ABOUT THIS PROJECT

This is big band Jazz funk at its best and most accessible. Brand New Heavies co-founder member Jim Wellman's swansong to music, features three different lead vocalists including Roy Ayers and numerous accomplished soloists. The album lyrically essays on postmodernism, altruism, language  and love. Great song writing is combined with excellent soloing, and the grooves and production are of high quality throughout.

The postmodernism of the project is reflected lyrically and in complex arrangements giving simultaneous voice to many riffs rhythms and harmonies. (There are no harpsichord solos over broken beat castanets here!) With Jim's background in live big band funk, each song has been developed from an original bass groove, and layered with original integrated orchestration avoiding the easy route of building stock tabs and samples prevalent today' in R&B / Dance music.

Sample based music technology has changed the expectations of the record buyer so whether there is still a market for a more traditional groove music remains to be seen. One thing is certain, there will not be many more independent R&B albums made like this, it's just not cost effective.

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TRACK NOTES

This was the order of tracks on the timewarp release of this album in 2006

Trk1 Sun theme. A minimalist intro. 

Trk2 Love not Truth. The song was written and recorded spring 2001 as a plea to western ‘democracy' to wake up and count the chickens, but unfortunately events later that year made the situation infinitely worse with our ‘good versus evil' stance. With the chorus lyric ‘ Hey we all need some love tonight' Jim felt there was one person who should do the job and that was Roy Ayers.Roy had worked with him in 1994 on some of the other songs on this album, so he set up another session at a flat in Clapham using home recording equipment and filmed the session. The footage was mixed with animation and can be seen on the Postmodernjazz.com website. Jim has always been fascinated by soloists improvising over groove, and wanted to capture Roy 's incredible soloing on the vibes.

Trk3 Lucy was inspired by the discovery of the half complete Australopithecus Aferensis skeleton found by Donald Johanson and Maurice Taieb in Ethiopia in 1974.The find was named Lucy after the Beatles tune Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds playing on the radio that night, and was dated at about 3 million years old. Debates are still raging as to whether Lucy is our direct ancestor or relative, but she was at the time the first upright walking ape in our very sketchy archeological records. Recent discoveries have suggested bipedalism originated much earlier, and so 5 million years was guessed for the lyric. Vocals by Judy La Rose, Solos by Mike Smith and Robert Carter .Jims daughter is also called Lucy .

Trk 4 Crazy Love Song Reworked from the 1994 album, this was Jim's tribute to music and film that had inspired him to express himself artistically. Mel Nixon used his wonderfully characteristic vocals to lead the track. The groove is a tribute to the JB's. Lascelles solid rhythm guitar and percussion set up the mood, and Robert Carter gets seriously funky with his rhodes solo. Roy Ayers iced the cake with the organ solo played on his midi vibes .Horns by Mike Smith & Gerard Presencer .

Trk 5. Darkness Into Light, Judy Vocals, Robert Carter & Mike Smith Solos, Lascelles percussion, this one is for all artists who dare to wear their hearts on their sleeves. They may never change the world, but it is a glorious failure to attempt to do so, and inspire someone else to take up the challenge.

Trk 6 Good vibrations. Not the Brian Wilson tune but after the amount of time it took to finish this album there is some sympathy. Roy chose a groove that Jim had, and laid down an improvisation which was then cut into this track. Not originally constructed as a song it is a tribute to Roy that he can come up with enough good material to cut into a song. Jim Backing vocals Roy Solo. Keith More Guitar riffs.

Trk7. Everything Judy Vocals on the verses with Jim baring his soul (Un-soulfully) on the choruses expressing his postmodernist paradox. Roy solo.

Trk8. Love Once More. Mel Nixon vocals with Jim and Judy on Bv's Keith More Guitar riffs, and blinding solos by Keith and Robert Carter.

Trk9. Undecided. On this funky instrumental track, Jim attempts a ‘postmodernist melody' if such a thing is possible. Unresolved and floating, the tune meanders over a ‘comme ci comme ca‘ riff. The tune reflects a little sadness, tired by an unending and unattainable search for truth in life and production, the penultimate tune signals an end to his musical career.

Trk 10 Another Kind Of Culture Another track reworked from the 1994 project, Roy chose this one to have a go on, and he blew away Jim's original chorus in the way only he can do. Judy survived for the verses, Mike & Gerard did some lovely horn work, with Keith More grooving and soloing on guitar. The track was inspired by the ditty 'Its Love' written and performed by Charlie Chaplin in his 1952 film Limelight.

Trk 11 Love Not Truth Feat Judy La Rose

Trk 12 Time And Space Theme

ADDITIONAL TRACKS

I include in the player above six other tracks or exerts .

The Fool, Hey Funky Fax, Boundaries of Love, Packing Up

It was my original intention to include these tracks with the new songs on this album to form my second independent album. However ultimately I decided to incorporate some material from  my  1994 album Crazy Love Songs by Time And Space into this project, as I believed the material was stronger than some of the new stuff, and I had not done justice to the material in production and could do better. To this end I dropped this material from this work, and did not complete final production on these tracks. They are therefore unfinished works -in particular the vocals which were only intended as guide vocals to work with during production.

Additionally there are two more exerts above taken from the 1994 album which I think was good work but was unhappy with other parts of the songs:

The Fuse, Hear Your Love

 

PLAYERS

ROY AYERS: The legendary American Vibes player who more than any other inspired me to want to express myself in the language of Jazz/Funk/Fusion. His soloing on the vibes, melodically and rhythmically is amongst the best I have ever heard on any instrument. His production on countless albums especially from the 70's is impeccable. His ‘soft' vocals perfectly compliment his lyrically intelligent humanism with his search for a better way and his crazy love songs. www.royayers.com
Vocals Trks 2, 5, & 6. Solos Trks 2,4,6,7,& 9 .

JUDY LA ROSE: Session singer and backing vocalist for too many famous projects to mention here, Judy is well due some limelight herself, and I am proud to have her up front on four tracks of this album.
Vocals Trks 3,5,7,8,& 10.

MEL NIXON: Originally from Houston Texas , Vietnam war veteran, Mel was a singer in the Fantastics, best known for their Northern Soul classic 'Something Old Something New'. Mel was a wonderful character who passed away in 2003. I am gutted that it has taken me so long to get this project finished and that he never heard the finished results.
Vocals Trks 4 & 8.

LASCELLES GORDON :Guitar & percussion. Co-founder of The Brand New Heavies One of the original Rare groove DJs. An incredibly solid player rhythmically. Also Heliocentric world, Beth Orton, Campag Velocet and 7-Hurtz .
Vocals Guitar & Percussion Trk 4. Perc Trk 10.

MIKE SMITH : Sax. Brand New Heavies ,Jamiroquai ,Blur & Gorillaz.
Trks 3,4,5,8,& 10.

KEITH MORE : Guitar Once musical Director for Five Star, Keith is a technically brilliant guitarist in all styles who has released his own album Guitar Stories to great acclaim.
Trks 5,6,8,&10.

GERARD PRESENCER.: Trumpet.Brand New Heavies ,and numerous heavyweights in the Jazz world including John Dankworth for many years and has his own solo albums. www.actmusic.com/presencer.htm
Trks 4,5 &8.

ROBERT CARTER: Keyboards, is a wonderful soloist. I got him to play on the Heavies first album, and used him again for all keyboard solos on this album.
Solos Trks 3,4,8,&10.

JOE LEACH,.Sound engineer on this album, and runs his own studio in North London 'The Cowshed'. www.cowshedstudio.com
Rhodes on trk 10.

ROB MULARCHY: Bass Player for Zero 7.
Trk 2

COLIN MACKENZIE: Bass.
Trk 5.

JIM WELLMAN: Producer and principal writer of Postmodern Jazz. Co-founder of The Brand New Heavies. www.postmodernjazz.com
All other parts.

Executive Producer: Phil Chuter, Ruben Sounds

Distributed by: CD Baby

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THANKS TO: Angie, Phil & Mary, Wisey & Burt, Matthew Casswell, James Davis, Tim Cullen, Simon Skinner, Pat Kirk, and South London taxi driver - Gavin West.