Socially conscious free-jazz big band, comprising some of the finest improvisers from the North West. I had the pleasure of recording material resulting in two albums, Running on Empty, and Unicornucopia. Director Shaun Blezard writes on that marathon session featuring more than ten musicians:
The session was booked over a 12 hour period so players could come and go, which added a nice dimension to the session. I’d forgotten how long it can take to set these things up, so we only had Dave on double bass for a couple of runs at recording, but the boy done good!! And we had a triple tenor sax section. That is an awful lot of saxophone.
The session was added to by the arrival of poet Sarah Miller who had written some words on the way over about community, the disposed and austerity. This added an awful power to the room, and she continued to add to this vibe with a little direction to come up with the lathe cut track Battle Bus.
Many thanks to Manoli and the University of Salford for having us, was a real help to getting the album made. We got 2 hours worth of recordings done and they are sounding great. Manoli did an excellent job of engineering for us. A very happy first days recording indeed.