Drawing on his vast experience of music both Western and Middle Eastern, saxophonist/flautist Chip Wickham creates a sound world that is powerful, moving and thoroughly original with his new album, Cloud 10. With this latest work, Wickham takes things to another level as he fuses strands of spiritual jazz and worldly melodies into his own unique musical language to great effect. The result is an exhilarating album of passionate playing that will lift your spirits like few others do these days.
Throughout the album’s eight tracks, Wickham weaves his own individual path through the colorful and multicultural tapestry of modern jazz with hints of the work of spiritual jazz masters (Yusef Lateef instantly comes to mind), exploring connections between sounds of the past and present to create an album that is timelessly beautiful: a truly original listening experience.
The album sees Wickham taking his sound to the next level with an excellent collection of musicians – Phil Wilkinson (piano), Ton Risco (vibes), Sneaky (bass), Jon Scott and Jack McCarthy (drums), Amanda Whiting (harp) and Eoin Grace who (trumpet and flugel horn). With his flowing rhythm-section and heart-felt, soulful playing from the other backing members, Wickham provides a blissful twist on jazz and spiritual music rarely heard in the world of jazz today. Chip’s unique and talented playing, accompanied by a line up of some of the best musicians in the UK, have created an exciting, energetic album – each song emotional, thought-provoking, spiritual and uplifting.
The beauty and eloquence of Wickham’s playing on this EP is almost as impressive as his talent for composition. The music world has long been accustomed to a series of albums by Wickham that are packed full of burning ballads, soulful pieces and inspirational melodies – but this one is going to be hard to beat
Listen on Apple Music
Listen/Buy on Bandcamp
Listen on Spotify
