Chelsea Carmichael – The River Doesn’t Like Strangers (2021) [FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

Saxophonist Chelsea Carmichael today announces her debut album, The River Doesn’t Like Strangers (out October 22nd)as the debut signing to Shabaka Hutchings’ (The Comet Is Coming, Sons of Kemet, Shabaka and the Ancestors)new label Native Rebel Recordings. Today, the second offering from the forthcoming release arrives in the form of the tantalising ‘There Is You and You’– the perfect follow up to her explosive debut track, ‘Myriad’.“The name of this track is a reference to the idea that we each experience the world from the perspective of ourselves at the centre first before anyone or anything else,” Chelsea reflected on ‘There Is You and You’. “How you choose to move/interact with the world from that starting point is up to you.”Engineered at London’s iconic RAK studios by Will Purton and recorded with Eddie Hick (Sons of Kemet), Dave Okumu (The Invisible) and Tom Herbert (The Invisible; Polar Bear),The River Doesn’t Like Strangers from start to finish is jazz mastery at its finest. The title track was inspired by the words of Chelsea’s dad on the Rio Grande in Jamaica: the river that goes through the centre of his home village of Grants Level, in the parish of Portland.The intertwining of skilled players invokes the movement of the Rio Grande throughout. Playful, unpredictable and masterful, it’s simply a sublime record. Album highlights include the pensive and beautifully expansive ‘Bone And Soil’, the mythical ‘Myriad’and the transcendental ‘All We Know’.“I feel that the way that I play on this record draws inspiration from the lineage of black music making and the Caribbean Diasporas,” Chelsea said of the album. “It only felt right to reference my own lineage, and what has always been inside me even before a saxophone was put in my hands.”Originally from Warrington, Chelsea is a Conservatoire-trained musician who has already been part of a Mercury-nominated band – she played on SEED Ensemble’s 2019 Driftglass – and currently plays with Theon Cross, the Neue Grafik Ensembleand arranges for her own Chelsea Carmichael Ensemble. Following a performance together in May 2019 at the Total Refreshment Centre-affiliated Church of Sound with South African band The Brother Moves, Shabaka noted Chelsea’s potential and invited her to record the first release on the new label.Chelsea Carmichael is an undeniably exciting talent.

Her debut album was not released until October 2021, but Chelsea Carmichael has been a fixture on the buzzing London jazz scene for some time. As a member of the SEED Ensemble or as a sidewoman for Theon Cross, Joe Armon-Jones, the Outlook Orchestra and the Neue Grafik Ensemble, the saxophonist, who was born in Warrington (between Liverpool and Manchester) and has been living in London since her studies at Trinity Conservatory, has already made her mighty breath felt. It’s a warm rumble inspired somewhat by Shabaka Hutchings, which is understandable given that the older saxophonist, the godfather of this English scene is the producer on The River Doesn’t Like Strangers and has released it on his own label, Native Rebel!

Chelsea Carmichael belongs to this family of artists who connect their jazz to the music of the Caribbean diaspora, not hesitating to look towards the African continent. Together with guitarist David Okumu, bassist Tom Herbert and drummer Edward Wakili-Hick, she focuses on emphasising the contours of her compositions, which are always rooted in real melodies. This is one of the great strengths of the record: never letting the improvisations drown out the melodies, even when the piece has a trance-like feel (Myriad), when it goes in for repetitive meditation (Bone And Soil) or when it revolves around percussion (There Is You And You). In short, a real revelation. – Marc Zisman

Tracklist:
1. Chelsea Carmichael – There Is A Place (It’s Not Here)
2. Chelsea Carmichael – All We Know
3. Chelsea Carmichael – Bone And Soil
4. Chelsea Carmichael – Myriad
5. Chelsea Carmichael – There Is You And You
6. Chelsea Carmichael – The Healer
7. Chelsea Carmichael – Noor
8. Chelsea Carmichael – The River Doesn’t Like Strangers
9. Chelsea Carmichael – Hiaro/Hadali

Download:

mqs.link_ChelseaCarmichaelTheRiverD0esntLikeStrangers202124441.rar