Soul Piece A Plane To Catch

• 1 Bamako Convention Center 04:47
• 2 Corny Big 04:58
• 3 Mr. Well Dressed 04:24
• 4 At Least The Sky Is Blue 06:33
• 5 Le Chief 04:16
• 6 Slippin' Jimmy 03:26
• 7 Soul Piece 05:23
• 8 Vernel 03:43
• 9 Kahn Abyss 04:56
• Total Runtime 42:26

Info for Soul Piece

Bonded over a mutual love for Motown, Soul, Afrobeat and improvisation, Denmark’s renowned outlet for jazz, April Records, proudly presents the sophomore release from ‘A Plane To Catch’. Following a busy summer of festival performances across Denmark and extensive national radio play, ‘Soul Piece’, is set to release on October 11th.

Founded in the stillness of 2020 when a group of tight-knit up and coming musicians were robbed of their livelihood and greatest joy - live performance - the group came together in a graffiti smudged artist’s space in an old industrial facility in Copenhagen’s outskirts and created a space for themselves to improvise in a funky, groove based setting.

A followup to their 2023 debut ‘Moko Jumbie’ which explored the rich culture of West African music popularised by Mulatu Asastke and Fela Kuti, as the name suggests, ‘Soul Piece’ leans further into the tropes, grooves and idioms of Western 60’s Soul and Funk.

Recorded live over two days at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, the album’s raw, warm production captures the energy, intimacy and excitement of a live performance, transporting the listener right in the centre of a pulsating dancefloor.

Each song is rooted in groove and exemplary band musicianship, and made up of every stylistic feature one might crave from the genre: crunchy rhodes tones, percussive clavinets, thick organ textures, grooving tambourines, searing guitar solos, deep pocket drum grooves, infectious basslines, punchy horn backings and James Brown-esque stabs.

Self described as the ‘young lions’ of the Danish jazz scene, each member of the six piece is an active contributor to the country’s diverse musical output; Nørregaard, Langebæk & Besiakov can be heard performing regularly in the Fela Kuti saluting Black Money Orchestra and Bæst, Eskildsen with the Addis Ababa Band, and Thofte & Toftemark each leading their own projects in contemporary hard-hop to name but a few of their many ventures.

Rolf Thofte, trumpet
Andreas Toftemark, saxophone
Mads Nørgaard, guitar
Simon Eskildsen, keyboards
Anton Langebæk, bass
David Besiakov, drums, percussion

Recorded March 14th–15th, 2024 live at The Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen, Denmark
Recorded by Federico Mattioli
Mixed by Federico Mattioli
Mastered by Brian Mørk Hansen

A Plane To Catch
The vibrant Danish jazz scene came to a crashing halt along with the rest of the world in early 2020, and a tight-knit community of up-and-coming musicians were thrust into a void, robbed of the largest part of their livelihood and joy, live performance.

Gathering in a graffiti-smudged artist’s space in an old industrial facility in Copenhagen’s outskirts, they created a space for themselves to improvise in a funky, groove-based setting..

What came out was an expression of longing for all that was lost during the pandemic – a musical antidote to the loss of fun, joy, community, movement, travel and youthful abandon that the pandemic had temporarily put a halt to.

Exploring the rich exchange between West African musical traditions and Western funk and soul, this is music meant for dancing, transporting the listener to dance floors both real and imagined. Featuring warm, raw production the record creates a real sense of energy and intimacy, as if the listener is in a dark club with an electric jam band.

Through the eight compositions the quintet joyfully navigates familiar harmonic clichés from 70’s soul tunes, a variety of infectious toe-tapping grooves, playful improvisations and melodic duo horn arranging. Explorations of darker tonalites popularised by Ethio-Jazz legend Mulatu Astatke provide a welcome departure through harmonic contrast and propulsive polyrhythmic groove.

This album contains no booklet.