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Embodying the Light

Price: £10.00
12.77 USD 12.07 EUR 92.75 CNY
In Stock 238
★★★★★
Product ID STS025CD
Date Added
06/21/2017

TOMMY SMITH QUARTET
Embodying the Light

Tommy Smith (tenor saxophone)
Pete Johnstone (piano)
Calum Gourlay (bass)
Sebastiaan de Krom (drums)

**** "Unselfconscious honesty, emotional and spiritual. In this powerful homage, Smith succeeds in showing us the way." Stuart Nicholson, Jazzwise

***** "The elegant homage is an outstanding achievement in its own right." Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman

"Absolutely top drawer: fluid, articulate, commanding and constantly surprising." Keith Bruce, The Herald

**** "Smith's eloquence on a saxophone is all his own." John Fordham, The Guardian

"The finest jazz recording of the decade, bar none. Truly wonderful." Brian Palmer, Ileach

**** "Smith has managed to convey the special force and character of Coltrane's music." Michael Tucker, Jazz Journal

"Smith really is a modern master of the tenor sax." Mark McKergow, London Jazz News

"Grace, Passion & Conviction." Jazz Views

"He is to Scottish Jazz what Robbie Burns was to Scottish Poetry."
Bebop Spoken Here

"Mr Smith has achieved something fundamentally fabulous." Steve Day, Sandy Brown Jazz

1 Transformation Tommy Smith 11:14
2 Dear Lord John Coltrane 3:04
3 Embodying the Light Tommy Smith 10:35
4 Naima John Coltrane 7:47
5 Resolution John Coltrane 9:00
6 The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost John Coltrane 8:04
7 Summertime George Gershwin 8:41
8 Embodying the Darkness Tommy Smith 8:20
9 Transition John Coltrane 11:22

In April 2017, Tommy Smith and his new quartet went into the studio to record his first acoustic quartet album since 2005. The album's release will mark Smith's 50th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the death (17th July 2017) of one of his greatest inspirations, John Coltrane.

The new group features Smith alongside one of the UK's leading young piano talents, Peter Johnstone, a former Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year and winner, with the group Square One, of the 2015 Peter Whittingham Jazz Prize. Bassist Calum Gourlay is a young veteran of gigs with Kurt Elling, Dave Liebman and John Scofield, and Sebastiaan de Krom has been the drumming powerhouse behind Herbie Hancock and Jamie Cullum.

Recorded, Mixed & Mastered by Stuart Hamilton
Castlesound Studios, Pencaitland, Scotland April 2017
Photography by Derek Clark
Design by Nadworks



4 Product Reviews - Average rating 5 / 5 (Show All)
Dedication to John Coltrane
- 07/01/2017
Dear Lord is the short track, the ballad, on John Coltrane's Transition album recorded in 1965. There was a little period in my life when Dear Lord took me over. Back in the '70s, living in a legal squat but with no proper heating, rock bands rehearsingread more
Embodying the Light
- 07/01/2017
As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of Coltrane's passing there will no doubt be a spate of Trane tribute albums, but it is doubtful if there will many (if any) finer than this offering from Tommy Smith and his new Quartet. Smith has said that he has read more
Tommy Smith:Embodying the Light
- 07/01/2017
Subtitled "A Dedication to John Coltrane", this album sees the renowned Scots tenor saxophonist salute the jazz giant who first inspired him, marking the 50th anniversaries of his own birth and Coltane's death.

From the first notes of the operead more
TSQ - Dedication to John Coltrane
- 07/01/2017
I'd become so used to thinking of Tommy Smith and the SNJO as being joined at the hip, and I use the word advisedly, that I'd almost forgotten what a formidable player he was in a small group setting. This tribute to John Coltrane puts the record straightread more

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