Album Notes

“The CD got me wondering where the Mahavishnu Orchestra would be in 2010 if they’d been led by Jaco Pastorius; Mystic Radikal wouldn’t have been too far away. Yep, it’s that good!” - FlyGlobalMusic.com

"Catchy hook-laden melodies, spacious arrangements and memorable compositions will doubtless go down a storm at their increasingly frenetic gigs" - Mike Flynn, Bass Guitar Magazine

"A nice and very varied album. Good quality stuff!" - Peter Slavid, UK Jazz Radio

“An album that scores high on bright tunes, good ideas and individualism. Led by a virtuoso bassist, there’s always some arresting melodic twist and arrangements which are multi-layered and imaginative” – Manchester Evening News

“Jazz bass as you’ve never heard it before. Experience Shez Raja!” – Wiltshire Times

"Mystic Radikal is an exciting mixture that's all the more enjoyable because the constituent elements never seem forced or unnatural in combination. It's a melting pot, but without the political connotations of cultural friction. This is fusion music at its most straightforward and entertaining" - All About Jazz

“Stylish brand of noirish uptempo jazz funk. Raja’s is a global groove, with rock, and world music flourishes thrown in. If you want to hear the bass guitar as something other than a rhythmic underpinning then check out his silky playing on the gorgeous piece Angel’s Tears” – Yorkshire Evening Post

“Mystic Radikal is a strong album through and through” - BluesandSoul.com

"Which is your idea of the F word? UK fusion hasn't gone anywhere much since the hey-day of Roadside Picnic two decades ago, while on a bad day funk seems to have become just another stylistic gesture. Then along comes the Shez Raja Collective, proffering a fine new album with Andy Sheppard and Claude Deppa guesting and a clutch of upcoming dates which not only provide a welcome antidote to both of the above but which rehabilitate the electric bass (again) in the process" - Roger Thomas - Editor, Jazz UK

“Shez has a masterful way with catchy melodies and his Stanley Clarke-inspired playing leads confidently from the front. A highly satisfying album full of joyful surprises” – The York Press

"This work grows in boldness and variety" - John Fordham, The Guardian