LEIGH BARKER’S NEW ALBUM LAUNCH: ‘FLOW LIKE WINE’ at BENNETTS LANE JAZZ CLUB, SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15th 2014
Leigh Barker and his six-piece group, for the last five years touring under the moniker ‘The New Sheiks’ (anti-terror legislation aside….) but now equally well known as the musical half of the innovative dance company the ‘Melbourne Rhythm Project’, continue to build on their reputation as one of the most engaging, entertaining and hard-swinging groups currently performing in the Australian Jazz Scene.
November 15th 2014 will see the launch of Barker’s seventh full length release; a CD and digital album titled ‘Flow Like Wine’. Drawn from several studio sources and live sessions during the band’s 2012 and 2013 touring schedule, the album features guest appearances by triple Bell Award winning saxophonist Julien Wilson, piano genius Steve Grant and to top it all off was mastered in New York by the great Rob ‘Wacko’ Hunter, full time sound engineer for all of Branford Marsalis’ various projects. Combined with the regular members Heather Stewart
on violin and vocals, Eamon McNelis trumpet, Matt Boden piano, Don Stewart trombone and Sam Young on the drums, this may just be Barker’s most cohesive release to date.
The following excerpt from the album liner notes, written by dancer, DJ and blogger Sam Carroll, best sums up what this great new Jazz album is really all about:
“I come at music as a jazz dancer. And jazz dance is a response to jazz and blues music. It is about the excitement and euphoria of hot jazz and swing, the energy of high tempos and bright emotion. But it is also about the shared moment of a sustained note, the spaces between counts, and the connections between people. In these recordings the musicians leave each other space and time to get their jobs done…….. this is exactly what I want to hear: there is nothing cool about rushing, and jazz is all about being fashionably late to a party. Then spending most of the night in the kitchen eating and telling dirty jokes….. the thing that I like about this album is that it begins in a very traditional blues realm of the senses, then charts a trajectory from the 1920s to the modern moment. Ending with a live recording seems most appropriate: this is old art, but it still has use and meaning and value in the current moment. This album is not only something to sit and listen to, and think about. It is, more importantly, something with practical, physical use value. There’s music here that makes for very good dancing. It makes you want to get up, to let your backbone slip, and to stop thinking.”
MORE INFORMATION
info@barkingmadmusic.net
www.leighbarker.com
http://www.bennettslane.com/gigs.php?eID=1412
