Opium by The Melancholy Babes

9 Track Album, recorded live at Happy, Wellington, Aotearoa

released on iiii records iiii013

review from www.elsewhere.co.nz/jazz/5730/jazzquake-hits-capital-dotting-the-ts-and-crossing-the-iiiis/

"Some of the label's mainstays are saxophonist Jeff Henderson and drummer Anthony Donaldson (both formerly in the Dodecahedrons whose Colourful Language album is worth checking out) and – with bassist Tom Callwood (of the Phoenix Foundation) – were recorded live at Happy in 2010 for what has become the album under the name The Melancholy Babes.
This is often muscular and exciting music which is delightfully unpredictable, is aware of the long tradition (some might hear a little of Sanders, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Coltrane here) and also humorous in places: Hades Hens Night is bent swing for the drunk gals on a night out before the big day.
But they really dig deep on the centrepiece Mistake in the Grass where they achieve a depth of emotional expression and intuitiveness which briefly seems to refer to late Coltrane. But it finds a language of its own as Donaldson and Callwood lay down shifting tectonic plates of rhythm while Henderson dives headlong into the energetic music which fires off at tangents but remains centred." Graham Reid

iiii Records
Kiwijahzz
Anthony Donaldson
Jeff Henderson