixing) the music was really happening. As Birchall recalls: “There was such a positive atmosphere at the gigs, with people so obviously coming to hear the music with open arms ( and ears ) that we felt very blessed to be on stage. I think the record documents how the band sounds on a given night, with original songs, and one or two by other people, played in an extended way. With everyone able to stretch out and play as long as they like”. NAT BIRCHALL QUINTET