COMPOSERS: Ben Lamdin
LABELS: TruThoughts
ALBUM TITLE: Nostalgia 77
PERFORMER: The Nostalgia 77 Octet: Lizzy Parks, Beth Rowley (vocals), Riaan Vosloo (bass), Graham Fox (drums), Ross Stanley (keyboards), Trevor Mires (trombone), Jonny Spall (saxophone), Tom Allan (trumpet), Milo Fell (percussion)
CATALOGUE NO: TRUCD123
Brighton-based producer/composer Ben Lamdin is a leading light in the nu-jazz movement. Uniquely, you can book him as a DJ or as leader of a big band.
His Nostalgia 77 roadshow built up a cult following on the UK club scene for its distinctive brand of fashionable dance music. But this new release sees Lamdin take a step further into a hippyish sort of place where the emphasis is on the atmosphere, rather than the action.
Wispy, wafty vocals from Parks and Rowley conjure up a sultry summer-of-love style soundtrack, moved along sensuously by Vosloo and Fox’s slow burning rhythms. Lamdin himself imagines the album as a Mingus-meets-Portishead project.
And it is the sort of chic crossover music the Atlantic label might have put out in the 1960s, with its swirling keyboards adding to the flower power. Blissful. Garry Booth