Mads Matthias - Downy cheek

Mads Mathias - saxophone

Peter Rosendal - piano

Mads Mathias - Vocal and saxophone
Peter Rosendal - piano (& flugelbone)
Ferg Ireland - bass
Chris Higginbottom - drums

Venue - Royal Festival Hall Foyer, South Bank Centre, London
Date - 16th October 2015
Current Album - Free Falling (Calibrated)

Mads Mathias next UK dates - February 2016

Friday 5th - The Cinnamon Club, Manchester
Saturday 6th - Southport Melodic Jazz Club at The Royal Clifton Hotel 11am
Sunday 7th - Seven Jazz in Chapel Allerton, Leeds LS7 1.30 - 4pm...
Friday 12th - Lighthouse Poole
Saturday 13th - Pizza Express Jazz Club - 7pm
Saturday 13th - Pizza Express Jazz Club - 10pm
Sunday 14th - Pizza Express Music Lounge Maidstone

Chris Higginbottom
- drums

Gilt edge jazz from blonde tousled Mads Mathias, half rough cheek, half downy. Ferg Ireland the best nose in jazz bass, a symmetry with his instrument. Elegant and beautiful. Tea For Two, slack jaw Peter Rosendal mouthing the dexterity beside Higginbottom.

The South Bank doing what it does best, mixing respectables and those walking in from Thames side concrete. Hundreds of faces, happy free people.

Up and down What Is Time, the gentleness of toes on their tips leaving room for Rosendal's piano. He treads softly, more spring carpet like than the crackling leaves that currently surround. Glide, arch, swirl and turn.

Ferg Ireland - Bass

Conversational swing, Free Falling. Playful run up, run the tapper. Mathias is a wagtail, flirting, buoyant. Drums cut against the pillow filling, the eider cushion.

Full mouthed, plummy, juicy Labour of Love. Slide of oiled wood on Nordic grain, transatlantic adrift.

Round ball, contented roller, Fool for Love. Delicious piano snatch, a slice, a trick and waft. Knees high in a crisp step.

Sophisticated in and out clubs, The Henpecked Man, made of droplets, small colourful splashes. No killings, no artic belt deaths. Fresh spruce and always tasteful.

AL.

Samuel Eagles Quartet - Next Beginning launch

Samuel Eagles - Alto Saxophone

Eric Ford - drums

The Samuel Eagles Quartet kick-started their new album with a packed launch party at the EFG London Jazz Festival earlier this month (16/11/2014). Although this was a lunch time gig at the Pizza Express in Soho the capital's jazz night owls had been attracted to this doubleheader from record label F-IRE.

Ferg Ireland - Bass

The quartet smashed into their first tune, neither saxophonist Samuel Eagles nor drummer Eric Ford holding themselves back. It was an uncompromising clarion call to all those, young and old, who thirst for this new brand of original composition that bubbles away on the current British jazz scene.

'We were meant to be' preceded second tune 'Remembering myself', here Samuel Eagles mixed his rich hued Mediterranean motifs with the legendary cowbell of Eric Ford. If I were to remember myself while listening to this music then I would imagine that I had been reborn a Moor. While the other spelling of Moorish would also be applicable here too. The serene and unflappable Ferg Ireland brought our revery to an end with a solo that exercised his comprehensive talent.

Samuel Eagles' writing is melodic and aspirational, this is an expressive debut release from a young man who knows when to throw himself into the fray and when to stand back. In fact its is one of his signatures, when his lines are exhausted and complete he steps back to enjoy the men around him. I even had the time to sketch him in repose rather than on the attack.

Ralph Wyld - Vibraphone

The album's title track 'Next Beginning' was the tune of the set. Ireland (bass) once again gave us his melodic edge and combined with Ford (drums). They elevated the swing until it became the joyous. Ralph Wylde swayed too on vibes and the threesome skipped along together. Meanwhile Eagles stood on the sidelines, smiling broadly as the young vibesman danced his sticks.

The Pizza Express, Soho was a playground for the Samuel Eagles Quartet on this day. The future that lies before them is now merely an obstacle to enjoy, a climbing frame from which to throw themselves with enthusiastic abandon.

AL.

For a comprehensive review of the album please read Adrian Pallant at https://adrianspallant.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/next-beginning-samuel-eagles-quartet/

Fergus Ireland - Southbank leftfield

Fergus Ireland - Bass

The Samuel Eagles Quartet took their debut CD for its first spin in public on the 14th March 2014 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall's Front Room. Despite the CD remaining unreleased at the present time, Eagles had received his personal copies just hours before this showcase gig. The album will break onto the scene via F-IRE's ever growing stable of talent during 2014, when, it still remains a mystery.


Samuel Eagles -
Alto and Soprano Saxophone

Samuel Eagles encourages mysterious musings through his music and demeanour. Never have I seen a front man take such a back seat on the jazz circuit. It is unnerving but also charming in this day and age of big mouthed performers. Despite Eagles reputation as an introvert the compositions on his debut album 'Next Beginning' are light and expansive, with more than a hint of a Mediterranean breeze. He leaves so much space for both the audience and his quartet to breath.

Ralph Wyld - Vibes

Much of the Samuel Eagles Quartet's levity is courtesy of vibesman Ralph Wyld. Tonight in the Frontroom he took the eye with a smock of gold and blue. His purple sticks taking control of a lush solo during second tune 'My Instigation', it was like shattering a slab of dark chocolate, the sweet jagged shards greedily consumed by a packed out Southbank audience. In fact I once again crossed paths with the busiest man on the London circuit, Steve Marchant.

Eric Ford - drums

The brushes of Eric Ford reflected beautifully the descent of the night's haze, as the colours began to bleach from beside the Thames. Despite the first warm drafts suggesting an end to the long winter I can't say in all honesty that 'Smells Like Summer' was the metrological cusp of better things but Eagles soprano reminded us of the dancing shadows that will warm our cockles in the months to come.

Throughout tonight's performance Samuel Eagles was true to form, stepping back again and again. Although he played his part too. Eagles tumbled straight into 'The Outsider' while Fergus Ireland's rich and thick musical presence made sure he wasn't alone. The lament of Eagles was a call, a sweet cry that pined for a response. It was answered once again by the ever impressive Ireland, whose playful solo never quite lost its grip despite Eagles vertiginous slide down a scree slope of melodies. Ireland continues to impress on the circuit and his growing reputation gains momentum, I am due another visit to SE Collective's den of iniquity at the Amersham Arms where he regularly plies his trade.

AL.

Frolicking with the Samuel Eagles Quartet

Samuel Eagles - Alto Saxophone

On Sunday 17th November 2013 the Samuel Eagles Quartet presented us with a superb performance that announced his and their arrival upon London's burgeoning Jazz stage. This was the first half of an Eagles double bill, with older brother Duncan also trotting out for the EFG London Jazz Festival. The Spice of Life and Paul Pace deserve the credit for these progressive bookings. On the first Sunday of the LJF I always bring a band of jazz lovers and newbies out with me, make a party of it, and we had a ball!



Ralph Wyld - Vibes

To many this was new material from fresh faces but I had been lucky enough to hear these tunes before in the comfort of Clown's Pocket Studio as they recorded their debut album. Eagles had grown a mane since then, which was firmly swept back and with leather padded elbows he looked the studious type. He is a quiet man who you imagine could bend in even the most feeble breeze but he is so firmly grounded, both in his music and temperament.

Fergus Ireland - Bass

Opener "Remembering Myself" moved to "The Place I Live" and we had an early glimpse of what make the SEQ such a breath of fresh air. Amidst Eagles' frenetic composition there was an explosion of calm from the vibes of Ralph Wyld, though not without some tension. It seems you can't keep drummer Eric Ford under wraps for long, for it was he who played the role of sadistic P.E. teacher to the youngsters around him, zipping up the pace with an ever increasing zeal.

Fergus Ireland ran the bass line on "We Were meant to be", which resulted in an exciting tumble as we roly polied with Eagles' hedgehog delivery. "My Instigation" was captivating because of its precise changes in pace and epitomised what is so exhilarating about this set. The music represents a joyous balance between light and dark. This is not a Ying-Yang kind of checkerboard light, more of a dabbled variety like a frolic in and out of a tree lined avenue. You long for the crisp sunlight of Wyld and Eagles when the canopy's chill seeps into you and then the calm of Ireland's Bass when you need that time to dwell.


Eric Ford - Drums

My favourite was the penultimate "Outsider", once again a tune defined by the pooling eddies of Ralph Wyld but expertly set up by Samuel Eagles and Eric Ford whose sluice gates accelerated and guided the currents of the composition. The final offering was "Next Beginning" which ended perfectly on a carefree note, with a promise of a bright future. This includes the release of their debut album and a tour that will be worth experiencing.

AL.

Samuel Eagles - Summer Noir

Samuel Eagles -
Saxophone

Yesterday (19/06/2013) I was lucky enough to be at the point of creation when Samuel Eagles stepped into Clown's Pocket Studio in Kent to record his debut album. It's too easy to be over dramatic and of course these new tunes have been bubbling away in Eagles' life for sometime and hadn't just materialised as we would like to imagine in our romantic zeal



Ralph Wyld -
Vibraphone

Most Jazz musicians balance a quiet studious demeanour and an on-stage persona. Quite often there is a downtime bon-viveur air about them too that is instantly affable. Samuel Eagles possesses the former attribute in spades, he most  definitely is a thinker and introvert. Whether due to his youthfulness or circumstance I do not know. He doesn't control the stage when leading his quartet and often steps aside to let others take the limelight.





Eric Ford -
Drums

The affection I have for Eagles is a British kind of affair, that of the underdog and unassuming flair but on first hearing the music I am transported to the Continent or at least that taste of Europe that once seemed so exotic to us. 50 Pound Friendship is a case in point, the hints of darkness rest like the deep shadows cast by a southern sun, punctuations. Eagles is conversational but as an eavesdropper in a French New Wave film. If he is going to be one of the autuers of this new romantic sound then it is the space he evokes that will be his signature.

Expecting a spikier introspective sound I was totally switched 180 degrees upon first submersion in this music. It is that type of noir that isn't American in its violence nor Germanic in brooding dark percussion but a has a lightness with its devil may care of the French. Ralph Wyld epitomises this sound on vibraphone and it is easy to cast off your inhibitions and skinny dip in his melodies. Remembering Myself is an exponent of this serious happiness where Saxophone and Vibes ride the melodies together. They flirt in the dabbled shadows of the plane trees, perhaps Spanish this time, with a splash of Gaudi architecture peaking through the heat haze.

Fergus Ireland -
Bass

Ferg Ireland (bass) plays a strong swinging role on The Place I Live and Eric Ford (drums) calls a ripping 'Ferocious' once the track has been completed. He should have yelled 'Yabba Dabba Do' as the tune has more than a hint of 'The Flintstones' theme.

After casting off his trademark cowbell, Ford is the driving force on the Outsider and I get the chance to hear Smells Like Summer before I have to leave the session, apt subject matter as we feel the warmth on this June day. The doors to Derek Nash's studio are open and his wife, Beverley, tends to the their garden as I disappear into the Kent landscape.

What the rest of the session reveals I will have to wait to find out. I am a little tentative because Samuel Eagles is not a natural leader of men but maybe he might just be one of those inspirational figures that lets his creativity do the talking.
By the time this album sees the light of day, nights will be drawing in and Samuel Eagles' taste of Summer Noir will be only refuge for our blue sky optimism.

AL.