Nat Birchall, one of the UK’s finest saxophonists – with both the tenor and soprano his deadly weapons of choice! He’s a bandleader, composer and arranger and who knew, an absolutely killer selector! Nat has been gracing the 1BTN airwaves for the best part of a year now, with the excellent monthly excursion he calls ‘Sounds From The Ancient Archive’ and this man’s musical tastes and knowledge runs deep!
Efforlessly linking the relationship between reggae, dub and jazz, Nat delves far into his collection to compile a very well thought out and crafted show, which could take you into strictly dub territory with the likes of Augustus Pablo, Salah Ragab & Big Youth, or deep into sax led jazz, offering up the genius of Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis, or John Coltrane, the latter actually being the focus of this month’s show. Nat investigates the majestic sounds of both John and Alice Coltrane, more so the genius string led compositions of the celestial Swami. There’s also music from Egypt with Ali Ismail and Salah Ragab with Sun Ra! Plus some deadly Roots Rock Reggae with Jimmy Dean, David Madden and Cedric Brooks.
Make no mistake this is strictly for the heads, Nat goes in! If you like your music intense and profound then you need this. Don some headphones, press play and let Manchester’s finest jazz export take you on a stellar journey to the outer-planetary corners of the musical spectrum. Simply, heavenly.
