“I think a lot people find jazz intimidating and inaccessible and this hasn't been helped by certain musicians trying to rarify jazz, canonize it, and turn it in to high culture. Before jazz was a technical music it was an emotional music. For me then the challenge isn't about making jazz music relevant it's just making relevant music. Music with emotion that speaks honestly to the listener will always be relevant." --Benedic Lamdin, Nostalgia 77.The band won the “Jazz Album of the Year" award from BBC Radio 1 in 2006 and were also nominated for last years “John Peel Play More Jazz" award. UK-based Fat City Records have said that Nostalgia 77 is “keeping jazz music both current and relevant." Their cover of The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army" was used extensively throughout coverage of the World Cup this past summer. It would appear that once again jazz, at least of the Nostalgia 77 flavor, is not dead.
On Everything Under The Sun Lamdin, the driving force behind Nostalgia 77, teams up with vocalists to create a beautiful cosmic-tinged jazz album that sounds as much classic, spiritual, Impulse-influenced music as it does Cinematic Orchestra and Koop. “It's music with roots in jazz but with hands reaching out to anyone who wants to take them... Imagine if Portishead did a jazz record?", says Lamdin.
Over the course of a couple of years Lamdin has released four albums (and multiple singles) that were mostly instrumental in nature. This predominantly vocal album changes the formula. Gilles Peterson immediately picked out “Wildflower" as a favorite cut, stating that Nostalgia 77 and Lizzy Parks were “2 of my favorite acts of 2006 teaming up." Vocalist Beth Rowley hails from Bristol and at an impromptu audition Lamdic says he knew that she was right for the project just one verse in.
“I had some ideas that had been guiding the music that I thought would be good to express lyrically," Lamdin explains. “Writing lyrics was a bit nervy, but once I got into it I really started enjoying myself. Writing songs it a very different skill, but I think I got to grips with it on this record," he adds.
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| Dreamers Dance Nostalgia 77 From Everything Under The Sun 5:54 |
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