Artist: Dave Beebee

Date of Release:

Catalogue no: bbcd 203

Label: BeeBoss

Price: £8

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Track Listing

Appearances by

Momentito

"Gaya is the place where I had the first ideas for the project. After a long hard motorbike journey through some remote Indian regions we arrived in Bodhgaya, the place of the Buddha's death. The next morning as I was up in the Tibetan monastery I could hear the young monks chanting a strange melody in a nine beat cycle, which later evolved into the title track. That was eight years ago. Several of these tunes date from that time and all of them are inspired by my feelings of India and the Himalaya. Hope you enjoy the music". David Beebee.

Gaya features David Beebee on fretless bass guitar, Gareth Lockrane on flute, alto flute and piccolo, Sam Mayne on alto sax, Ian Price on tenor and soprano sax, Dave Priseman on trumpet and flugelhorn, Barnaby Dickinson on trombone, Patrick Naylor on electric guitar, Milo Fell on drums cymbals and percussion, Trevor Mires on trombone, Tony Woods on alto sax and Rob Millett on Percussion.

Reviews

01/03/2002 Garry Booth, BBC Music Magazine

' Here's an album with something for everyone. Its funky and worldly, tight where it matters ­ yet loose. Band leader / composer / bassist David Beebee says the pieces were inspired by his travels to India and the Himalaya, but there is no obvious link. The title track is based on a nine beat cycle, heard in a Tibetan monastery. The dramatic arrangement, however, with its slick brass choir, owes more to Detroit than Lhasa. In the Somnambulist, the horns and flute arise from a bed of rustling percussion and proceed to wake up the whole house. Raspberry Jam is a fast-paced R&B groove (complete with fuzz guitar break) that threatens to come apart at the seams but is ultimately held together by the leaders supple, fretless bass lines, this large small group (can nine pieces be called a big band?) can play at gale force seven but is compact enough for its players to hear and be heard. The arrangements are sufficiently closely written to hold the listener's attention but not so constraining that the soloist can't cut loose. Altogether it is a gem of an album from a lesser known leader. And the word is that Oxford based Beebee's latest travels took him to South America and that a quartet album is imminent'.