Tom Russell & TheNorwegian Wind Ensemble
Album: Aztec Jazz
Label: Proper
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.tomrussell.com/

Tom Russell is pretty close to the top of my all time list of favourite songwriters, not just in the Americana scene, but all time favourites period. That's because he can write about the big issues, small issues, personal issues, you name it, he can turn his hand to it and make it feel like it matters.

Scandinavia is a region currently producing a lot of great music, coincidently it's an area that has also been a source of inspiration to Tom over the years, so when I first heard that Tom was recording an album, "Aztec Jazz", with the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, my first thought was whoopee! Now having heard the album that thought has been promoted to WHOOPEE!!

Recorded live in concert in Halden, Norway, back in May of last year, the album features eleven classic Tom Russell and places them in a context like you've never heard before, well unless you were actually there, which unfortunately I wasn't.

The first time through I was so stunned by that combination of Tom Russell and a more classical setting/arrangement that the opener, "Love Abides" was over and I was merely carried onto the wave of the applause, before it broke open again with his tribute song to the great Nina Simone. Can I also recommend that the first time you play this album, take it out of the sleeve, and put it in the player without looking at the track listing, sit down and pretend you were there.

Quite simply "Aztec Jazz" is magnificent and more so when you don't know what's coming next. I was surprised just how well Tom's voice works with the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, especially on the more Tex-Mex flavoured songs, where I had feared a bit of a culture clash, well if cultures clashed like this more often the world would be a far happier place.

This is an album that is as stunning a fjord and as unique as Monument Valley. I'm not normally a big fan of orchestral folk albums, I feel they never really find that happy medium. This has seriously disavowed that thought, I'll just conclude they were just working towards this moment. Tom Russell and the Norwegian Wind Ensemble have set the standard by which these albums will be judged against and continue to come up wanting

Neil King