Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia with NYJO

Fascinating link up between one of Britain’s greatest jazz/rock outfits and members of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Even with Jon Hiseman’s passing and Barbara Thompson’s struggles with Parkinson’s disease, Paraphernalia are still a force to be reckoned with and the remaining able members of the band - Pete Lemer on keyboards, Billy Thompson on violin, and Dave 'Taif' Ball on bass - join forces with 17 phenomenal players from NYJO, to bring an exuberant twist to the classic tracks under the expert leadership of Mark Armstrong.
The result is big band jazz of a remarkable standard and these 10 tracks show classic numbers from Paraphernalia and Colosseum in a very different light.

I detected a feeling that the old-stagers were more than happy to work with the future stars of British jazz and the quality and intensity of the playing clearly shows the standard of NYJO today.

Old favourites such as ‘Ode To Sappho’ take on a slight darkness I didn’t remember hearing before while the Colosseum classic ‘Safe As Houses’ – featuring Ana Gracey Hiseman – has a strong punch and a whispery lightness from Billy Thompson’s violin. The title track comes over strong and almost cinematic in feel. ‘In Memory’, also featuring Ana Gracey is chilling and beautiful at the same time.

A fine album, great listening and really shows that there is real talent coming through in jazz.