The Limbic System
The Limbic System, born to gig, is a cracking band of friends who have shared their musical visions for over a decade coming together to make original jazz music from a kinda sorta Weather Report angle. It is also the name of an area of the brain which deals with extreme emotions. A neurologist who fell in love with the band and the music at a recent gig touched Harry's arm as she told him “I tell my students: the limbic system is where all the excitement comes from” Amen!
The Limbic System is a new British jazz fusion band led by reeds player and composer Harry S. Fulcher. Harry has worked and recorded with jazz artists like Tony Oxley, Alex Maguire and Paul Dunmall as well as rock bands like The Levellers and New Model Army.
The first Limbic System album, featuring all original compositions by Harry, was released in 2004 to great critical acclaim. (You can listen to the tracks off the cd by clicking here and buy the albums from the shop link on the left of the page)
It has been picked as one of the top ten jazz albums of 2004 by the editor of Jazz Views magazine. Mike Chadwick has played tracks from the album on his Jazz FM show, ‘Cutting Edge’, saying “I can’t stop playing it !”
Chrissie Murray astutely identified the bands influences when she wrote in Jazz UK: “Oregon meets Weather Report via Steps Ahead”.
Harry S. Fulcher says "I wanted to make an album which
is about music rather than showing off, an album which unfolds and takes
you with it.
I end up writing pieces that are about things. I don’t intend to but once the germ of an idea is born I am literally pulled along in its service as it insists on growing into its own identity. At the same time in my head I can hear the jazz life that I, Dhevdhas, Kevin, Sean and co. will breathe into it.
So, “Big Sky” turned out to be about the spectacular view from my studio overlooking the Salcombe harbour and the Devon hills for miles. “Deluxe” describes Australia from a bus window. “No.6 Boatstore” makes the atmosphere of a small local boatyard where I worked for some years almost palpable. “Speaking In Tongues”, a rip it up funk’n’gospel, reflects something which I, as an atheist, confided to my dear friend the local vicar: I am transported when I’m playing right out there; “The possession of the spirit”! I was watching my cat one sunny afternoon playing in the back garden like a private detective who’d done way too much coffee and her antics made it onto the album as “My Cat’s A Private Detective”. A man most dear to me once woke from a nightmare yelling “Dirty deckchairs!”…… go figure. The album finishes with guitarist Richard Thorn’s achingly beautiful “Silent Love”. "
Personnel:
Harry S. Fulcher: reeds/composer
Dhevdhas Nair: piano, keyboards
Andy Christie: guitar
Zoe Lambeth: reeds
Kevin Sanders: basses
Sean Willmott: drums & percussion
The Limbic System website
