Album Notes

Kinju Quintet was formed by Melbourne double bass player Tony King. The group features Aaron Searle on saxophones and alto flute, Craig Smith on keyboard and trumpet, Andy Gordon on guitars and Rod Wilson on drums.

Tony King's original compositions show a broad palette of influences such as Miles, Coltrane, Monk and Mingus in an album that traverses blues, jazz, world music, ballads and funk.

The recording exudes warmth, humour and passion in a very deliberate attempt to avoid the blandness and sterility of contemporary studio recordings. The recording session was modelled on the work of legendary recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder. The song 'Hackensack' is dedicated to his recording work with John Coltrane. Sound engineer Marck Setford used a combination of D.I. and live miking techniques to achieve a warm,'live' room sound.

The musicians on the recording were given some very specific and some non-specific instructions; firstly, there were to be no retakes, secondly, solos were allowed an open time frame and thirdly, there was to be no prior rehearsal of the songs.

The intention was to capture the joy and freshness of exploring new territory and indeed each track contains moments of magic.