Tommy Smith: SoLow

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Tommy Smith (ts)

Label:

Spartacus

May/2021

Media Format:

DL

Catalogue Number:

Records/Bandcamp

RecordDate:

Rec. date not stated

Another example of Tommy Smith at the top of his game. Described by Smith as “five short solo saxophone tracks that are slightly different from anything you've heard before”, they are directly inspired by experiencing and listening to Psalm singing on the Isle of Lewis, in the Scottish Hebrides, where Smith spends Easter each year. Psalm singing is a tradition of psalmody in the Gaelic language found in Presbyterian churches in the Western Isles of Scotland and is a form of Gaelic music. Reimagined by Smith, the choir-like effect is evoked by multi tracked saxes with Smith's lone voice communing in call-and-response-like episodes that conjure out of the mists the hazy outline of Jan Garbarek. This is haunting, beautiful stuff.

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