SONG OF THE DAY Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra – Badder Weather

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Matthew Halsall is a highly acclaimed DJ, band leader, composer and Trumpeter who’s mix of soulful, spiritual jazz has attracted worldwide attention.

After discovering and featuring the music of Matthew Halsall back in September , I’ve been looking forward to the release of his latest album.  Together, with the marvelous Gondwana Orchestra, ‘Into Forever’ was released yesterday so I immediately gave it a listen and bought the album, it is simply sublime.

The Manchester based musician is one of the UK’s brightest talents and his beautiful, expressive tone 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.

Also featuring on the album is fellow Manchester-based singer-songwriter Josephine Oniyama , whose soulful vocals provide a powerful contrast to the soothing mellow-tones of the instrumental tracks, it’s a perfectly balanced combination and each entity finely complements the other.  The album offers a keen sense of space and escape with its percussive exploration and rich jazz tones weaving their rich textures throughout.

With a whole album of great music jumping out at me it was tricky choosing one song to feature but ‘Badder Weather’ definitely stood out with its smooth jazzy tones coupled with the warm melodic vocals of Josephine Oniyama.   .

‘Into Forever’ is due out now on the Gondwana label.