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REVIEWS

"The Magic Hat Ensemble have their own voice with many different inflections from Monk, Shelley Manne, even Oscar Peterson and they put it all together with a unique twist." - Jerry Bergonzi

"The Magic Hat Ensemble is a startlingly good jazz group. All the members are accomplished soloists, who seem to really improvise rather than regurgitate learnt licks. More importantly, they are all “team-players” who contribute to making a unique sound. The music seems to be tight and loose at the same time joyful and utterly unpretentious. The arrangements of often familiar material are both ingenious and intriguing and are perfect launching pads for inspired improvisation. This is one of the most refreshing groups I’ve heard in ages."
- Alan Barnes

“The Magic Hat Ensemble have built a solid name for themselves as a cracking live unit around the UK. Offering a youthful and often irreverent take on standards asserted through incredibly tight rhythmic playing and cheeky metric modulations the result is pulsating post bop given a refreshing boot up the behind. Led by Steve Chadwick on cornet with pianist Andrzej Baranek, guitarist Tony Ormesher, bassist Nick Blacka and drummer Rob Turner this is a dynamic and hugely listenable band worth catching live."
- Jazzwise

“They play bop with an expert relish.”

-John Fordham, The Guardian

“No I don’t know why they call themselves The Magic Hat Ensemble but that matters little for what they do here has plenty of jazz magic about it. Taking some familiar pieces like ‘You And The Night And The Music’ or ‘Seven Steps To Heaven’, they’ve found new ways to recast them; playing tricks with tempo and thematic presentation that make you wake up and take notice. Typically, there’ll be a stop-time sequence that seems to go on forever until guitarist Ormesher suddenly breaks cover and goes streaking along in fast-moving, swinging fasion. These players seem to know the whole lexicon of jazz, interpolating moments of freedom, anarchy even, with settled straightahead modernity, adding in rhythmic variety as on ‘Just Friends’ where Baranek improvises over a subtle semi-Latin rhythmic backdrop, before Blacka solos impressively. Chadwick is another clarion voice, a confident improviser who also emerges with plenty to say. Each track offers surprises, clever variations and subtle changes in texture that speak of considerable thought and yes, creativity. Try ‘Blues March’ which is pretty un-Messengers-like, stopping and starting like an asthmatic jogger, the tempo variations likely to confuse even the most practised marcher, Ormesher impressive again over Turner’s quicksilver drums. Why Made in Gorton? Apparently that’s where this rewarding music was conceived and rehearsed. Alan Barnes says “this is one of the most refreshing groups I’ve heard in ages.” Spot on, Alan.”

- Jazzwise

“The Magic Hatters explode the limits of hard bop with daring and mischief. Seven Steps to Heaven, the old Miles Davis tune, is distilled to a single phrase, repeated hypnotically and overlaid with frenetic activity. Just Friends is less and endless cycle of fifths than a mood-piece of rippling beauty. And so it goes on: the rhythms of Blues March expand and contract in unison, moving from New orleans second-line to hothouse bebop. Modern devices - like loop technology - are transposed to the bop idiom using acoustic instruments in real time. Most bands express their creativity with the originals and reveal their conventionality with the covers, but with the Magic Hat Ensemble it’s exactly the other way around. On the whole, a cause of great civic pride for Gorton.”

-Manchester Evening News

“The Magic Hat Ensemble, although the CD ‘Made in Gorton’ (Jellymould) referring to a Manchester suberb, was actually recorded in London for a Huddersfield based record company. It’s a highly enjoyable re-working of jazz classics and standards. ‘Seven Steps to Heaven’ has a disguised introduction and features trumpeter Steve Chadwick and guitarist Tony Ormesher, and Andrzej Baranek has a fine piano bridge to the next track, ‘Just Friends’. These three are also featured on ‘Blues March’, a tune well-nigh impossible to disguise, but enjoyably arranged. Bass player Nick Blacka is especially good on Wayne Shorter’s ‘Speak No Evil’.”

-Jazz UK

"The cover image depicting an LP record inside a well-worn inner sleeve and a track listing of familiar standards and classic jazz compositions by Victor Feldman, Art Blakey and Wayne Shorter rightly suggests an orthodox approach to the jazz repertory. That said, the quintet tackle the material with such winning verve and entusiasm that they can’t help but sound fresh and fervent. Trumpeter Steve Chadwick is probably the most familiar face in the line-up, which also features Tony Ormesher’s guitar work and some agile, grooving pianism from Andrzej Baranek, with Nick Blacka and Rob Turner on bass and drums respectively. They move into more abstract territory for a time on Feldman’s Seven Steps to Heaven, but for the most part this is classic bop delivered with flair and energy by a very tight and inventive young band.”

-The Scotsman

“Bebop and swing with a brutal modern twist. The Magic Hat Ensemble take familiar elements of jazz and play them harder and louder than you’ve heard; this is jazz with road rage - a refreshing shot in the arm for the UK scene.”

-Chimp Magazine

“...(an) adventurous spirit is still afoot in British jazz in groups like The Magic Hat Ensemble....(This Conversation is Over is) a highly individual collection of standards.”

-Geoffrey Smith, BBC R3 Jazz Record Requests

“They really are making the jazz world sit up and take notice. Great arrangements and tremendous playing. Very, very listenable indeed.”

-Stephen Duffy, The Jazz House, BBC Radio Scotland

PRESS MATERIALS

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