​Sam Eastmond

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OUT NOW

John Zorn's Masada Book 2:

The Book Of Angels Volume 26 Cerberus

The SPiKE Orchestra Plays Masada

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2015 The SPiKE Orchestra recorded  Ghetto featuring three ensembles with the 22 piece large ensemble at its heart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Praise for  Ghetto:

 

"Spike Orchestra is bringing Jewish music into some amazing and beautiful territory. With great writing and inspired playing, they have one foot in the past, one in the present, and another solidly in the future (yes, that's three feet). Highly recommended!" 

Jon Madof 

(Zion80, Rashanim)

 

'There are plenty of specifics to admire here: the attention paid to the programming of the album; some standout solo contributions, not so much 'balanced with' as 'integrated within' the compositional elements; the imaginative use of bass clarinet and accordion to augment subtly the traditional big band palette; and much else besides. 

 

Speaking more broadly, in drawing on many and varied jazz and klezmer influences as it does, the music of course has clear stylistic precedents. But ultimately, it sounds like nothing quite so much as itself, which is probably absolutely the most which can ever be asked of creative music.

 

Alexander Hawkins'

Pianist/Composer Babel Label Artist

 

It's great, a bit like the love child of Stan Kenton, Loose Tubes and a Yiddish Orkester

 

Ashley Slater

Loose Tubes/Bone Idol/Kitten And The Hip/Freak Power

 

"...inventively effective mix of avant contemporary and more rootsy styles turns out to be a passionately ecelctic reflection on it's subject. With an injection of some Ellingtonian swing, brass voicing evoking Gil Evans' flamenco-ish passages from Sketches of Spain, elements from Brecht-ian Weimar caberet, bop, free improv with Nikki Franklin's non-verbal, avant-improv vocals through to downtown New York klezmer, this is an entirely positive form of commemoration...."

 

**** Jazzwise magazine

 

 

This is an album that veers from ethereally beautiful and emotive to driving, snarling, avante-garde precociousness. From the off there is a cohesion about the sound, a sense that the musicians are in tune and listening to each other, from the delicate tickles of the quiet sections to the full, brassy blast of the orchestra en-masse, this is an album which grabs attention – beautifully produced, there is a strength and drive to this music which lifts the listener.
There are lovely moments when the whole orchestra unites to create a wall of flowing, moving sounds others where soloists drift away, spiral up and out of the background and create moments where the atmosphere changes and you are drawn into the special world which is Spike.

You get the sense of something quite special happening here. Sounds and pictures are woven by the orchestra and the duo create images of other worlds, fleeting souls passing through, stopping momentarily and then moving onwards. There is texture and richness here, The Spike Orchestra sounds like nothing else.

 

Sammy Stein

Jazz In Europe

 

 

Praise for The SPiKE Orchestra

“Both Eastmond and Franklin have a great sense of theatre and comedy”

 

“... using the jazz 'big band' as a canvas to explore

compositional ideas beyond their usual jazz soundworld.”

 

Sam Chaplin – JazzBomb