专辑简介

Roger Waters saxophonist Ian Ritchie's second jazz album features the great Alex Hutton on keys and Tom Fry on double bass. The drum chair has been passed from Vladimiro Carboni, who was featured on Ian's debut album, to Oded Kafri, the Israeli drumming phenomenon and street performer. The first album "Ian Ritchie's SOHO Project" took it's inspiration from the streets and places in Soho, London. "South of Houston" takes it's titles from the streets of SoHo, New York City. In December of 2012 Ian was in NYC to play at the Sandy Relief concert at Madison Square Garden with Roger Waters. He spent the day after the concert wandering around SoHo taking photos of street signs and soaking up the atmosphere. The result was the series of compositions on this album. Incidentally, the Houston in question is the street in New York not the city in Texas and is pronounced How-stun. ( rather than Hoos-tun; the city or Hew-ston; you have to be English for this one ).

The compositions explore rhythms less common in jazz including reggae, hip hop and funk as well as a smattering of swing. Kafri's clear rhythmic concept drives the band leaving Fry's endlessly inventive bass to wander over the groove. Hutton complements and completes the rhythm section supplying the perfect underpinning for Ritchie's solos, then launches into his own surprising and compelling individual forays. Ritchie's strong tenor playing clearly outlines the melodies before extemporising in an attractively melodic fashion. All in all this is highly interactive music that always remains fresh and clear in it's goal to arrest the listeners attention and keep him/her entertained.