Catholics - Village

The Catholics were formed in 1991 by highly-respected Australian bassist lloyd swanton (the necks, vince jones, bernie McGann, wendy matthews, among many others) as a vehicle for his composing and producing, with the intention of injecting a much-needed dose of infectious world rhythms into the jazz tradition. They were an instant success. In their long career, The Catholics have toured overseas to Canada, europe and Thailand, have won a mo award, and have been nominated for several aria and apra awards, and a German deutsche schallplattenkritik award also. After the atmospheric detour of their acclaimed previous album, 'gondola', ("the sound is big and the effects gorgeous - a beautiful release" - the wire, UK) 'village' returns The Catholics to their trademark fusing of jazz with various dance grooves from around the globe, a meld which has cemented their popular appeal here and abroad. From the mid-sixties blue note boogaloo of 'half a shark' and 'the cumbia of salaam', through african tones and island jive, to the freeze-dried gilberto-esque bossa of 'sugarloaf', this is another joyous and sensual album from The Catholics, imbued with humour and warmth. Beautifully recorded and mixed, 'village' represents a stepping-back by bandleader lloyd swanton from the chief composer role. Says swanton, "i'm delighted to be opening up the band's palette to other composers, both within and outside the band. On 'village', we've got first-time contributions such as our guitarist jonathan pease's beautiful african tune 'pelicans' and slide guitarist bruce reid's exquisite 'grace', we've got a great samba tune from our saxophonist sandy evans in 'sun dance', but we're also playing contributions from legendary saxophonist bernie McGann, ernest ranglin's drummer dion parson, and that great Australian pianist, barney McAll."