Manchester based, DJ, bandleader and trumpeter Matthew Halsall is one of the UK’s brightest talents. A gifted trumpeter with a beautiful, expressive tone, his music draws on his love of the transcendental, spiritual and modal jazz of Alice and John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, as well as the glories of ‘60s British jazz. His previous albums ‘Sending My Love’ and ‘Colour Yes’ released on his own Gondwana label have won him a legion of fans across the world and acclaim from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Jamie Cullum and Radio 3’s Late Junction, MOJO, BBC Music Magazine and even BBC 6 Music. His third album ‘On The Go’ is a heartfelt love letter to the jazz of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. Inspired by the evocative sounds of Miles Davis’ soundtrack to the Louis Malle film ‘Lift To The Scaffold’ and the legendary early ‘60s recordings of Art Blakey and Max Roach the album is nostalgic but always soulful. However, while Halsall’s elegiac music is imbued with a sense of history, the young trumpeter and DJ nevertheless brings a contemporary bounce to his music ensuring that his music breathes with a personality all it’s own. A sound that Time Out described as “Kind Of Blue meets The Cinematic Orchestra”, while the Independent On Sunday hailed Halsall’s Rain-streaked spiritual jazz from Manchester.
