13th October 2014: BIG NEWS: Euan Burton to release follow up album ‘Too Much Love’ November 17 ft Tom Gibbs, Alyn Cosker and Adam Jackson + Royal Festival Hall release show Nov 14
Too Much Love is the eagerly awaited follow up release from the award winning Scottish double bassist, composer & producer Euan Burton, whose first WWR album Occurrences (May, 2012) was met with high international acclaim. On his new release Burton continues to grow as a musician and composer, blending composition and improvisation in his signature way while creating melodic and harmonic motives that develop thematically throughout the course of the album.
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After the release of Occurrences, Burton looked to form a new group with musicians from his native Glasgow scene to develop a rapport and cohesion with his new material. After tours around the UK and Poland they returned to Scotland’s premier recording facility to record this new suite of music which makes up Too Much Love. Burton explains, “The title comes from the notion that so many of the things that go wrong, or the mistakes people make, come from a place of either people having misplaced love or having so much love that they don’t know how to deal with it and channel it properly. I guess it’s a rose-tinted way to look at certain darker and more upsetting aspects of life and this struck me as a good starting point for writing a new album, this idea of ‘Too Much Love‘.”
As always, his collaborators play a huge part in the music and although this may be a new quartet it features three of his long-time associates. On piano Tom Gibbs is Burton’s longest collaborator, their co-led group released 2010’s Forgotten Things featuring Ari Hoenig. Burton also produced and played on Gibbs’ 2012 WWR release Fear of Flying. Gibbs’ unique skills as a pianist and improviser feature heavily on Too Much Love.
Alyn Cosker (drums) is a powerhouse of the Scottish music scene and while he and Burton have never recorded together they have been performing in various projects since 2006. Cosker’s dynamic talents come with years of experience with jazz greats such as Tommy Smith, Lee Konitz, and Joe Locke to name but a few and his attention to detail on Burton’s music is one of the highlights of the record.
Alto saxophonist Adam Jackson may be a new name to many, but he and Burton have known each other since attending high school together. A former student at Birmingham Conservatoire he developed in the ranks of Tommy Smith’s Youth Jazz Orchestra. His tone and melodic development in his improvisations show a maturity beyond his years and this album provides a great platform to showcase this rising star of the Scottish scene.
Burton himself contributed all the highly emotive compositions, performs as bassist, produced, mixed and mastered the album, displaying an impressive palette of musical skills. As a bassist, his warm tones and poignant improvisations give nod to the Charlie Haden school while retaining his own voice throughout. He’s incredibly in demand as a sideman across many genres in his native Scotland and has appeared on dozens of albums to date, with performances with many modern jazz greats including Ari Hoenig, Gilad Hekselman, Will Vinson and Jonathan Kreisberg. Moreover, he’s played with folk legends Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham, pop group Texas and can be heard on the The Disney Pixar film Brave. With Too Much Love, we see the multifaceted Burton strengthening his reputation as of the UK’s premier bassist/bandleaders/composers.