Nick Walters & The Paradox Ensemble are back with their third studio album “Implicate Order” the first release on Nick Walters brand new label - D.O.T. Records.
The eleven piece group continues to break the mould of big band jazz, combining spiritual and eastern jazz moods with West African rhythms and a fusion of electronics. “Implicate Order” follows up the bands highly acclaimed “Awakening”
LP released on 22a in January 2019.
The album kicks off with The Underdog - a sprightly tribute to Charles Mingus, inspired by his classic album 'The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady’. Walters’ lofty trumpet takes the lead, conducting the 11 piece band along a catchy hook, brought to a head by the excellent Richard Foote on Trombone.
Volta Region continues the vibrant start to the album. Named after a beautiful region in Eastern Ghana bordering Togo. The main riff to the song came to Nick whilst travelling in that region, after a few years of playing around with it and experimenting he managed to use it as the basis for this extended composition.
Be Seeing You rounds up the a-side - inspired by the classic 60s tv show The Prisoner, an attempt to write a piece with a similar sense of energy, drama and excitement that could accompany an action scene from the show. Featuring a stand-out solo from Sam Healey on alto saxophone.
The b-side sets a much darker and more spiritual tone, kicking off with the epic Diminishing Returns - an exploration of the different harmonic sounds thrown up by the symmetries of the diminished scale. Ruby Rushton keys player Aidan Shepherd bestows one of the highlight moments on the album with an accordion solo that is as good as it is scarcely heard in jazz music.