Vega Trails - a project by musicians from Portico Quartet and Mammal Hands for a concert in Warsaw! The charges of Gondwana Records will play at Jassmine on 18 May.
Vega Trails is a chamber-jazz project by double bassist Milo Fitzpatrick,(Portico Quartet), featuring saxophonist Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands).
Inspired by life in the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range north of Madrid, Milo Fitzpatrick has created 'Sierra Tracks', a new album that combines the evocativeness of film music and intimate jazz. Following the focused Vega Trails debut 'Tremors In Static' recorded as a duet with Jordan Smart (Mammal Hands and Sunda Arc), Milo has expanded this concept to include the sounds of piano, vibraphone and strings. In particular, pianist Taz Modi (Milo's bandmate from the concert line-up of the Portico Quartet) brought "rhythmic movement to the music of Vega Trails, freeing the double bass and saxophone from over-duty". The key voice alongside Milo, however, continues to be multi-instrumentalist Jordan Smart.
" Jordan has a really direct and exciting way of connecting with his instrument and the audience," says Milo. "He's interested in jazz, but also in different folk music traditions, and he plays a variety of wind instruments - soprano and tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, duduk and Ney flute from Turkey and Armenia. Knowing his phrasing, I wrote the music with him in mind." Fitzpatrick also admits that the sound of 'Sierra Tracks' was influenced by his Gondwana Records labelmate Hania Rani, with whom he consulted on the string arrangements for the new tracks. "Hania was recording the soundtrack for the film in Warsaw and offered to share the session. I realised that the sound palette could be really wide.
"Sierra Tracks" is a love letter to the rocky landscape where its creator currently lives. It is also, Milo says, the story of his journey to mental balance after the difficult years of the pandemic. "I also wanted to show how walking or running can help (...) find clarity as well as order in tangled emotions. It's like discovering a new path while running, which changes your perspective and helps you find peace and acceptance." As a result, Vega Trails' music is true medicine for the mind, body and soul.