Notes
by Nathan Haines
It’s a little disconcerting to consider Auckland multi-instrumentalist/composer Nathan Haines released his groundbreaking debut Shift Left almost 30 years ago.
And that Haines – then in the vanguard of a new generation of jazz players and listeners comfortable with rap, remixes and scratching – is now in his early 50s.
Although he has sometimes returned to acoustic jazz – The Poet’s Embrace (2012) and Vermillion Skies (2013) whose album covers evoked early 1960s Blue Note artwork – Haines remains an exploratory musician collaborating with international producers, remixers and vocalists for music aimed at the chill-out room and club as much as the jazz audience.
This new album in an arrestingly simple cover sometimes harks back to the winning formula of Squire for Hire (2003) in its merging of contemporary soulful R’n’B vocalists (Britain’s Vanessa Freeman on the rolling boil of Brother of Mine with the late Phil Asher on drums, Samoan/Māori singer La Coco on the sensual Come into the Light) and rap (Eo on the snappy, string-embellished Just Holdin’ On with Haines’ father, Kevin, on double bass).
On Love You More, Haines and Michal Martyniuk lay down a moody, repeated synth and keyboard groove under the leader’s soprano sax; there’s retro disco (Don’t Think) and singer Ruby Cesan on the understated, simmering disco-funk of Night Moves featuring some of Haines’s most intricate soprano work.
There’s an impressive cast: dextrous singer Rachel Clark on a vocal setting of Stanley Turrentine’s slinky 1970s tune Storm, and with pianist/bassist and string arranger Jonathan Crayford on the exotic Brazilian warmth of Belo Dia with Haines on flute; singer Arjuna Oakes and keyboard player Mark de Clive-Lowe on Give Thanks …
However, after a promisingly assertive opening, Sleek doesn’t venture far from the core idea, and Running Man sounds like incidental music from a Miami-based movie.
A standout is Journey to the Peak, co-written with Rhodes piano player Martyniuk. After some cinematic scene-setting, it morphs into a cruisy throwback to 1980s Californian synth-jazz before tightening as Haines’s increasingly energised tenor sax finds a post-bop edge, his old-school muscles stretching.
Mostly, though, Haines here looks to his clubland crossover journey and 1980s influences.
After undergoing treatment for throat cancer six years ago, his brush with death is summoned in the engrossing autobiographical title track at the end – with tabla by Manjit Singh and guitar from brother Joel Haines – where, in a sandpaper whisper, he sings, “I made some bad decisions … you never know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”
September Night
by Tomasz Stanko Quartet
Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stańko (who died in 2018, age 76) was one of the great innovators in post-war European jazz. Here, on a previously unreleased 2004 live recording with his long-time quartet, they were just a year away from their classic Lontano album.
This is sophisticated, but also robust, jazz at the interface of fragile melodic playing and free improvisation, in places lifting off from mid-60s Miles Davis lyricism into dynamic, adventurous territory. An impressive and unexpected bonus from his finest creative period. l
These albums are available digitally (Notes with a bonus track), on CD and vinyl.
