Matthew Halsall is from Manchester and plays trumpet like nothing we’ve heard in a while.  He just hooked us up with a great mix which is available to download at 320Kbps below…

Big shout out to Fruitman for hooking us up with a great interview with Mancunian Maestro Matthew Halsall a few weeks back.  Matt was nice enough to follow up with a really nice jazzy mix for us too which we present here for your listening pleasure.  The 25 year old trumpeter, composer, arranger, DJ, producer and band leader is one to watch during 2010.  We haven’t been this excited about a Jazz record since Soil N Pimp dropped ‘Wheel within a Wheel‘ back in 2006.  The track below has been on heavy rotation in ChoiceCuts HQ for some time now, a beautiful track that’s definitly wrapped up in the late ’50s Miles sound but has Matthew’s own style very much in there too…

Halsall picked up the trumpet at just 6 years old after being taken to a jazz gig by his parents. From the age of 14 Matt has toured the world playing in France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Holland, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Australia and America.

His debut album ‘Sending My Love’ was released in October 2008 on the newly formed independent jazz label Gondwana Records. The album received rave reviews and heavy airplay from the likes of Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio 1), Stuart Maconie (BBC 6 Music), Tom Robinson (BBC 6 Music) and Mike Chadwick (Jazz FM).

In September 2008 he was asked to perform a special live session at the legendery BBC Maida Vale Studios for Stuart Maconie’s Freakzone show on BBC 6 Music to coincide with the release.

Following on from this Matt began work on his first co-production project with saxophonist/composer and arranger Nat Birchall. The album titled ‘Akhenaten’ was released on Gondwana Records on Monday 22nd June 2009 and features four beautiful tracks composed by Nat Birchall.

In July 2009 Matt flew out to Genoa to spend a week working with world-class producer, songwriter, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, orchestral composer, and cultural pioneer Nitin Sawhney.

Matt is currently finishing off his second album for Gondwana Records which is due for release in October/November 2009.

Matthew Halsall – ChoiceCuts Guest Mix by ChoiceCuts

Tracklisting:
1. Build An Ark – This Prayer: For The Whole World – Kindred Spirits
2. Pharoah Sanders – You’ve Got To Have Freedom – Theresa Records
3. Jazztronik – Colors Of Days – Flower Records
4. Timo Lassy – The More I Look At You (Feat. Jose James) – Ricky-Tick Records
5. Timo Lassy – The Call – Ricky-Tick Records
6. Art Blakey – Cubano Chant – Columbia
7. Mulatu Astatke – Ebo Lala – Soundway
8. Art Blakey – Oscalypso – Columbia
9. Ron Blake – Tom Blake (Yoruba Soul Samba Mix) – Freestyle