Chelsea Carmichael - The River Doesn’t Like Strangers '2021

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. Chelsea Carmichael - There Is A Place (Its Not Here)
02. Chelsea Carmichael - All We Know
03. Chelsea Carmichael - Bone And Soil
04. Chelsea Carmichael - Myriad
05. Chelsea Carmichael - There Is You And You
06. Chelsea Carmichael - The Healer
07. Chelsea Carmichael - Noor
08. Chelsea Carmichael - The River Doesnt Like Strangers
09. Chelsea Carmichael - Hiaro/Hadali

[quote]One thing you dont get on The River Doesnt Like Strangers is chorus after
chorus of playing the changes 1950s or 60s style although Chelsea Carmichael can
certainly do this on demand. Nor is there yards of minute improvisation around
routines and familiar jazz licks that you might hear on a hundred records when
players like to pretend they are their heroes and forget to be themselves. What
you do however obtain is pithy statement, a lot of power and direct melodies
that are grounded in an organic rhythmic development. Accessible, they have a
catchy lilt to them but arent so simple that you tire of them either. The
Warrington London-based player heard back in the summer live playing baritone
saxophone with the Nu Civilisation Orchestra, is the first artist on Shabaka
Hutchings label Native Rebel. Players joining the saxist choosing tenor on the
record include Dave Okumu on guitar, Tom Herbert formerly of Polar Bear on bass,
and Eddie Hick from Sons of Kemet with Shabaka producing. Choice Okumu-Herbert
underpinning is significant in the fabric of the infrastructure of the sound in
quite a few places and enhances the rawness that Carmichael especially
cultivates on Noor when the saxist escapes the strictness of some of the
settings on the record. Fractals right at the end is for me the best trip of
all. Okumu is very atmospheric on it and Herberts insistent riffing is
delicious. Carmichael finds a new angle on a melody that twists and turns highly
melodically and morphs instead into an unlikely 21st century jazz lullaby. A
very impressive album and one of the UKs best jazz releases of the year.[/qoute]

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