“Contemporary jazz labels don’t come much smarter than the Cardiff-based Edition Records, which in a mere two years has built up an impressively accomplished and varied catalogue of releases”. JAZZWISE

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“A work of classic, tradition-infused acoustic jazz”. JAZZWISE

“Both Iles and Speake are compelling, resourceful soloists, and the Canadian rhythm section display hair-trigger sensitivity throughout a pleasingly varied programme; this is not only yet another excellent album from Edition but also a perfect demonstration of the quiet strength of two of the UK’s most accomplished musicians. Recommended”. VORTEX JAZZ CD REVIEWS

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Martin Speake – alto saxophone
Nikki Iles – piano
Duncan Hopkins – double bass
Anthony Michelli – drums

Track listing:

1. Time to Evolve – Martin Speake
2. Bloor Street – Martin Speake
3. Moonbeam – Nikki Illes
4. Unit Six – Nikki Illes
5. Make Some Memories – Martin Speake
6. Salem House – Nikki Illes
7. Mojive – Duncan Hopkins
8. Changing Tides – Duncan Hopkins
9. Ants – Martin Speake

About the album

“A work of classic, tradition-infused acoustic jazz”. JAZZWISE

“Both Iles and Speake are compelling, resourceful soloists, and the Canadian rhythm section display hair-trigger sensitivity throughout a pleasingly varied programme; this is not only yet another excellent album from Edition but also a perfect demonstration of the quiet strength of two of the UK’s most accomplished musicians. Recommended”. VORTEX JAZZ CD REVIEWS

How do you know the CD you have in your hands is something special?  Maybe, you’ve read a review or two.  Maybe, you know one or two of the musicians.  Frankly, anyone who’s heard of these four guys will know something special would happen when they came together.

Now, put it on the deck.  Two bars in and already you know you’ve hit on something exceptional.  First off, it sounds great – full on, upfront and connects immediately.  Second, this is music of a rare poise and quality.  It flows.  It swings.  Yet, even in its most relaxed moments, a quiet fire smoulders beneath. Third, you start to listen to each musician.  Have you ever heard an alto play such pure and beautiful lines?  Or a piano played with such lyricism?  But more than that when did you last hear a rhythm section so supple, subtle and assured?

From the UK, you have Martin Speake and Nikki Iles, two of our finest improvisers and composers.  Joining them from Canada, Duncan Hopkins and Anthony Michelli are two of North America’s most virtuosic rhythm players.  On their own, each one of these four musicians ranks in world class but as Secret Quartet they become one of the most empathic and musically articulate groups on the planet.

“Bloor Street” is their long-awaited follow-up to “Secret” from 2002.  Dare we say that it is even better?  Somehow, the playing and writing is even more intense and authoritative.  Somehow, the group’s identity is still more clearly defined and more firmly embedded.  This is a record that stands comparison with Martin Speake’s exceptional ECM debut, “Change of Heart”, with Bobo Stenson, Paul Motian and Mick Hutton.

These nine tunes come from the pens of Speake, Iles and Hopkins – three individually distinctive voices with a shared sense of how the Secret Quartet’s music should sound.  There’s the edgy bebop-inspiration of Iles’ ‘Unit Six’ and the angular, abstraction of Speake’s ‘Make Some Memories’ with some fine percussion from Michelli.  There’s Hopkins’ lightly springing, modal ‘Changing Tides’ and Speake’s immediately contemporary and ‘of-the-moment’ title track.

Secret Quartet’s “Bloor Street” is yet another sure-fire winner from Edition Records. It has ‘—classic’ written all over it.

Click here to read bog – http://londonjazz.blogspot.com/2010/02/edition-records.html

Small is not just beautiful, but suddenly everywhere. Edition Records are had an album launch for Dave Stapleton ’s quintet at the Vortex on Wednesday. Their forthcoming release from Tom Cawley gets the front cover of March Jazzwise. And there’s a live recording of Jasper Hoiby ’s trio Phronesis at the Forge venue in Camden next week (above).

The Cardiff-based record label has a clear purpose, to bring music “which deserves to be heard” to a wider audience. Edition was started by successful freelance photographer Tim Dickeson and composer- pianist Dave Stapleton at the end of 2007, and put out its first release in March 2008. Dickeson took a liking to Stapleton’s music, and took the trouble to get to know him. Stapleton needed to move on from a previous collaboration which had run its course, and they partnered up.

Edition supports its artists well. The website has the 18 albums they have produced so far. Also for sale is the sheet music of some of the artists’ tunes, plus other merchandise. There are also a lot of interviews on the site with the musicians talking about the music.

Edition unashamedly promote complex music which they know won’t be for everyone, but they get the tone right. Nobody’s talking down to anybody. I like that. They still have the full-on entrepreneurial energy and passionate commitment of a start-up, e.g. driving straight back to Swindon (Stapleton) and Cardiff (Dickeson) after the Vortex gig. But they’re also realists. They had only just got going when they were caught up in the end-2008 distributor insolvencies. Edition came through with a mild bruise, and recovered quickly.

The partnership between Stapleton who does the A & R, and Dickeson, who does what he describes as “all the crappy bits” (logistics/ finance/ tax…) and all the photography, works well. They currently aim to put out 10-12 CDs a year. They are also looking at a new format “Limited Edition” with a very small production run, for later in the year.The two CDs so far vying to be their best seller so far are Geoff Eales ‘ Master of the Game, and the debut album from Troyka.

I enjoyed dropping in to Dave Stapleton ’s gig. (The link is to a VERY classy clear website) He’s an interesting composer, the moods shift radically but interestingly. I’ve a soft spot for his gentle and lyrical moments. In particular Images, the opening of Dry White – named after bassist Paula Gardiner’s favourite tipple- and Between the Lines, the title track of the new CD, all did it for me.

The front line was Ben Waghorn, an extremely fine and resourceful saxophonist, Jonathan Bruce was lively, and at one point seemed determined to double for Arturo Sandoval and see if the Vortex’s roof might respond. Bassist Paula Gardiner, who also runs the jazz faculty at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, plays clear purposeful lines with blooming tone and real character. Drummer Elliot Bennett, invisible under a cloth cap and behind manuscript paper, never over-balanced.

Now I’m looking forward to going to the live recording by Phronesis at the Forge (above) . See you there.

Led by Copenhagen-born/London-based bassist Jasper Høiby, Phronesis has been one of the most exciting and interesting piano trios to emerge out of the UK Jazz scene in recent years and has been praised for their intense, high-energy originals as well as their infectious and accessible sound.

Their debut album ‘Organic Warfare’, released in 2007 on Loop Records sold more than 12,000 downloads appearing in the iTunes ‘top 100 selling album’s for two months following its release. Their second album, ‘Green Delay’, released in June 2009, confirming their reputation and was awarded with huge critical acclaim from both the national and international press.

We are also extremely excited to announce that US drummer Mark Guiliana, who has been described by Modern Drummer magazine as “at the forefront of an exciting new style of drumming” will be joining Jasper Hoiby and pianist Ivo Neame for the duration of the tour and recording.

Over the last few years Phronesis have wowed audiences throughout the UK and Europe for their intense and inspirational concerts and it is hugely exciting for us, at Edition, to have an opportunity to document this remarkable trio live in concert with such a remarkable band.

”..from a dream to a dance and back again.” **** GUARDIAN

“..beautifully recorded second album.” **** TIMES

“Fans of Avishai Cohen or EST would do well to check this one out.” **** JAZZWISE

”I know I’m going to keep listening.” Bassist/Composer – AVISHAI COHEN

Winner of ‘Best Band’ at the last BBC Jazz Awards, they are a trio in their prime. With several years together and two acclaimed albums under their belt already, they share an empathy and collective insight that makes them one of the most brilliant piano trios in the world. The Other Place marks the next leap forward in a remarkable creative journey that shows no sign of slowing. www.curiosmusic.com

Since releasing their last highly successful album ‘The House Always Wins’, the Dave Stapleton Quintet have wowed audiences throughout the UK and across Europe and have received 4 and 5 star reviews in the France, Germany and in the UK. As compelling and powerful live as they are on record, DSQ launch their third and most anticapted album yet. With the muscular, vital frontline team of trumpeter Jonny Bruce and saxophonist Ben Waghorn and the subtle, vibrating rhythm section of pianist Dave Stapleton, bassist Paula Gardiner and drummer Elliott Bennett. Not to be missed!

“Mutli-layered opus from multi-talented composer / improvisor Ivo Neame. Caught in the Light of Day captures some of the most offbeat and intricate sounds around. Arrangements take unexpoected turns into beautiful absraction and the soloing has a business-as-usual brilliance. These seven originals are so densely packed with good stuff, fresh things unfold with every listen”. MOJO ****

BUY CAUGHT IN THE LIGHT OF DAY FROM EDITION STORE

Read more reviews below:

“I will just say that the band is totally smoking, the music is modern, angular, complex and stunning and the over-all impression is jaw dropping.  I’m really digging this one! If you have a taste for more modern, aggressive and/or artistic approach to jazz, check “Caught in the LIght of Day” out”.  BASS PLAYER MAGAZINE

“Angular lines, unexpected intervals and changes of tempo and mood, all negotiated with a deft fluidity echoed by the playing of this fine young quartet”. IRISH TIMES

“Sounds rather like a slippery, angular, latterday MJQ”. OBSERVER

A showcase for Neame’s blossoming keyboard powers. There are fast postboppers with stop-time variations, meditations turning into arrhythmic Latin grooves, bright melodic fragments dropping into preoccupied rocking vamps and then dreamy contemplation. It’s a set full of edgy and characterful themes, matched by resourceful, conversational improvising”. GUARDIAN ****

“Multi instrumentalist Ivo Neame is fast becoming one of the rising stars of British jazz. Tightly kinit, superbly played music from an increasingly mature musician and composer”. JAZZ MANN ****

“Appealing, fresh and stimulating, courtesy not only of the infectious enthusiasm and commitment of Neame’s band but also of the sheer classiness of his writing for it. Recommended”. VORTEX JAZZ REVIEWS

“Neame’s intricately engaging Caught In The Light Of Day (Edition) is an album of varied, virtuosic musicianship, from the fleet-footed bop of opener Birdbrained, through the dark romanticism of Quixotic, to the dense, angular, Monk-ish descending motifs of closer Pear Shaped”. METRO

“Caught in the Light of Day is a calling card which many listeners will be able to appreciate. Because the quality of the music is that it is not pretentiously innovative, but it’s firmly grounded in the best straight ahead-jazz tradition, and adds elements of contemporary music with discretion. The writing goes beyond traditional song form by using a patchwork quilt of influences. This allows the musicians to play with rhythmic freedom and changeable harmonic structures, allowing the musical flow to unfold smoothly or to twist nervously between sudden swerves and unexpected accelerations. ALL ABOUT JAZZ ITATIA

There’s something splendidly unhip about Neame: he plays complex, intellectual music with unashamedly extended sections of soloing and free blowing. An album of great promise”. JAZZWISE

“From the initial accelerating line that opens the title track, it’s clear that here is a band pushing hard with exacting playing and complex material”. JAZZ BREAKFAST

BUY CAUGHT IN THE LIGHT OF DAY FROM EDITION STORE

We are also offering a special bundle price of all 3 albums for only £19.95 + P and P – CLICK HERE

2010 RELEASES

Release Date: 1st March 2010
Secret Quartet
BLOOR STREET
EDN1019

Release Date: 29th March 2010
Curios
THE OTHER PLACE
EDN1018

Release Date: 26th April 2010
Dave Stapleton Quintet
BETWEEN THE LINES
EDN1017