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ACOUSTIC ALCHEMY from England
With
the release of This Way, Acoustic Alchemy's first album under
Higher Octave/Narada Jazz's association with Blue Note Records,
guitarists Greg Carmichael and Miles Gilderdale celebrate a remarkable
two decades since 1987's Red Dust and Spanish Lace established
the British ensemble as an ever evolving, powerhouse force in
contemporary jazz.
Their thousands of fans around
the world may be feeling nostalgic, but the duo—while keeping
their trademark acoustic guitar synergy front and center—Is
clearly committed to forging ahead, following the laid back pop-soul
vibe of American/English (2005) with their most aggressive and
swinging, hard rocking and artfully jazzy disc to date. Complementing
performances by familiar Acoustic Alchemy recording and touring
members Terry Disley (piano), Snake Davis (sax), Fred White (keyboards
and trumpet), Julian Crampton (bass) and Greg Grainger (drums)
are special guest appearances by smooth jazz stars, trumpeter
Rick Braun, saxman Jeff Kashiwa (who has toured with the band
and appeared on 2001's Aart ) and keyboardist Neil Cowley, a
member of jazz groove band (and Narada Jazz/Blue Note labelmates)
Down To The Bone.
While Carmichael and Gilderdale
composed the majority of the songs and produced several tracks
at Gilderdale's home facility 9 Miles High Studio in York, England,
others were produced at various studios on Carmichael's home
turf of London and at Hansa House Studios in Bonn, Germany, where
many of the band's classics were recorded, produced and mixed
over the years by longtime associate Klaus Genuit. In addition
to Genuit's three tracks, This Way includes six others produced
and engineered by Richard Bull, who began working with AA on
2000's The Beautiful Game . Two tracks, the trippy and sensual
“Out of Nowhere” and the snappy, neo-soul driven “Now
I'm On My Way” were mixed by legendary mixer Steve Hodge
(Usher, Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige).
Carmichael explains the very
loose and spirited feeling of This Way as the result of a natural
chemistry he's developed with Gilderdale over the years since
Gilderdale—formerly a backing guitarist with the band—became
Carmichael's full partner after the passing of founding member
Nick Webb in 1998 and the release that year of Positive Thinking.
“What I love about This
Way is that it's got so much more playing on it than we've done
before,” he says, “a lot more soloing and a really
relaxed and organic vibe. I think this is less by design and
more due to the fact that Miles and I are great friends who are
very comfortable and laugh a lot together. When we got together
at his place, either one of us would come up with a starting
idea and we'd just let it grow naturally, then refine it and
change it until we had a great song,” When I think of tracks
like ‘Egg,' which has a very British, straight ahead sound,
I realize that this is really the jazziest record we've ever
made, less pop jazz and with more extended solo sections. Our
fans might be surprised to hear Miles play so much electric guitar,
but in essence, that's what he is by trade and what his focus
was before he joined me as a partner on The Beautiful Game. So
this album is the best of everything, not just my way, not just
his way, but This Way .”
As if giving the listener
some cool chill time before the wild adventure ahead, This Way's
first track “Love Is All There Is” kicks the album
off in a distinctively mellow and dreamy, old school soul way,
but with a very edgy electric guitar/horn hook swirled by passionate
backing vocals and a hypnotic synth sitar. Bringing back a taste
of the reggae flavor of the AA classic “Jamaica Heartbeat”
(from 1991's Back On The Case), AA stirs up a lively and exotic
Latin jazz vibe—complete with a fiery solos by Terry Disley,
Jeff Kashiwa and trombonist Dennis Rollins—on “Ernie,”
which is dedicated to Gilderdale's hero, Jamaican guitar legend
Ernest Ranglin. Jazzy brass accents courtesy of Fred White and
trumpeter/flugelhornist Kevin Robinson (who solos) also play
an integral part on the easy rolling funk of “Who Knows.”
True to its title, “Slampop” is a raucous, thumping
rock jam that pits Carmichael's spirited acoustic melody over
Gilderdale's blistering electric axe.
The playful gear shifting
continues with the following cuts, “Out Of Nowhere”
and “This Way,” which are the only two tracks to feature
only Carmichael and Gilderdale. The sparsely arranged “Out
Of Nowhere” features a hypnotic, swaying acoustic melody
over a gentle guitar harmony and light percussion line. The cool
down continues on the slow burning, ambient title track, whose
experimental synth textures take AA back to the days in the late
80s when some categorized their music as “new age.”
The jazz and groove pick up from there, beginning with the hip,
cool cat urban jazz explosion “Tied Up With String,”
a fiercely percussive, swinging affair that launches with drummer
Bert Smaak's intense hi-hatting. “Only In My Dreams”
is the perfect blend of today's shuffling hip-hop, easy old school
funk and the sitar-spiced Eastern rock that Carmichael and Gilderdale
grew up with.
Anyone who ever hesitated
to call Acoustic Alchemy “jazz” will rethink their
stance after hearing the crunchy rock, Latin and blues hybrid
“Carlos The King” (featuring Gilderdale's crackling
electric guitar, Greg Grainger's wild percussion and a powerful
flugelhorn improvisation by Rick Braun) and the festive,blues-drenched
fusion party “Egg.” On this fascinating tune, the buoyant
AA guitars blend seamlessly with Snake Davis' baritone sax and
Neil Cowley contributes an organ solo straight out of jazz fusion's
mid-70s heyday.
Acoustic Alchemy's rich legacy
is based on the extraordinary airplay, sales and critical reception
given the many early Nick Webb-Greg Carmichael led recordings
followed by those helmed later by Carmichael and Gilderdale.
Carmichael with each successive recording is carrying on a legacy
begun by Webb and a guitarist named Simon James in the early
80s; those early recordings were collected for the 1992 collection
Early Alchemy .
The road to instrumental
stardom began when Webb and Carmichael provided the one-off-in-flight
entertainment for a Virgin Airlines England to America flight,
in search of an elusive recording contract; they often liked
to say they “played their way to America”. Signed to
the MCA Master Series label by Tony Brown, their popularity took
off in conjunction with the rise of the New Adult Contemporary
radio format.
Acoustic Alchemy's early
MCA albums—starting with Red Dust and Spanish Lace and continuing
with 1988's Natural Elements and 1989's Blue Chip —were
all later re-released on GRP. One of the band's most remarkable
recordings was 1996's live in the studio date Arcanum, which
featured new arrangements of classics, a few new tracks, and
full orchestration. Recorded over three days at Pinewood Film
Studios in England (home to all the James Bond films), the sessions
were filmed by director Aubrey Powell for a television documentary
of the band, released on video as Best Kept Secret ; GRP re-released
this on DVD in July 2006 with extra archived live performance
and documentary footage. In 2002, Acoustic Alchemy also released
Sounds of St. Lucia , a CD/DVD live concert package based on
a performance recorded by BET television.
“The band has been through
a lot of changes over the years, but the concept of two acoustic
guitars has always been the emotional centerpiece which draws
people close,” says Carmichael. “I'm happy these days
because I love all the musicians in the band and it's great touring
with them and playing live onstage. For me, whether we're jamming
or stopping for gas at a truck stop, it's honestly like being
on vacation, and we're excited to have so many loyal fans who
have enjoyed taking the journey with us. The positive spirit
behind our music and album titles comes from the wonderful relationship
we have always had with them.”
More about Acoustic
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