ALBUM REVIEWS
LIVE IN NYC
JAZZWISE MAGAZINE
Atlanticus's earlier recording earned a four-star rating from me in Jazzwise 302, an assessment that is repeated here with this welcome follow-up. In effect this new release is a souvenir of this inventive British-American group's successful 2024 US tour, something of a highlight in the decade that they've been together, the album recorded at The Shrine in Harlem.
Seabrook, Brighton's keyboard king, is the group's sparkplug as instigator and composer but contributes just one piece this time, as does Kendon, to Fraize's four. So, a true partnership then, all for one and one for all, the album opening strongly with Fraize's jaunty 'Blue Haven', its organbased hard bop feel sustained by Seabrook's warm keyboard sounds, Fraize the first to solo, Kendon effective in navigating the changes, Seabrook taking his cue, with nice riffs behind him, Fell adding impact. Seabrook's 'Upstream' is another in his list of titles with a marine reference and gets a mini-tsunami of hot trumpet from Kendon, Fell adding turbulence. The trumpeter then continues the watery theme with 'Uneven Shores', the tone more reflective, relaxed and relatively easy-going before another of US tenorist Fraize's well-made originals, "Theme For Le', Kendon sprightly, Seabrook's Hammondmade bass line apposite before Fraize aims for the horizon, his complexity making one think of the late Michael Brecker. I loved what Atlanticus do with Bobby Timmons's "Moanin", Fraize's upwardly-mobile opening cadenza with just Fell's tom-toms a highlight, ahead of the timehonoured theme. All in all, this is exemplary music, every man on the case, showing that there's life left aplenty in the classic Blue Note organ combo style, especially when it's played with this kind of verve. A great band to see live: look out for them.
- Peter Vacher
OCEANIC
DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE
Atlanticus, a transatlantic quartet composed both of American and British musicians, came together in 2016 when Washington, D.C.- based tenor saxophonist Peter Fraize traveled to the U.K., subsequently meeting Brighton based keys player Terry Seabrook, trumpeter Jack Kendon and drummer Milo Fell. So, it feels only natural that Oceanic the “big pond” that both separates the quartet and brings them together.
Oceanic is an eight-track album anchored by The Oceanic Suite, five interconnected originals that contemplate humanity’s relationship to the ocean. Created in support of UNESCO’s Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, each poignant movement explores a different angle of this natural wonder and our responsibility to it, driven forward by the band’s palpable environmental advocacy.
Musically, the record highlights Fraize’s lush, warm tone and inventive improvisations, as well as his blend with Kendon, who plays with command and lyricism throughout. Fell and Seabrook shine, too, particularly during unscripted, improvisational moments when the quartet can step away from the intricate com positions and dive deep into their interaction.
Like its muse, Oceanic ebbs, flows and crests. The Oceanic Suite’s third movement, “Choices” is a high point, with its deliciously angular melody and Seabrook’s adventurous organ stylings, as is the culmination of the suite, “Finale/How Deep is the Ocean,” which relevantly combines an intricate original with the sublime Irving Berlin jazz classic. Another highlight is “Uneven Shores,” a Kendon original that rings both familiar and unexpected, much like Oceanic overall.
- Alexa Peters
JAZZWISE (editor’s choice)
This is a UK-US collaboration, the local element headed by Brighton-based keyboardist Seabrook alongside drummer Fell and brass player Kendon, also both from Brighton, with Washingtonian-Fraize the sole American involved.
Badged as ‘Transatlantic Jazz’, its purposes are quite specific and especially significant in this era of climate change and environmental concerns. The album’s core is the five-part suite 'Oceanic', co-composed by Seabrook and Fraize, reflecting "humanity’s relationship with the oceans", its 40-minute duration ‘exploring the beauty and diversity of marine life’.
The suite is linked to UNESCO’s Decade of Ocean Science and voices the band’s "commitment to environmental advocacy through music". At the time of writing, this is given added importance as Atlanticus are over in the Eastern US performing 'Oceanic' with an accompanying video on an eight-location concert tour.
Given these worthy objectives and as serious as they are – who can deny their relevance? – it’s pleasing to report that the music, with or without its oceanic connotations, is both invigorating and resolutely good to hear. The writing is tight, I hesitate to write water-tight, the outcomes in broadly hard-bop mode, Seabrook comping and urging as appropriate, Fraize an exemplary, Brecker-inclined improviser and the impressive Kendon, son of bassist Adrian Kendon, offering cleverly-compiled linear solos while hinting at Art Farmer’s pensiveness.
Seabrook opens ‘Oceans’ as Fraize enters with Kendon, the voicing here, as elsewhere, in Blue Note fashion. ‘Diversity’ is more animated, Kendon clearly a talent to watch, as Fraize explores the theme’s greater depths. ‘Choices’ is quirky and ‘Impact’ builds gradually, the organ figures spiralling, Fraize playing falsetto and Kendon again noteworthy.
Great to include Irving Berlin’s ‘How Deep is the Ocean’ as the suite’s final element, the melody emerging after a series of opening riffs, brightly played. Add in three more marine-inclined originals and it’s pleasures aplenty.
- Peter Vacher
UPSTREAM
BEBOP SPOKEN HERE
Organ combos rarely feature two horns out front. Usually its organ and drums augmented by either sax or guitar. However, Seabrook and his transatlantic co-writer Fraize opted for tenor sax and flumpet. For the uninformed (such as myself) a flumpet is an instrument that is part flugelhorn and part trumpet. You maybe are thinking it is something that was created in Greek mythology but, in actual fact, it was invented by David Monette in 1989 for Art Farmer and used on his recording Silk Road.
The two horns, along with Seabrook's B3, and Fell's drumming create a great funky sound. Are we in Philly, downtown Chicago or maybe Detroit? No, three of us are in Brighton UK and one (Fraize) has dropped by from Washington DC. What's a mere ocean between friends? The album title may offer a clue. Kendon blows his socks off. Any trumpet, flugel or cornet player will, after hearing this, want a flumpet even if it means foregoing a strumpet. Fraize is blistering on tenor, Seabrook, whom I'd only previously heard on piano, lends himself to the Hammond born. Is this a vintage B3 I wonder? Fell, slots in well and my thoughts are that this is the perfect Hammond/horn band setting. This is their second album and they're touring their third album, Oceanic, as I type which finishes in a couple of days time at Eastbourne which, I suppose is in keeping with the Atlantic theme. I guess the North Sea is but a rivulet in the overall picture. Ignore that last paragraph, it's just me expressing my frustration at not being able to see/hear this fantastic band live! Did I hear something from the Culture Secretary about levelling-up? No, I think it was from another minister talking about painting-over.
- Lance Liddle
BLUE HAVEN
Veteran tenor-saxophonist Peter Fraize is originally from Northern Virginia, spent time in the Netherlands in the 1980s studying and playing music, and has been based in Washington D.C. since 1989, performing a wide variety of creative music. He has since returned to Europe numerous times. In 2016 Fraize teamed up with the talented British organist Terry Seabrook (who has his own musical personality within the hard bop/soul jazz organ tradition) for a tour of the UK, forming a quartet that also included trumpeter Jack Kendon and drummer Milo Fell. That year they had strong success at the Love Supreme Festival. In the summer of 2018 the quartet, now called Atlanticus, came back together to play 20 dates and then decided that it was time for their first recording.
Blue Haven, which consists of nine originals by Fraize and Seabrook plus fresh versions of “Moanin’,” and “Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise,” was recorded in one day. While the tenor-trumpet-organ-drums instrumentation is reminiscent of Larry Young’s classic Unity album from the mid-1960s, Atlanticus sounds unlike any of its historical inspirations. The band’s release features bright new music, concise solos, and an attractive group sound.
The energetic title cut, a modern straight-ahead piece, launches the set at an exciting and passionate level. Fraize displays an original sound on tenor along with excellent technique, Kendon’s trumpet playing is fluent and colorful, and there is a spirited organ-drums tradeoff. “Swank” has a rhythmic pattern by Seabrook in 5/4 time that will immediately remind one of Lalo Schifrin’s theme from Mission Impossible. That vamp, along with a contrasting interlude, serves as an inspiring foundation for the trumpet and tenor solos.
Milo Fell’s creative drums are prominent throughout the groove tune “Let’s Walk” and the catchy but unpredictable “Ethan’s Sky.” Fell’s Afro-Cuban rhythms duet with Fraize during the first two minutes of a reinvented version of Bobby Timmons’ “Moanin’” which also includes a section for Kendon’s fiery trumpet. The atmospheric but grooving “Theme For Reggie,” “GW RIF” which sounds like a futuristic boogaloo, and a cooking uptempo romp on “Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise” (which includes a wild section in the middle of the performance) follow. “Blues For Alice In Wonderland” gives each musician a chance to make a statement. Blue Haven concludes with the jazz waltz “Revival” and the rousing closer “That’s What”; the latter can be thought of as a musical answer to Miles Davis’ “So What.”
Blue Haven is a highly enjoyable release, one that finds Atlanticus invigorating the jazz tradition with surprises and consistently inventive ideas.
- Scott Yanow, jazz journalist/historian
JAZZ JOURNAL
Sixty-plus minutes of arresting music as blues-charged as it is harmonically literate, Blue Haven is one hell of an album from the striking Anglo-American quartet which appeared at the Love Supreme Festival in Sussex in 2018 and 2022.
Known primarily as a pianist but on organ here, the Brighton-based, widely experienced Terry Seabrook has worked with, e.g., Anita Wardell, Joe Lee Wilson and Bobby Wellins. He has a special way of mining fresh gems from familiar ground: sample Sketches Of Miles from 2010 (which opened with the hypnotic uptempo modality of That’s What, recast as the concluding piece here) or Celebrating Wayne Shorter from a decade or so later.
While Larry Young’s classic Unity, with Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw and Elvin Jones, is a favourite of Seabrook’s, the freshly turned creative passion that marks Blue Haven is many a mile from any matter of mere affinity or pastiche. The music crackles with its own intensity and intelligence, its own charts and moods. Now up and burning (Blues For Alice), now mellow (Let’s Walk), Seabrook and his confrères gell beautifully in a vivid range of tempi, tone colour and dynamics.
The widely recorded American Peter Fraize is an open-eared, potent and often super-charged player in the Rollins and Brecker lineage, his tenor sound as subtly inflected as it is meaty. Enjoy his tonal and rhythmic authority on the bustling off-set introduction to Moanin’, where multi-dimensional drummer Milo Fell also shines. Son of bassist and jazz educator Adrian (long a legend on the south coast), Jack Kendon has elective affinities that run from Dizzy and Clark Terry to Miles and Clifford Brown: whether open or muted, his lines are as crisply cast as they are thoughtfully developed, exemplified by his solo on GW RIF.
Superb and simply unmissable music. And the extra good news is that the band has recently cut a new set of pieces for a follow-up album. Can’t wait!
- Michael Tucker
JAZZ VIEWS
Peter Fraize is a Washington DC based saxophonist, composer and educator (head of Jazz studies at George Washington University) who crossed the Atlantic in 2018 to join ubiquitous UK keys man Terry Seabrook and his a band of South Coast jazz musicians for an exhaustive 40-date tour of the UK. A day in the studio at the end of the tour captures the band simply flying through a programme of adventurous but accessible material by Fraize and Seabrook with some imaginative re-workings of a couple of standards thrown in for good measure. There’s hints of Larry Goldings’ reinvigoration of the tradition, but the touchstone must be Larry Young’s late 60s recordings, where he combined the hipness of modal and post-bop sounds with the matchless funk of the Blue Note organ trio sound. Fraize is a simply tremendous saxophonist, switching between furious Brecker-style density, lyricism and bluesy wailing with a hard-edged tone and impeccable timing: check his intro to “Moanin”, recast as a 12/8 over Milo Fell’s precise and resonant drums, or how he absolutely tears it up over the 5/4 boogaloo of ‘Swank’. Jack Kendon on trumpet is the perfect foil, his playing full of bebop elegance and poise, especially on the Harmon muted ‘Theme For Reggie”, brassy and declamatory on the mutant funk groove of “Blues For Alice In Wonderland” and the swagger of ‘Revival’. Seabrook multitasks on Hammond and adds excitement to his solos, and Milo Fell’s drumming is as adaptable and in the pocket as this diverse range of material demands, with extra side orders of colour and some dramatic breaks. The overall impression is of a band captured at the peak of its powers, playing material that stretches everyone in the right ways, and having a ball. Catch them live when they return to tour in July.
- Eddie Myer
ALL ABOUT JAZZ
Atlanticus is a hands-across-the-pond quartet led by Washington, DC-based tenor saxophonist Peter Fraize and Brighton, England-based organist Terry Seabrook The lineup is completed by fellow Brightoners, trumpeter Jack Kendon and drummer Milo Fell. Each of the four musicians has two or more decades of experience behind them.
Atlanticus first toured together in 2016 and Blue Haven, the group's debut, was recorded live in the studio following a lengthy British tour in 2018.
After two years of enforced lay-offs, the band takes to the road again with a month-long small-venue British tour in July 2022. Blue Haven is being released to coincide. As the instrumentation may already have suggested, Atlanticus has its roots in hard bop and jazz funk. It does not seek radically to push the envelope but neither is it lacking in originality. The two standards on the album—Bobby Timmons’ "Moanin'" and Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise"—are both given satisfying twists, and the spirited two-minute Afro-Cuban intro to "Moanin'" is particularly noteworthy.
Most of the material, however, consists of originals, six by Fraize, two by Seabrook. Again, these do not radically push the envelope, but neither are they routinely generic. The main event, however, is the soloing. Fraize and Seabrook are gutsy, extrovert players who come across with absolute conviction and it is their well-matched steaming styles which have above all made Atlanticus a popular live attraction. Kendon is a chip off the same block and Fell a deep-pocket drummer.
- Chris May
JAZZWISE
US tenorist Peter Fraize's robust soloing style is a main attraction on B3 organist Terry Seabrook's retro straightahead Brighton-based quartet's debut that covers all bases from Hammond R&B, hard bop to post-1960's modal on some neat originals and a well-judged Afro Cuban twist on Moanin.'
- CD Shortcuts
LIVE REVIEWS
Atlanticus go deep for Ocean Suite at All Saints Church, Hove
Brighton keyboardist Terry Seabrook and Washington DC native Peter Fraize explore the musical depths of their ocean-inspired jazz suite at this south-coast summit
The Jazz Suite is a relatively rare art-form (apologies to Shostakovich, who doesn’t count) – possibly because the centrality of spontaneous improvisation in jazz means that it doesn’t obviously recommend itself to programmatic composition. There are however some honourable exceptions to this rule: Ellington and Strayhorn’s ‘Such Sweet Thunder’ is possibly the most familiar, but the UK scene has also contributed to the genre, from Stan Tracey’s immortal ‘Under Milk Wood’ to Alan Barnes’ explorations of Dickens.
To this list we must now add the UK/US collaborative outfit Atlanticus, currently touring their Ocean Suite. It’s a forty-five-minute suite of music composed by the band’s joint leaders, pianist Terry Seabrook (here on Hammond throughout) and tenor saxophonist (and Washington DC native) Peter Fraize, inspired by the the plight of the world’s oceans, and accompanied by a specially commissioned video piece edited by Rikki Borkum, which plays on a large screen set up behind the band. Today’s performance is in the spectacular Victorian Gothic of All Saint’s Church in Hove, with the ocean itself gleaming invitingly at the end of the street.
There’s a packed house to witness the band revving up with the straight-up bluesy swing of ‘Blue Haven’ - trumpeter Jack Kendon demonstrates his fluency in the authentic bop language, floating effortlessly over Milo Fell’s driving shuffle. Then the suite commences: described as ‘a contemplation of the ocean’s awesome majesty and our responsibilities to it’, it’s divided into five sections, each with its accompanying video. So for the first section, Kendon’s lovely clear tone and incisive melodic imagination assist our contemplation of the beauty of the seas, while Milo Fell’s drums artfully evoke the thunder of the breakers and the spray of the spume: for ‘Diversity’ footage of the noble polar bear aloft upon the ice floe is accompanied by post-bop powerhouse Fraize’s fluid, warm-toned Breckerisms, while Seabrook’s driving Hammond matches the swell and power of the waves.
While the solos are kept short, everyone manages to pack a succinct punch and the band can really swing: but the thematic composition is foremost, with each section flowing into the next. ‘Choices’ deals with our exploitation of the earth’s resources, segueing into ‘Impact’, a sombre ballad underscoring the images of pollution and overfishing, contrasting with the uplifting Tyneresque ‘Finale’. The writing uses a range of contemporary language that’s hip but accessible, with an audible British or US accent from each composer: each section is carefully considered to fit the subject matter, with some neat programmatic touches to pique the attention - quotes from nautical themed material like ‘Dolphin Dance’ and ‘How Deep Is the Ocean’ and other subtler references abound - and the band show their touring mettle, playing together superbly in ensemble and each shining individually in solo.
It’s a successful melding of media that makes for a diverting spectacle with a genuinely moving climax: the message is clear and the music is great. For the encore, Fraize leads us all in a sing-along mash-up of Ellington and Washington go-go swing: it’s a fittingly triumphant conclusion.
- Eddie Myer, JAZZWISE
Brighton Jazz Festival 2025
Brighton’s Atlanticus could be in Englewood Cliffs for a Blue Note session — think cats like Blakey, Hubbard, Gordon, Jimmy Smith. On a selection of originals mostly by organist Terry Seabrook, trumpeter Jack Kendon and Washington DC tenor Peter Fraize alternate unison lines and tight solos, no tune stretched too thin, with show-closer ‘Rhythm Shtick’ groovily blending DC’s own Duke Ellington and go-go swing pioneer Chuck Brown.
- Mat Snow, JAZZWISE
LIVE IN NYC
JAZZWISE MAGAZINE
Atlanticus's earlier recording earned a four-star rating from me in Jazzwise 302, an assessment that is repeated here with this welcome follow-up. In effect this new release is a souvenir of this inventive British-American group's successful 2024 US tour, something of a highlight in the decade that they've been together, the album recorded at The Shrine in Harlem.
Seabrook, Brighton's keyboard king, is the group's sparkplug as instigator and composer but contributes just one piece this time, as does Kendon, to Fraize's four. So, a true partnership then, all for one and one for all, the album opening strongly with Fraize's jaunty 'Blue Haven', its organbased hard bop feel sustained by Seabrook's warm keyboard sounds, Fraize the first to solo, Kendon effective in navigating the changes, Seabrook taking his cue, with nice riffs behind him, Fell adding impact. Seabrook's 'Upstream' is another in his list of titles with a marine reference and gets a mini-tsunami of hot trumpet from Kendon, Fell adding turbulence. The trumpeter then continues the watery theme with 'Uneven Shores', the tone more reflective, relaxed and relatively easy-going before another of US tenorist Fraize's well-made originals, "Theme For Le', Kendon sprightly, Seabrook's Hammondmade bass line apposite before Fraize aims for the horizon, his complexity making one think of the late Michael Brecker. I loved what Atlanticus do with Bobby Timmons's "Moanin", Fraize's upwardly-mobile opening cadenza with just Fell's tom-toms a highlight, ahead of the timehonoured theme. All in all, this is exemplary music, every man on the case, showing that there's life left aplenty in the classic Blue Note organ combo style, especially when it's played with this kind of verve. A great band to see live: look out for them.
- Peter Vacher
OCEANIC
DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE
Atlanticus, a transatlantic quartet composed both of American and British musicians, came together in 2016 when Washington, D.C.- based tenor saxophonist Peter Fraize traveled to the U.K., subsequently meeting Brighton based keys player Terry Seabrook, trumpeter Jack Kendon and drummer Milo Fell. So, it feels only natural that Oceanic the “big pond” that both separates the quartet and brings them together.
Oceanic is an eight-track album anchored by The Oceanic Suite, five interconnected originals that contemplate humanity’s relationship to the ocean. Created in support of UNESCO’s Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, each poignant movement explores a different angle of this natural wonder and our responsibility to it, driven forward by the band’s palpable environmental advocacy.
Musically, the record highlights Fraize’s lush, warm tone and inventive improvisations, as well as his blend with Kendon, who plays with command and lyricism throughout. Fell and Seabrook shine, too, particularly during unscripted, improvisational moments when the quartet can step away from the intricate com positions and dive deep into their interaction.
Like its muse, Oceanic ebbs, flows and crests. The Oceanic Suite’s third movement, “Choices” is a high point, with its deliciously angular melody and Seabrook’s adventurous organ stylings, as is the culmination of the suite, “Finale/How Deep is the Ocean,” which relevantly combines an intricate original with the sublime Irving Berlin jazz classic. Another highlight is “Uneven Shores,” a Kendon original that rings both familiar and unexpected, much like Oceanic overall.
- Alexa Peters
JAZZWISE (editor’s choice)
This is a UK-US collaboration, the local element headed by Brighton-based keyboardist Seabrook alongside drummer Fell and brass player Kendon, also both from Brighton, with Washingtonian-Fraize the sole American involved.
Badged as ‘Transatlantic Jazz’, its purposes are quite specific and especially significant in this era of climate change and environmental concerns. The album’s core is the five-part suite 'Oceanic', co-composed by Seabrook and Fraize, reflecting "humanity’s relationship with the oceans", its 40-minute duration ‘exploring the beauty and diversity of marine life’.
The suite is linked to UNESCO’s Decade of Ocean Science and voices the band’s "commitment to environmental advocacy through music". At the time of writing, this is given added importance as Atlanticus are over in the Eastern US performing 'Oceanic' with an accompanying video on an eight-location concert tour.
Given these worthy objectives and as serious as they are – who can deny their relevance? – it’s pleasing to report that the music, with or without its oceanic connotations, is both invigorating and resolutely good to hear. The writing is tight, I hesitate to write water-tight, the outcomes in broadly hard-bop mode, Seabrook comping and urging as appropriate, Fraize an exemplary, Brecker-inclined improviser and the impressive Kendon, son of bassist Adrian Kendon, offering cleverly-compiled linear solos while hinting at Art Farmer’s pensiveness.
Seabrook opens ‘Oceans’ as Fraize enters with Kendon, the voicing here, as elsewhere, in Blue Note fashion. ‘Diversity’ is more animated, Kendon clearly a talent to watch, as Fraize explores the theme’s greater depths. ‘Choices’ is quirky and ‘Impact’ builds gradually, the organ figures spiralling, Fraize playing falsetto and Kendon again noteworthy.
Great to include Irving Berlin’s ‘How Deep is the Ocean’ as the suite’s final element, the melody emerging after a series of opening riffs, brightly played. Add in three more marine-inclined originals and it’s pleasures aplenty.
- Peter Vacher
UPSTREAM
BEBOP SPOKEN HERE
Organ combos rarely feature two horns out front. Usually its organ and drums augmented by either sax or guitar. However, Seabrook and his transatlantic co-writer Fraize opted for tenor sax and flumpet. For the uninformed (such as myself) a flumpet is an instrument that is part flugelhorn and part trumpet. You maybe are thinking it is something that was created in Greek mythology but, in actual fact, it was invented by David Monette in 1989 for Art Farmer and used on his recording Silk Road.
The two horns, along with Seabrook's B3, and Fell's drumming create a great funky sound. Are we in Philly, downtown Chicago or maybe Detroit? No, three of us are in Brighton UK and one (Fraize) has dropped by from Washington DC. What's a mere ocean between friends? The album title may offer a clue. Kendon blows his socks off. Any trumpet, flugel or cornet player will, after hearing this, want a flumpet even if it means foregoing a strumpet. Fraize is blistering on tenor, Seabrook, whom I'd only previously heard on piano, lends himself to the Hammond born. Is this a vintage B3 I wonder? Fell, slots in well and my thoughts are that this is the perfect Hammond/horn band setting. This is their second album and they're touring their third album, Oceanic, as I type which finishes in a couple of days time at Eastbourne which, I suppose is in keeping with the Atlantic theme. I guess the North Sea is but a rivulet in the overall picture. Ignore that last paragraph, it's just me expressing my frustration at not being able to see/hear this fantastic band live! Did I hear something from the Culture Secretary about levelling-up? No, I think it was from another minister talking about painting-over.
- Lance Liddle
BLUE HAVEN
Veteran tenor-saxophonist Peter Fraize is originally from Northern Virginia, spent time in the Netherlands in the 1980s studying and playing music, and has been based in Washington D.C. since 1989, performing a wide variety of creative music. He has since returned to Europe numerous times. In 2016 Fraize teamed up with the talented British organist Terry Seabrook (who has his own musical personality within the hard bop/soul jazz organ tradition) for a tour of the UK, forming a quartet that also included trumpeter Jack Kendon and drummer Milo Fell. That year they had strong success at the Love Supreme Festival. In the summer of 2018 the quartet, now called Atlanticus, came back together to play 20 dates and then decided that it was time for their first recording.
Blue Haven, which consists of nine originals by Fraize and Seabrook plus fresh versions of “Moanin’,” and “Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise,” was recorded in one day. While the tenor-trumpet-organ-drums instrumentation is reminiscent of Larry Young’s classic Unity album from the mid-1960s, Atlanticus sounds unlike any of its historical inspirations. The band’s release features bright new music, concise solos, and an attractive group sound.
The energetic title cut, a modern straight-ahead piece, launches the set at an exciting and passionate level. Fraize displays an original sound on tenor along with excellent technique, Kendon’s trumpet playing is fluent and colorful, and there is a spirited organ-drums tradeoff. “Swank” has a rhythmic pattern by Seabrook in 5/4 time that will immediately remind one of Lalo Schifrin’s theme from Mission Impossible. That vamp, along with a contrasting interlude, serves as an inspiring foundation for the trumpet and tenor solos.
Milo Fell’s creative drums are prominent throughout the groove tune “Let’s Walk” and the catchy but unpredictable “Ethan’s Sky.” Fell’s Afro-Cuban rhythms duet with Fraize during the first two minutes of a reinvented version of Bobby Timmons’ “Moanin’” which also includes a section for Kendon’s fiery trumpet. The atmospheric but grooving “Theme For Reggie,” “GW RIF” which sounds like a futuristic boogaloo, and a cooking uptempo romp on “Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise” (which includes a wild section in the middle of the performance) follow. “Blues For Alice In Wonderland” gives each musician a chance to make a statement. Blue Haven concludes with the jazz waltz “Revival” and the rousing closer “That’s What”; the latter can be thought of as a musical answer to Miles Davis’ “So What.”
Blue Haven is a highly enjoyable release, one that finds Atlanticus invigorating the jazz tradition with surprises and consistently inventive ideas.
- Scott Yanow, jazz journalist/historian
JAZZ JOURNAL
Sixty-plus minutes of arresting music as blues-charged as it is harmonically literate, Blue Haven is one hell of an album from the striking Anglo-American quartet which appeared at the Love Supreme Festival in Sussex in 2018 and 2022.
Known primarily as a pianist but on organ here, the Brighton-based, widely experienced Terry Seabrook has worked with, e.g., Anita Wardell, Joe Lee Wilson and Bobby Wellins. He has a special way of mining fresh gems from familiar ground: sample Sketches Of Miles from 2010 (which opened with the hypnotic uptempo modality of That’s What, recast as the concluding piece here) or Celebrating Wayne Shorter from a decade or so later.
While Larry Young’s classic Unity, with Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw and Elvin Jones, is a favourite of Seabrook’s, the freshly turned creative passion that marks Blue Haven is many a mile from any matter of mere affinity or pastiche. The music crackles with its own intensity and intelligence, its own charts and moods. Now up and burning (Blues For Alice), now mellow (Let’s Walk), Seabrook and his confrères gell beautifully in a vivid range of tempi, tone colour and dynamics.
The widely recorded American Peter Fraize is an open-eared, potent and often super-charged player in the Rollins and Brecker lineage, his tenor sound as subtly inflected as it is meaty. Enjoy his tonal and rhythmic authority on the bustling off-set introduction to Moanin’, where multi-dimensional drummer Milo Fell also shines. Son of bassist and jazz educator Adrian (long a legend on the south coast), Jack Kendon has elective affinities that run from Dizzy and Clark Terry to Miles and Clifford Brown: whether open or muted, his lines are as crisply cast as they are thoughtfully developed, exemplified by his solo on GW RIF.
Superb and simply unmissable music. And the extra good news is that the band has recently cut a new set of pieces for a follow-up album. Can’t wait!
- Michael Tucker
JAZZ VIEWS
Peter Fraize is a Washington DC based saxophonist, composer and educator (head of Jazz studies at George Washington University) who crossed the Atlantic in 2018 to join ubiquitous UK keys man Terry Seabrook and his a band of South Coast jazz musicians for an exhaustive 40-date tour of the UK. A day in the studio at the end of the tour captures the band simply flying through a programme of adventurous but accessible material by Fraize and Seabrook with some imaginative re-workings of a couple of standards thrown in for good measure. There’s hints of Larry Goldings’ reinvigoration of the tradition, but the touchstone must be Larry Young’s late 60s recordings, where he combined the hipness of modal and post-bop sounds with the matchless funk of the Blue Note organ trio sound. Fraize is a simply tremendous saxophonist, switching between furious Brecker-style density, lyricism and bluesy wailing with a hard-edged tone and impeccable timing: check his intro to “Moanin”, recast as a 12/8 over Milo Fell’s precise and resonant drums, or how he absolutely tears it up over the 5/4 boogaloo of ‘Swank’. Jack Kendon on trumpet is the perfect foil, his playing full of bebop elegance and poise, especially on the Harmon muted ‘Theme For Reggie”, brassy and declamatory on the mutant funk groove of “Blues For Alice In Wonderland” and the swagger of ‘Revival’. Seabrook multitasks on Hammond and adds excitement to his solos, and Milo Fell’s drumming is as adaptable and in the pocket as this diverse range of material demands, with extra side orders of colour and some dramatic breaks. The overall impression is of a band captured at the peak of its powers, playing material that stretches everyone in the right ways, and having a ball. Catch them live when they return to tour in July.
- Eddie Myer
ALL ABOUT JAZZ
Atlanticus is a hands-across-the-pond quartet led by Washington, DC-based tenor saxophonist Peter Fraize and Brighton, England-based organist Terry Seabrook The lineup is completed by fellow Brightoners, trumpeter Jack Kendon and drummer Milo Fell. Each of the four musicians has two or more decades of experience behind them.
Atlanticus first toured together in 2016 and Blue Haven, the group's debut, was recorded live in the studio following a lengthy British tour in 2018.
After two years of enforced lay-offs, the band takes to the road again with a month-long small-venue British tour in July 2022. Blue Haven is being released to coincide. As the instrumentation may already have suggested, Atlanticus has its roots in hard bop and jazz funk. It does not seek radically to push the envelope but neither is it lacking in originality. The two standards on the album—Bobby Timmons’ "Moanin'" and Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise"—are both given satisfying twists, and the spirited two-minute Afro-Cuban intro to "Moanin'" is particularly noteworthy.
Most of the material, however, consists of originals, six by Fraize, two by Seabrook. Again, these do not radically push the envelope, but neither are they routinely generic. The main event, however, is the soloing. Fraize and Seabrook are gutsy, extrovert players who come across with absolute conviction and it is their well-matched steaming styles which have above all made Atlanticus a popular live attraction. Kendon is a chip off the same block and Fell a deep-pocket drummer.
- Chris May
JAZZWISE
US tenorist Peter Fraize's robust soloing style is a main attraction on B3 organist Terry Seabrook's retro straightahead Brighton-based quartet's debut that covers all bases from Hammond R&B, hard bop to post-1960's modal on some neat originals and a well-judged Afro Cuban twist on Moanin.'
- CD Shortcuts
LIVE REVIEWS
Atlanticus go deep for Ocean Suite at All Saints Church, Hove
Brighton keyboardist Terry Seabrook and Washington DC native Peter Fraize explore the musical depths of their ocean-inspired jazz suite at this south-coast summit
The Jazz Suite is a relatively rare art-form (apologies to Shostakovich, who doesn’t count) – possibly because the centrality of spontaneous improvisation in jazz means that it doesn’t obviously recommend itself to programmatic composition. There are however some honourable exceptions to this rule: Ellington and Strayhorn’s ‘Such Sweet Thunder’ is possibly the most familiar, but the UK scene has also contributed to the genre, from Stan Tracey’s immortal ‘Under Milk Wood’ to Alan Barnes’ explorations of Dickens.
To this list we must now add the UK/US collaborative outfit Atlanticus, currently touring their Ocean Suite. It’s a forty-five-minute suite of music composed by the band’s joint leaders, pianist Terry Seabrook (here on Hammond throughout) and tenor saxophonist (and Washington DC native) Peter Fraize, inspired by the the plight of the world’s oceans, and accompanied by a specially commissioned video piece edited by Rikki Borkum, which plays on a large screen set up behind the band. Today’s performance is in the spectacular Victorian Gothic of All Saint’s Church in Hove, with the ocean itself gleaming invitingly at the end of the street.
There’s a packed house to witness the band revving up with the straight-up bluesy swing of ‘Blue Haven’ - trumpeter Jack Kendon demonstrates his fluency in the authentic bop language, floating effortlessly over Milo Fell’s driving shuffle. Then the suite commences: described as ‘a contemplation of the ocean’s awesome majesty and our responsibilities to it’, it’s divided into five sections, each with its accompanying video. So for the first section, Kendon’s lovely clear tone and incisive melodic imagination assist our contemplation of the beauty of the seas, while Milo Fell’s drums artfully evoke the thunder of the breakers and the spray of the spume: for ‘Diversity’ footage of the noble polar bear aloft upon the ice floe is accompanied by post-bop powerhouse Fraize’s fluid, warm-toned Breckerisms, while Seabrook’s driving Hammond matches the swell and power of the waves.
While the solos are kept short, everyone manages to pack a succinct punch and the band can really swing: but the thematic composition is foremost, with each section flowing into the next. ‘Choices’ deals with our exploitation of the earth’s resources, segueing into ‘Impact’, a sombre ballad underscoring the images of pollution and overfishing, contrasting with the uplifting Tyneresque ‘Finale’. The writing uses a range of contemporary language that’s hip but accessible, with an audible British or US accent from each composer: each section is carefully considered to fit the subject matter, with some neat programmatic touches to pique the attention - quotes from nautical themed material like ‘Dolphin Dance’ and ‘How Deep Is the Ocean’ and other subtler references abound - and the band show their touring mettle, playing together superbly in ensemble and each shining individually in solo.
It’s a successful melding of media that makes for a diverting spectacle with a genuinely moving climax: the message is clear and the music is great. For the encore, Fraize leads us all in a sing-along mash-up of Ellington and Washington go-go swing: it’s a fittingly triumphant conclusion.
- Eddie Myer, JAZZWISE
Brighton Jazz Festival 2025
Brighton’s Atlanticus could be in Englewood Cliffs for a Blue Note session — think cats like Blakey, Hubbard, Gordon, Jimmy Smith. On a selection of originals mostly by organist Terry Seabrook, trumpeter Jack Kendon and Washington DC tenor Peter Fraize alternate unison lines and tight solos, no tune stretched too thin, with show-closer ‘Rhythm Shtick’ groovily blending DC’s own Duke Ellington and go-go swing pioneer Chuck Brown.
- Mat Snow, JAZZWISE
TESTIMONIALS
"Atlanticus brought a great post bop ride to the East Side with a great sax/trumpet front line and a hard driving organ/drums backline. It went down a treat with the East Side audience".
- Paul Walker, East Side Jazz, London
“Atlanticus provided the Rochester jazz followers with a first class performance of high energy tracks from their recent album. The music was most enjoyable and played brilliantly. One to rebook when the next tour dates are available.”
- Tony Totts, Rochester Jazz
"Atlanticus captivated the SoundCellar audience with their rich ensemble sound and enthralling solos."
- Rob Palmer, The Sound Cellar, Poole
“Atlanticus brought new groove based tunes to excite the crowd who responded to the creative solos with glee. A very tight group who made new fans here.”
- Declan Conolly, Jazz at Narberth
“Driving contemporary jazz with strong compositions and powerful soloing.”
- Alice Stonhold, Aberjazz
