The British octet Oriole – a band led by acoustic guitarist and composer Jonny Phillips, and with ubiquitous drummer Seb Rochford in its ranks – return with there third album, Every New Day (**** F-IRE). Subtly fusing jazz with salient latin elements, they create music that is elegantly understated and at times ravishingly beautiful; the later quality is exemplified by the graceful melancholic opener Levante.

Performance *****
Recording *****

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F-ire’s membersrr have a reputation for flaming avant-guard music but founder member Jonny Phillips who often works with Spanish, Portuguese and Cuban musicians, favours the smoldering, slow burn pleasure principle. Accordingly, Every New Day, concieved and written while he was living in Cadiz, is all about duende, that hard to define stirring of the soul. The combined lead roles of regular partners, rusty toned tenorist Laubrock and cellist Davis set the brooding tone with the usually alarming rhythm section of Seb Rochford and Ruth Goller pared back to a parched minimalism. Idris Rahmans lamenting clarinet is a reminder of how close Cadiz is to North Africa. It’s a very more-ish album in all senses.

Garry Booth

Jazz UK - “and one more pearl the glorious Every New Day”

The Jazz Mann – “Unique and thoroughly organic, combining sometimes apparently disparate elements in a unifying, satisfying whole.” ****

Record Collector - “Ravishingly beautiful” ****

BBC Music Magazine - “Outstanding”Performance*****
           Recording(by Joe Leach@CowshedStudio)*****

The Observer – Dave Gelly - “An unexpected delicacy” ****

The Guardian – John Fordham - “The music, and the recording, quietly blaze like an Iberian summer” ****

Mojo - “Utterly persuasive and charming”

The Glasgow Herald – Rob Adams - “the music’s shape and momentum continue to thrill. A belter.”

Echoes Magazine - “Oriole have been making consistently good records for the best part of a decade” ***

The List – Edinburgh

Manchester Evening News - “Every New Day exudes serenity – Perfect.” *****

Music OMH – Dan Paton - “This is warm, bright, delightful album that deserves to reach a wider audience.”

The Metro – “full-throated melodies that swoop and soar”

The Jazz Breakfast – “A rich, charming, deeply human and gloriously uplifting collection of songs, beautifully played. It should be available on prescription.”

Jazzwise – Review/Interview – Selwyn Harris – “Like Polar Bear at carnival time” *** 

London Jazz Blogspot – Chris Parker – “a gentle warmth and mellow beauty infusing all ten of his pieces” 

All About Jazz – Chris May – “Just beautiful.”

All About Jazz – Bruce Lindsay - “a gorgeous collection of tunes, an album of genuine beauty”