Bloor Street
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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
“The collective spirit of the Secret Quartet is seamless and sublime… The quality of the compositions, the incisiveness of the soloing and the collective spirit of the enterprise make this a better album than its predecessor” GUARDIAN****
“It has been almost a decade since the Secret Quartet made their first recording, but they have reconvened in glorious fashion on this intelligent, beautifully crafted follow-up. Speake’s purity of tone and fertile invention on alto is a constant pleasure, and Iles is equally resourceful in her lyrical but tough-minded explorations at the keyboard” SCOTSMAN ****
“Nine originals with an undeniable warmth and quality from four much respected jazz musicians”. DRUMMER MAGAZINE****
“Combines character and complexity with a natural, distinctive flow, to which the quartet responds in like manner” IRISH TIMES ****
“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
ABOUT THE ALBUM
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.
Press Quotes for their first album ‘Secrets’:
“This is jazz-jazz, not fusion, and there’s no electronic enhancement, unless you count microphones. But it’s acoustic quartet playing a very long way up the league” GUARDIAN
“Intelligent but highly approachable small-band music.” OBSERVER
BLOOR STREET IS OUT NOW
