Video of the Day: saxophonist Alex Western-King shares new album title track 'SideSlip'

SideSlip is saxophonist Alex Western-King’s debut album and features leading British musicians pianist Sam Leak, bassist Johnny Wickham and drummer Jay Davis as well as trumpeter James Copus on the title track. “This album is a meeting point between my love of straight-ahead bebop and the chaos and fragility of free jazz,” says Western-King. “There is a magical moment in which musicians sit perfectly on that line between Jazz and free improvisation.”

Two of Western-King’s seven compositions will be released ahead of the album – the title track and ‘Disorder Reordered’. The album’s title track takes its name from the way the tune moves in and out of different key centres and draws significant inspiration from Thelonious Monk’s ‘Epistrophy’. “I have always admired the playfulness of Monk’s angular melodies and how rhythm section players interact with them, and that was something I tried to capture in this tune.”

With ‘Disorder Reordered’ Western-King wanted to write a tune that captures the moment in which the music enters no-man’s land and the excitement this creates. “I first discovered my love of this musical balance listening to John Coltrane’s Transition, an album that creates an energy that I believe cannot be practised or transcribed,” explains Western-King. “I wanted to create a space in ‘Disorder Reordered’ in which my band felt that they could improvise without restriction whilst still clinging onto the sense of form and functionality found within Jazz.” 

Watch the video below and for more info visit www.alexwesternking.com/