Tal Till Svenska Nationen

Gearing up for their third album for FatCat, Tal National look back on a fertile period spent further honing their sound and touring the US several times - leaving audiences sweaty and stunned time after time. They've laid down incredible sets at WOMAD and Roskilde, bringing the same intensity and jubilance to the festival set as they would a crammed club, converting the staunchest wallflower into a dancer for the night. At their core, that’s Tal National's intent, to make the people dance. Performances at their Niamey nightclub (yes they operate their own nightclub) are regularly raucous 5-hour non-stop dance parties for 300 people a night. With Tantabara the band continues their ongoing quest to translate that energy to tape, bottling the party for personal use. The grooves are the backbone of the album, and the intent is to create a trance-state that overwhelms conscious thought and lets the listener be surrounded by the energy and emotion of Tal National. Brimming with the band’s complex, intense spirit, the album is a continuation of the balance of tradition and innovation that have driven their previous albums. It’s a joyous celebration and euphoric epiphany all in one complex package. We'd expect nothing less at this point from Tal National.

During the 1950s, Tal Farlow recorded a wonderful series of albums that established him as one of the premiere bop/cool guitarists. He recorded less frequently in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, preferring to stay out of the limelight. Autumn Leaves consists of two discs Farlow recorded for Concord: Tal Farlow '78 and The Legendary Tal Farlow (1985). When a great player like Farlow revives his career 20 years later, it seems customary, though a bit impolite, to ask: can he play as well as he once could? The easy answer is yes, he plays with the same finesse and speed (though it's hard to tell: his fingers move extremely fast), but this should be qualified by noting that his overall approach has mellowed during the interval. On the first disc Farlow is joined by bassist Gary Mazzaroppi and drummer Tom Sayek for a straight-ahead trio set…