The Nat Birchall Quartet ‎– The Storyteller - A Musical Tribute To Yusef Lateef

One year and a half after the Sufi-inspired Cosmic Language, Nat Birchall comes back with a tribute to Yusef Lateef, in which apart from interpreting several songs of the legend ("Ching Miau," "Love Theme From Spartacus," Morning," "Ringo Owiake," he writes a few originals dedicated to his musical approach. As with with Birchall, you can expect the best spiritual/deep/modal jazz, but here he has yet again reached new dimension, with more blues and ballad in his repertoire, plus incorporating a few African instruments such as balafon and mbira. 2019 cd on Jazzman.

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Nat Birchall - Cosmic Language

In his new album, Nat Birchall presents his more experimental and tonal side. The tracks are epic spiritual jazz jams, showcasing a more peaceful and restrained mood than in the more energetic Creation, with the exception of the cataclysmic final track "Dervish." His pianist Adam Fairhall abandons the piano and plays harmonium throughout, which provides the album with a droney sound as well as a likeness to Qawwali music, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan-style. Birchall's sax playing is also on top of the game, playing beautiful touching lines. Truly devotional jazz music by some of the greatest musicians in recent years. 2018 cd on Jazzman Records.

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Nat Birchall - 4 albums (The Sixth Sense, World Without Form, Invocations, Creation)

Nat Birchall is a tenor and soprano sax player from Manchester who plays amazing soulful jazz in the direction of Pharoah Sanders, John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane. He as also played in albums by fellow Mancunian trumpet player Matthew Halsall, owner of Gondwana Records, on which he has released two albums. Below are four of Nat's albums.

Nat Birchall - The Sixth Sense
 

This 1999, much underrated debut album is less immersed in spirituality and possesses a stronger hard-bop sound and contains a cover of McCoy Tyner's "Passion Dance." 1999 cd on Sixth Sense.

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Nat Birchall - World Without Form

 

 

This is his fifth album, and having heard the previous two, Akhenaten and Sacred Dimension, I think this is the one where he moves toward spirituality and sky-reaching majesty, whereas the aforementioned albums were still in a Coltraney My Favorite Things vein before he himself went up in the sky with Ascension. Contains the amazing piano playing of Adam Fairhall and the supreme ballad "Dream of Eden." 2012 cd on Sound Soul And Spirit.


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Nat Birchall - Invocations



 


This is even deeper and more soulful, while also being more free-form. Includes a cover of Coltrane's "To Be." Highly recommended shit. 2015 cd on Jazzman.

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Nat Birchall - Creation



His latest album has an amazing sense of uplifting, liveliness and intensity not found so much in his earlier stuff, and this is certainly influenced by the inclusion of two drummers. Whereas the cosmic vibe - central in all albums - up to this point was more reliant on atmosphere, here it reaches another level accentuated by the energy of the players, who are constantly sprouting colors and ideas.

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