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#18556 |
Nathan Haines
Squire For Hire album
Chillifunk
CFCD010
After the incredible worldwide success of Nathan Haines debut Chillifunk album ‘Sound Travels’ the music industry, Clubland and all at Chillifunk HQ waited with extreme eagerness and baited breath for the follow-up. So now after a year of writing, refining and recording with co-writer/ producer Phil Asher we are extremely proud to unveil for your listening pleasure Nathan’s latest masterpiece ‘Squire For Hire’. It is a natural progression from ‘Sound Travels’, which featured the anthems ‘Earth Is The Place’ and ‘Believe'(remixed by Kenny Dope).
Nathan Haines is an exciting new breed of musician. Classically trained on flute in his native New Zealand he grew up playing alongside his father Kevin, a professional jazz bass player. He moved to New York in the early nineties and studied and played with a number of jazz greats, then returned to New Zealand to record the countries biggest ever selling jazz record ‘Shift Left’ which achieved Gold status. But it wasn’t until arriving in the UK in 1995 that Nathan was turned onto the concept of combining jazz with dance music when he was invited to play saxophone and flute over the sets of dj’s such as Roy the Roach and Paul Trouble Anderson. He also recorded several
singles on Goldies Metalheadz label under the name ‘Sci-Clone’ which he produced with drum and bass dj A-Sides.
You may already be familiar with the album title track, ‘Squire For Hire’ released as a single taster for this quality maxi and featuring the incredible voice of all things soulful & more – the incredible Miss Marlena Shaw. Nathan’s love of Steely Dan is highlighted here with his superb cover of ‘FM’ featuring the vocals of D2 (otherwise known as Damon Albarn) and some incredible guitar from Billy Cobham guitarist Carl Orr. Nathan’s father Kevin Haines guests on ‘Nothing New, an
amazingly simple song with lyrics penned by Phil Asher and sung with force by Shelley Nelson. Nathans ups the ante even further with the self penned ‘Oblivion’, recorded live early one morning at London’s Livingstone Studios and featuring Nathan on vocals and the amazing Chix with Stix on strings. The first single from the album ‘Right By Your Side’, has become an incredible club hit worldwide and is vocalised by the mighty Vanessa Freeman and Marcus Begg with Mike Patto on keys, Neville ‘Level’ Malcolm bass and the evergreen Chris Franck (Da Lata) on guitar & kalimba. The perfect soulful dance record.
The multi-talented Mike Patto gets together with Phil and Nathan on ‘Folk Jazz’, a tune that gets right inside your head and refuses to let go. Check the drumming of Daniel Cosby, the sitar of Boo Scher, those Chix with Stix on strings and again Kevin Haines on bass. ‘Springtime Rain’ features the deep, smooth voice of Philly native Rich Medina and added to the playing of Simon Colam’s acoustic Piano and vintage Wurlitzer you have another haunting performance that just reaches Ooh yes! Rich Medina also voices his much revered opinion on ‘Let It Go’ another special song with a poignant message in the music.
Whilst you’re about it check out the vocal prowess of Guida de Palma on ‘O Misterio’. The vocals are really something else on this cut as is keyboardist and co-writer Mark Clive De Lowe-an incredible talent and fellow New Zealander whose time is just around the corner.
We cannot praise this Nathan Haines album enough and the wait, we’re sure you’ll agree, has
definitely been worth it. ‘Squire For Hire’ reaches beyond all expectations and shows that the music of Nathan Haines has matured to an incredibly high level and his partnership with Phil Asher is a match made in heaven. Add to that the incredible musicianship, vocals and production and the end result is a amazing album for music lovers worldwide, where quality is definitely the key & & & & & ..oh yes you funky people it really doesn’t get much better than this!
Tracklist
1 SQUIRE FOR HIRE
2 FOLK JAZZ
3 O MISTERIO
4 SPRINGTIME RAIN
5 NOTHING NEW
6 FM
7 U SEE THAT
8 DOOT DUDE
9 OBLIVION
10 LET IT GO
11 RIGHT BY YOUR SIDE
12 THE LAST DANCE (MAKE IT GOOD)
The band will be performing a series of dates to promote the launch of the album kicking off at the Jazz Cafe in london on the 5th & 6th September.
For other dates and venues please check http://www.nathanhaines .com.
You can also catch Nathan with his Jazz trio and guest DJ’s at Easy Living which is held on the first and third Sunday of every month at Cherry Jam, London W2.
Nathan Haines’ ‘Squire For Hire’ album is released on September 8th 2003 on Chillifunk.
Listen to it with a cocktail in your hand on a sunny day 
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