Resolution 88
Vortex

Resolution 88 are one of the tightest funky jazz bands in the UK. ‘Vortex’, their fourth self-produced and released album is one of their strongest. Tom O’Grady is a masterful keyboard player, obviously heavily influenced by Herbie Hancock and he displays his talents on this great album playing Rhodes, Clavinet, ARP Odyssey, Roland and Oberheim amongst other keyboards. The title track ‘Vortex’ is an eight minute voyage of discovery that starts off from a moody, atmospheric intro featuring Tom Smith on Bass Clarinet intro, then changes pace into a frantic groove with Smith changing to Tenor and Soprano and keyboard wizardry from O’Grady sounding like a mid 70’s Hancock composition. ‘The Boss From Boston’ is more straightforward funky jazz with a strong bass groove from Tiago Coimbra. ‘Sky High’ is a beautiful melodic tribute to Larry and Fonze Mizell. ‘Shriffty’ is a chirpy jazz-funk groove that shifts along nicely, ‘Final Approach’ is a good melodic tune with quirky synths. The killer track though is ‘Love Will Come Around’, a nice mid tempo track which is featured as an instrumental and as a beautiful vocal cut featuring Vanessa Haynes. Highly accomplished album with a very heavy Herbie influence, even down to the fantastic cover designed by Tokio Aoyama drawing inspiration from his ‘Flood’, ‘Thrust’ and ‘Manchild’ covers.