Track Listing

Appearances by

Liam Noble

with Liam Noble, Oli Hayhurst and Gene Calderazzo.

Reviews

28/05/2011 Peter Bacon, The Jazz Breakfast

Oh wow! Even after a few hours’ listening to a random selection of the finest CDs of jazz music from the last 50 years or so, this disc still leaps out. It’s going to be hard to knock Urban Theme Park off the top of my “best” pile for 2011.
View full review

27/05/2011 Ray Comiskey,The Irish Times

this is a superb contemporary take on post-bop jazz.

18/05/2011 Edward Randell, OMH

With such a knack for drawing on jazz traditions while remaining fresh and forward-looking, the Julian Siegel Quartet are the perfect illustration of why British jazz is turning heads the world over.
View full review

06/05/2011 Ron Burnett,York Press

Urban Theme Park (Basho Records) is a new album from saxophone star Julian Siegel and his quartet, with Liam Noble (piano/keyboards), Oli Hayhurst (double bass) and American drummer Gene Calderazzo. Siegel is an award-winning multi-reed player and composer, who has worked with Hermeto Pascoal, Django Bates and Kenny Wheeler among others. Album opener Six Four is a joyful melody with infectious swing, Siegel’s tenor saxophone taking flight with Noble’s piano, simultaneously following dancing melodic lines which compliment each other in an empathetic journey. One For J T name-checks pianist John Taylor, adding playful influences of Brazilian master, Hermeto Pascoal, in its cheerfully syncopated melody. Calderazzo joins in with some powerhouse creativity, confirming his position as one of the top drummers around.The delicate ballad Heart Song has Siegel on clarinet, not often heard in contemporary jazz, is in cola voce mode with piano. Calderazzo whispering in with brushes brings the realisation of how beautifully this album is recorded, different effects from cymbals, snare drum and hi-hat. Urban Theme Park emerges as an important album for 2011.

27/04/2011 Bruce Lindsay, Allaboutjazz

Urban Theme Park has style. Siegel and his fellow musicians may not be short of other projects, but this one deserves some serious commitment, because there is plenty here to suggest that the quartet could become a real driving force in contemporary music.

26/04/2011 Kenny Mathieson, The Scotsman 4 stars

SAXOPHONIST and clarinetist Julian Siegel is one of the most consistently innovative and rewarding musicians on the UK jazz scene. This excellent (mainly) acoustic quartet features the dazzling piano work of Liam Noble and a fine bass and drum pairing in Oli Hayhurst and Gene Calderazzo. All are alive to the often tricky twists and turns of Siegel's music, which touches base on a wide range of stylistic influences

23/04/2011 MOJO

there's not a moment that doesn't fizz with ingenuity and imagination.

23/04/2011 Daily Telegraph

the most winning thing about this album is its irrepressible high spirits

21/04/2011 Chris Parker, London Jazz

Julian Siegel simply exudes class and thoughtful elegance.
Urban Theme Park is a polished, subtle but engagingly vigorous piece of work. An early candidate for CD of the Year
View full review

18/04/2011 Martin Longley, BBC Website

Mastering much of the saxophone and clarinet families, Siegel carries an assurance that his works will always feature a captivating tonal spread. The latest line-up for this combo features pianist Liam Noble, bassman Oli Hayhurst and drummer Gene Calderazzo. There are many years of cross-pollination at play here, with relationships that have forged a unique musical bond.
View full review

16/04/2011 Mike Hobart, Financial Times

The UK multi-instrumentalist’s evocative set of nine originals opens with the bounce of an urgent bass riff and closes with a slow-burning fusion of beats and electronica.

15/04/2011 John Fordham, The Guardian 4 stars

Siegel, bassist Oli Hayhurst, drummer Gene Calderazzo and the unquenchable Noble set the bar pretty high for the art of making idiomatic, eclectic contemporary jazz.
View full review

11/04/2011 Chris May, AllaboutJazz

It is a rare and beautiful conflation that gives Urban Theme Park, like all Siegel's recent work, magnetism and depth. Highly recommended.
View full review

07/04/2011 John Fordham, The Guardian

UK-jazz supergroup..is quintessential postbop jazz, its Joe Zawinul, Stravinsky and west-African references give it plenty of appeal among the non-cognoscenti, as well.
View full review