Blue to Red, by Chip Wickham

Blue to Red

by Chip Wickham

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john turrell Probably one of the most talented kids I’ve had the pleasure to meet! This album is killer 😉

khemet Firstly, for me, you can never go wrong with having quinto/congas added to the vibe (being a son of a conguero and playing off and on myself) I love the feeling the percussion brings. Anyhow, I get the same chilled sensation I got when I first heard Dorthy Ashby and Lonnie Liston Smith (both my favs) from the this album. The instrumentation overall is blended to perfection, I can listen to this album all the way through. I dont have a favorite track, but I did play Blue to Red more than once.

David Rankin Great sounds to get the day going and maybe even settle down into the small hours..(only just got it) . It's not about a favourite track for me. It's a complete body of work.. No need to start all that track hopping business. CAREFULLY chosen and constructed. This music breathes and liberates.

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Comes with obi!

Includes unlimited streaming of Blue to Red via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

€8 EUR or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
140 gr black vinyl with insert.

Includes unlimited streaming of Blue to Red via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Limited Edition Translucent Colored Vinyl
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
The first run of the album of around 350 units will be out on translucent colored (blue or red) vinyl. And it will come with an Obi.

Includes unlimited streaming of Blue to Red via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Blue to Red 07:22	buy track
2.	Route One 06:58	buy track
3.	Interstellar 08:29	buy track
4.	The Cosmos 11:13	buy track
5.	Double Cross 05:30	buy track
6.	Mighty Yusef 05:54	buy track

about

Flautist and saxophonist, Chip Wickham returns with Blue to Red, his most absorbing and cosmically-charged offering to date. Soaring flute melodies, lush harp arpeggios and glistening Rhodes keys interact across six journeying, spiritual jazz compositions, leaning on a rich palette of sounds beyond borders, space and time.

Channeling the spirit of Alice Coltrane and Yusef Lateef via the lens of a hip-hop, electronic and club music educated ear, Blue to Red encompasses Wickham’s disparate set of production influences with his Manchester and spiritual jazz education.

The album, not only seeks to forewarn Earth’s possible Mars-like future but seeks to tap into the interplanetary, cosmic nature of music. “It’s a culture crisis rather than a climate crisis, one that can only be solved if we go right to the core of how we live as human beings”.

Born and raised in Brighton, UK, Wickham moved to Manchester to attend college. He soon moved into music going on to perform and record with a formidable and diverse list of artists from his Manchester base including Nightmares on Wax and Andy Votel as well as regular funk excursions with The New Mastersounds. However it was upon his meeting of Mancunian trumpeter/bandleader of Gondwana Orchestra, Matthew Halsall, and other influential players connected to the Manchester’s spiritual jazz circuit such as Nat Birchall that Wickham’s musical course was re-routed for good.

Leaving the UK for Madrid in 2007, Wickham set out on his Iberian-facing debut a decade later with La Sombra (2017), before moving again from Madrid to Doha (Qatar), where Wickham released his follow up Shamal Wind (2018), a lively and international melding of modal jazz, Arabic sounds and other disparate sonic territories, that blends Wickham’s penchant for ethereal, beatless composition and Dingwalls-esque, jazz dance numbers.

Having recorded, produced and mixed everything himself, Wickham’s meticulous approach to production and unswerving ambition for Blue to Red, led him to a phenomenal group of musicians across the UK’s thriving jazz scene, including Sons of Kemet and Mulatu Astatke drummer, Jon Scott, Fingathing head honcho, Simon ‘Sneaky’ Houghton (double bass/cello) and Nightmares On Wax affiliate Dan ‘JD 73’ Goldman (keys). Making up the lineup is Gondwana Orchestra alumni Amanda Whiting, whose celestial and mystical harp playing is a particularly prominent and enchanting feature of the record.

With his group (that will feature British jazz pillar, Greg Foat on keys), Wickham will be embarking on a tour across the UK and Europe this April with headline dates at London’s Ronnie Scott’s and Paris’s La Petite Halle. Alongside playing with Dwight Tribble, Allysha Joy (30/70), The Sorcerers, Scrimshire and Joe Tatton (The New Mastersounds), Chip's previous and recent live endeavours saw him perform at the mainstage of Love Supreme last year and he continues to tour the world with Halsall and The Gondwana Orchestra.

Whilst we pray Wickham’s prediction that the planet’s decline from Blue to Red is proven incorrect, it’s hard to imagine a time in the future where pieces of music do not represent markers of our own personal growth or catalysts for structural, societal change. The vanguard of spiritual jazz past and present are no stranger to this, and on Blue to Red, Wickham not only salutes but earnestly contributes to this legacy.

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Liner notes

When life started 4 billion years ago, Mars was also a blue planet. It lost its atmosphere and ever since then, there has been red and dead. It’s our own senselessness that we’re pushing our planet in the same direction. It’s a culture crisis rather than a climate crisis, one that can only be solved if we go right to the core of how we live as human beings. Jazz has always had a big spiritual connection with life and our place in the cosmos, searching for answers and finding meaning above us, but now we need to stop looking up and look around before its too late and blue becomes red.

Chip

credits

released May 8, 2020

Chip Wickham, Flute and Sax
Jon Scott, Drums
Simon ‘Sneaky’ Houghton, Double Bass and Cello
Dan ‘JD 73’ Goldman, Keys
Amanda Whiting, Harp
Rick Weedon, Percussion

All songs written and arranged by Chip Wickham

Recorded at Big Noise Studios in Essex +
Recording Engineer: Simon ‘Stingray’ Davies
Mastering: Pete Maher
Mixed & Produced: Chip Wickham

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about

Chip Wickham Madrid, Spain

Artist @ Gondwana Records

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