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Chip Wickham: Cloud 10

By Peter Jones
November 13, 2022
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Is it OK for music to be background? In other words, does all music have to be listened to with the same degree of concentration and freedom from distraction? It may be a moot question in these greatly distracted times. Here's another, related question: is the music you want on in the background necessarily inferior to the stuff you need to pay attention to?

This new album from flutist/tenor saxophonist

Chip Wickham

woodwinds

" data-original-title="" title="">Chip Wickham is in the genre of spiritual jazz kicked off by the late

Pharoah Sanders

saxophone, tenor
1940 - 2022

" data-original-title="" title="">Pharoah Sanders, and it follows a similar trajectory to his 2020 release Blue to Red (Lovemonk, 2020): each tune starts up, usually a simple melody on just one or two chords, and after the solos it finishes. There are no introductions, no bridges, no written endings. It sounds minimalist, and in many ways it is— that's the nature of the genre. But what Wickham succeeds in conjuring up is atmosphere. The idea is not to analyse but to let the music flow over you. As such, Cloud 10 will probably appeal to fans of Sanders,

Yusef Lateef

woodwinds
1920 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Yusef Lateef, and all those artists who focus not on chord changes or demonstrations of technique but on long, floating lines of melody.

Some of the musicians from his previous album are here again: drummer

Jon Scott

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Jon Scott, bassist

Simon Houghton

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Simon Houghton, and harpist

Amanda Whiting

harp

" data-original-title="" title="">Amanda Whiting. Wickham himself plays tenor and flute in roughly equal measure. The instrumentation is perfect for this style of music, all soft ripples and mellow, trippy atmospherics. The sound palette has expanded since the previous album, now including vibes (

Ton Risco

vibraphone

" data-original-title="" title="">Ton Risco) and trumpet (

Eoin Grace

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Eoin Grace). But it's Whiting's harp that gives the album its distinctive other-worldly vibe, reminding us of

Dorothy Ashby

harp
1932 - 1996

" data-original-title="" title="">Dorothy Ashby's divine 1970 album The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby (Cadet) and hypnotic, spiritual Alice Coltrane tunes like "Journey in Satchidananda." Percussionist

Jack McCarthy

percussion

" data-original-title="" title="">Jack McCarthy provides groovy continuity while pianist

Phil Wilkinson

organ, Hammond B3
b.1978

" data-original-title="" title="">Phil Wilkinson keeps the harmony appropriately simple.

There is so much to enjoy: "Winter," a slow, drifting flute tune is pure, liquid pleasure. "Tubby Chaser," a fast jazz waltz in honor of British bebop pioneer Tubby Hayes, bounces along with terrific gusto, while "Dark Eyes" evokes a smoky, sexy evening in Old London Town. Cloud 10 is full of lovely tunes, and whether or not you're paying close attention, that is not a quality to be taken for granted.

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Track Listing

Cloud 10; Stratospheric; Lower East Side; Winter; Tubby Chaser; Dark Eyes; The Hit; Before I Go.

Personnel

Chip Wickham

woodwinds

Eoin Grace

trumpet

Ton Risco

vibraphone

Phil Wilkinson

organ, Hammond B3

Simon Houghton

bass, acoustic

Jon Scott

drums

Jack McCarthy

percussion

Amanda Whiting

harp

Album information

Title: Cloud 10 | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Gondwana Records

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