Polar Bear with Jyager & Matthew Halsall Remixed

First up is Polar Bear with MC Jyager, performing tracks from their recently released album Common Ground. Polar Bear’s Sebastian Rochford, in a quest to explore modern jazz, constructed this latest project from cut-ups taken from their previous album Peepers. Add a pinch of urban MC into the mix and the result is something incredibly avant-garde. 

Jyager MC 

Pete Wareham tenor sax

Shabaka Hutchings tenor sax

Tom Herbert double bass

Leafcutter John electronics/guitar

Seb Rochford drums 

Manchester-based 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. Inspired by the work of The Cinematic Orchestra, Flying Lotus and Matthew Herbert, his latest project Matthew Halsall: Remixed takes Halsall’s own beautiful, modal, often groovin’ jazz originals and treats them as the starting point for some gorgeous, wholly original melodic dance music. Working with turntablist Kristian Gjerstad, they pick out loops, chords and melodic samples, creating beat-driven soundscapes for Halsall and his band to groove over. Halsall: Remixed is funky and new yet inspired by the past. 

‘Kind Of Blue meets The Cinematic Orchestra…With hypnotic grooves, and a meditative slow-build to his solos, Halsall’s music is saturated in a life-affirming glow.’ Time Out 

Matthew Halsall trumpet 

Lisa Mallett flute

Kristian Gjerstad turntables

Rachael Gladwin harp

Taz Modi piano

Clive Hunte bass

Luke Flowers drums

Jamie Finlay vocals