Folk Jazz

Folk rock is a now long established genre but this may be the first and only venture into the field of folk jazz. Especially comissioned by the Bath Festival, this occasional combo calling themselves Northern Lights is based around trombonist Annie Whitehead and Geordie concertina wiz Alistair Anderson. The album is called Airplay and the material is all written by either Whitehead or Anderson. They also recruited Scottish violinist Chris Stout to share soloing duties and the solid rhythm section of Ian Maidman on guitar and Liam Genockey drums provides the requisite base for the music. The whole album has a feelgood feel, much of it is decidedly danceable but the musicianship involved makes it much more than disk to leap around to. The trombone provides the jazz feel and the concertina and violin are rooted in folk but both camps manage to crossover effortlessly and when listening there is no thought that it is an awkward fit or at all experimental. Everything seems a natural fit. This project is now four or five years old and I haven't heard of any follow up. Maybe it is something that functions best as a one off and Anderson, Whitehead and Stout certainly have various things keeping them busy. But it is a fine disk to have left as a legacy.