Chip Wickham

In recent times Manchester has produced an impressive slew of jazz musicians, with the likes of Matthew Halsall and Nat Birchall both receiving widespread acclaim. A lesser known figure but no less important in the development of the Manchester scene is Chip Wickham, a flautist and saxophonist who soon releases a spiritually leaning and vintage sounding '70s jazz record called La Sombra via Lovemonk Records.

Translated from Spanish as 'The Shade', Chip's debut album drops after a 25-year career touring, recording and experimenting across three decades of jazz, funk, soul, hip-hop, Latin and electronica. La Sombra is a monumental record for Chip as it symbolises the moment he stepped out into the light as a director of his creations with freedom to explore his roots, express and tell his version of jazz and pay testament to his heroes Roland Kirk, Yuseef Lateef & Harold McNair.

La Sombra takes an altogether more rooted direction than Chip's recent collaborative work, with the jazz of the late '60s and early '70s a dominating influence to the recordings. Comprising of seven tracks recorded in Madrid with musicians assembled by Chip from Madrid's jazz scene, it combines contemplative explorations akin to Yusef Lateef's early work on tracks like 'La Sombra' and 'Pushed Too Far'. There's a fiery cover of Camarón de la Isla’s classic ‘La Leyenda Del Tiempo’ and tracks like 'Sling Shot' and 'Red Planet' are locked in a groove harking back to Freddie Hubbard's Blue Note era and Nathan Davis.