Airlock - Big Air » buy on Amazon

Big Air: Chris Batchelor, Steve Buckley, Myra Melford, Oren Marshall, Jim Black

Genre-mashing international quintet, Big Air is a collaboration between UK jazz artists and some of the leading US players - Chris Batchelor & Steve Buckley (Loose Tubes) , Myra Melford, Jim Black & Oren Marshall. Won five star reviews from The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine and described in jazz Journal by Brian Morton as "the best British jazz record for 20 years".

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The Road, the Sky, The Moon - Big Air Live

Big Air Live: Chris Batchelor, Andrew D'Angelo, Liam Noble, Oren Marshall, Jim Black

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The Art of Flying Backwards - Life As We Know It » buy on Amazon

Life As We Know It: Chris Batchelor,Steve Buckley, Mark Sanders

Reedsman Steve Buckley and trumpeter Chris Batchelor are from the generation of jazz musicians coming out of the influential 80s big band Loose Tubes. On this gloriously original multilayered recording, Buckley and Batchelor create loops and improvisations enhanced by samples and hard disk manipulations by Peter Beckmann as well as percussion support by Mark Sanders and Paul Clarvis. But the music also puts the focus on acoustic improvisation, and like Django Bates who they have both worked with, continue in their own way where Loose Tubes left off, absorbing anything from North/West African music to Balkan folk melodies through to Ellington in a colourful explosion of sounds.