the heritage orchestra - the 1890 affair

this is a suite from an album i picked up a long time ago and while i sort of had a hunch of what it was. i was however not listening to gilles petersons radio at the time so i didn't have the full picture. i had gathered that the heritage orchestra was a contemporary jazz ordeal that worked as a rather big band and drawing influences from the west london club music and classical music.

the selftitled lp comes with six compositions and is a well done album that starts off with a slower funk number that is greeting you with a shower of strings and horns but then goes into shuffling drums. it gives you a great idea of what the lp will being to the table along with two vocal numbers and some nice funky uptempo regions as well.

topping the whole thing off is this suite, "the 1890 affair", that comes in three pieces and was written by bandleader jules buckley. it starts of with a mighty bang which sets it apart from the previous ones which goes a bit slower and it has this string ostinato which has you hooked. the first part of the suite for some reason got me thinking of adam f's "circles" because of it's chords and bassline.

the full twelve minutes of the composition goes through a variety of modes and shifting tempo and it's reflective when it goes into the second movement. here it leaves the drum & bass flirt and goes into swanky jazz as you hear this heavy tenor saxophone solo by tom challenger with some subtle wahwah guitar backing it up. all the sounds surrounding the sax has a more chaotic feel but it feels coherent as the upright bass gets to be the grounding part.

it eventually goes back into double time again with guitars, horns and strings all building up this crescendo that is the payoff for this string part that brings in the final movement. here the regular drums are left behind for congas and percussion that plays the rest. the strings play in halftime while the bass plays in full time. as it all winds down an electric bass gets it's shine along with a piano and it ends beautifully.

buy here (7digital)