Family Band

Family Band is the eponymously titled 3rd release from this quartet of like-minded friends and collaborators. This is a band in the truest sense, with no leader contributions come equally from Kim Macari on trumpet, Riley Stone-Lonergan on tenor saxophone, Tom Rivière on double bass and Steve Hanley on drums. The group met while studying at Leeds College of Music in 2008, founding the band in 2015.

The album was recorded over two days in early February 2020 by Tim Thomas in an old farm outbuilding near Doncaster that now houses a recording studio. Although in hindsight the shadow of a global pandemic loomed large, this period in the studio represented a final period of normalcy for the band, with time spent playing with the studio dogs Harold and Wilson while everyone focused on creation in a rural setting.

The album includes compositions by all members. Kim Macari's Deft But Bereft is a frantic piece of protest music set against the apocalyptic paranoia of a Cold War era radio broadcast. Stone-Lonergan's Mistake Not is a coiled spring acting as a jumping off point for his improvisatory fire. Hanley's emancipatory choral One Road features spoken word by Macari and acts as a powerful call to action. The freewheeling and unpredictable swing of Rivière's Monty takes inspiration from the shifting tempos of Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones on Ornette Coleman's classic New York Is Now!