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Issie Barratt's Interchange: Donna's Secret

By Duncan Heining
January 24, 2020
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Issie Barratt's Interchange: Donna's Secret

Put simply, this is a truly beautiful record. It features eight very different compositions by eight different women composers, including three from outside the band. In other hands, the diversity of styles might have left more an impression of a compilation than of a coherent, integrated programme of music. But that is certainly not the case here. What strikes immediately is the quality of the arrangements and ensembles. The textures are just sumptuous, almost tactile—and you know something's good when the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

From the opening track,

Karen Street

accordion
b.1959

" data-original-title="" title="">Karen Street's "Still Here," both a fox-trot and a jig with bodhran-like drums from

Katie Patterson

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Katie Patterson, to the closing

Arvo Part

" data-original-title="" title="">Arvo Part-like "Hope" by Carol Jarvis, these are musical events as much compositions. Each one has its own story behind it and each track unfolds like a narrative. Take the title track by vocalist

Brigitte Beraha

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Brigitte Beraha. She uses wordless vocals here, and elsewhere on the album, deftly in combined in concert with the other instruments. The piece has much to tell, and Alyson Cawley's beautifully gruff tenor solo adds new dimensions to the tale.

Shirley Smart

cello

" data-original-title="" title="">Shirley Smart's "Palmyra" draws on ten years spent living in Israel. It expresses something of the region's troubled history but does so with a sense of hope, dancing at times with the rhythms of the middle east in all their complexity. And

Nikki Iles

piano
- 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">Nikki Iles tune, "Negomi," dedicated to her daughter and to family friend

Kenny Wheeler

flugelhorn
1930 - 2014

" data-original-title="" title="">Kenny Wheeler, offers a very different, more straight-ahead experience with a slightly Spanish/Latin feel. Fine solos too from the composer and bassist

Charlie Pyne

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Charlie Pyne.

And there are so many nice touches here. The recurring motif on

Issie Barratt

composer / conductor
b.1964

" data-original-title="" title="">Issie Barratt's "Kulning" is varied, expanded and used to create conversations between different instruments with different timbres.

Jessica Radcliffe

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Jessica Radcliffe's voice here and throughout is a delight, as is

Rosie Turton

trombone

" data-original-title="" title="">Rosie Turton's fine trombone solo. Turton's free interplay with trumpeter

Laura Jurd

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Laura Jurd and solo on

Cassie Kinoshi

saxophone
b.1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Cassie Kinoshi's "Caliban" also belies her youth. "Caliban" is the funkiest track here with great drumming from Jas Kayser and an acerbic performance from altoist Helena Kay.

Which leaves

Tori Freestone

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Tori Freestone's "Spontaneous Symmetry," a Latin ballad featuring, Radcliffe's voice, the exceptionally talented Laura Jurd and a beautiful duet between Cawley on tenor and Street on accordion, with interpolations from Radcliffe. All eight pieces on "Donna's Secret" are truly special and totally individual.

All too often women jazz musicians are told by male jazz fans, "Wow! You play just like a guy!" Well, these musicians don't play like guys. They play like themselves. They play like Interchange.

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Track Listing

Still Here; Donna��s Secret; Negomi; Samla Korna Med; Kulning; Palmyra; Spontaneous Symmetry; Caliban; Hope.

Personnel

Issie Barratt

composer / conductor

Issie Barratt: director, baritone saxophone; Jessica Radcliffe: voice; Brigitte Beraha: lead voice (2); Laura Jurd: trumpet; Helena Kay: alto saxophone, clarinet; Chelsea Carmichael: tenor saxophone (9), flute (3, 5); Alyson Cawley: flute, clarinet, tenor and soprano saxophones; Rosie Turton: trombone; Shirley Smart: cello; Karen Street: accordion; Charlie Pyne: bass; Katie Patterson: drums, percussion (8); Jas Kayser: drums on ��Caliban��, percussion (5, 6, 7, 8); Nikki Iles: piano (3); Zoe Rahman: piano (5).

Album information

Title: Donna's Secret | Year Released: 2020 | Record Label: Fuzzy Moon Records

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