2018 · Album
Sounds Almighty
Recorded 2018 · Brownswood Recordings · Produced by Nat Birchall
A Spiritual Awakening in Reggae Grooves
Birchall merges Rastafarian spirituality with contemporary reggae production, creating something genuinely rare in modern jazz.
Sounds Almighty arrives as Birchall's most focused statement to date, a deliberate step toward integrating his spiritual convictions directly into his sound. Where earlier work flirted with world music textures and reggae rhythms as surface decoration, this album commits fully to the marriage of Rastafarian thought and live improvisation. The result is neither world music nor roots reggae, but a hybrid that sounds entirely natural—no strain, no apologizing for either half.
The production leans hard into dub aesthetics: spacious, echo-laden arrangements that give the horns room to breathe and speak. KT Lowry on trumpet and Vin Gordon on trombone lock into grooves that feel less like jazz soloing over reggae vamps and more like horn players who grew up in Kingston playing their own language. The rhythm section anchors everything without rush, letting Birchall's tenor saxophone find meditative spaces between the beat. Tracks develop slowly, building texture rather than seeking climax, which takes patience but rewards it.
This is exactly where Birchall needed to be at this point in his career—confident enough to follow an unfashionable idea without hedging, specific enough in execution that it never feels precious or tourist-like. It's not his most immediately likeable record, and it won't appeal to listeners expecting straight-ahead tenor blowing. But it's his most honest.
Who's playing
KT Lowrytrumpet
Vin Gordontrombone
