Matthew Halsall - On The Go [2011]

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 previous albums 'Sending My Love' and 'Colour Yes' released on his own Gondwana label have won him a legion of fans across the world and acclaim from the likes of Gilles Peterson and Radio 3's Late Junction, MOJO, BBC Music Magazine and even BBC 6 Music.

His third album 'On The Go' is a heartfelt love letter to the jazz of the late '50s and early '60s. Inspired by the evocative sounds of Miles Davis' soundtrack to the Louis Malle film 'Lift To The Scaffold' and the legendary early '60s recordings of Art Blakey and Max Roach the album is nostalgic but always soulful. However, while Halsall's elegiac music is imbued with a sense of history, the young trumpeter and DJ nevertheless brings a contemporary bounce to his music ensuring that his music breathes with a personality all it's own.

The album opens with 'Music For A Dancing Mind', the most obvious nod to the work of Blakey and Roach. The beautiful 'Song For Charlie' is named for Halsall's grandfather, a key inspiration in his life. Dukkha is a Buddhist term roughly translating to suffering so the title 'The End Of Dukkha' is self-explanatory and 'Samatha', another Buddhist term, means calm, a perfect title for this elegant tune. 'The Journey Home' came to Halsall on the train back to Manchester from London and captures that happy feeling of return.