Fish Tales
Alan Barnes, Pat McCarthy Octet & Josie Moon
 
Track list
1. All Aboard (Barnes)
2. Narration (Moon)
3. Fishermans Blues (Barnes)
4. Narration (Moon)
5. Sea Jewels (Barnes)
6. Narration (Moon)
7. Three Day Millionaires (McCarthy)
8. Narration (Moon)
9. Witches In Eggshells (McCarthy)
10. Narration Moon)
11. Fisherman's Waltz (McCarthy)
12. Narration (Moon)
13. Long Long Way From Home (McCarthy)
14. Narration (Moon)
15. Engine Room (Barnes)
16. Narration Moon)
17. Face Of Beauty (Barnes)
18. Narration (Moon)
19. Deadly catch (McCarthy)
20. Narration (Moon)
21. Ice Tune (McCarthy)
22. Narration (Moon)
23. Homecoming (Barnes)
 
Details
'Fish Tales' is a jazz suite written by multi award-winning reeds master Alan Barnes and talented guitarist/composer Pat McCarthy, with poetry written and performed by Josie Moon. The octet features trumpeter Martin Shaw, trombonist Mark Nightingale and saxophonist Gilad Atzmon. Grimsby Jazz commissioned Alan Barnes to create a suite of original jazz pieces based on the history of the Grimsby Fishing Industry. Alan asked Pat to contribute themes, which he arranged using his customary skill and good taste. The project features the poet, Josie Moon on half of the tracks and paintings featured in the booklet by Dale Mackie.
 
Personnel
Josie Moon poetry / recital 
Martin Shaw trumpet / flugelhorn
Gilad Atzman soprano / alto / bass clarinet
Dean Masser tenor / clarinet
Alan Barnes alto / baritone / clarinet / flute
Mark Nightingale trombone 
Pat McCarthy guitar 
Dave Green acoustic bass 
Sebastiaan de Krom drums / percussion
Recorded Master Chord Studios January 2017
 
The cover provides two glosses on the title of this disc: one begins ‘A Jazz Suite for Octet by Alan Barnes and Pat McCarthy’. If you know Barnes's or McCarthy's work, that will give you an idea of the kind of sounds you're likely to encounter when you listen to the record: characterful writing (the sparkling ebb-and-flow of ‘Sea Jewels’, the dramatic ‘Deadly Catch’) and fine ensemble work by a team of top performers. The other gloss is just as revealing: ‘Music and Poetry Inspired by the Grimsby Fishing Industry Heritage’ – a bit of a mouthful, but it gives important context to where the project began and what it's about (“Grimsby was once the world's premier fishing port built on the back of much heroism and suffering by the fishermen and their families”, to quote the accompanying booklet). The story is conveyed not by a singer, but poet Josie Moon, who recites her own historically and emotionally evocative reflections (‘A Drowning Man’, ‘Minesweeping’). There's no attempt to make the words sit over the music; the spoken-word and musical tracks mostly alternate, the latter velvety-rich, the former spare, more questioning.