★★★★☆The feats of London’s jazz new wave – Nubya Garcia, Moses Boyd, the Mercury-winning Ezra Collective – have earned the love of critics heralding a UK jazz revival. But 200 miles north, with less fanfare, the trumpeter Matthew Halsall and fellow thinkers on his Gondwana record label have forged their own winning path. Over nine albums, Halsall has built a following for a Manchester brand of gently mesmeric jazz and is now on a long and mostly sold-out tour.
The likeably unassuming Halsall seemed as pleased as his fans to be in the Royal Albert Hall, observing as he returned for an encore: “It means a lot. This is quite mental to me. I’m just chillin’ at home most of the time.”
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