The Matthew Herbert Big Band – Goodbye Swingtime (2003)

1. Turning Pages
2. Everything's Changed
3. Fiction
4. Three W's
5. Chromoshop
6. Battle
7. Misprints
8. Many and the Few
9. Simple Mind
10. Stationary

Album Review:
"Likened to a modern day Thelonious Monk, British producer Matthew Herbert delivers in ‘Goodbye Swingtime’ his own futuristic take on big band jazz, fusing this with some deep political statements to spellbinding effect; the result is one of the most important albums of the year. It features some of the UK’s finest jazz musicians, such Dave O’Higgins on sax and an array of vocalists such as US-born, Brazilian-raised Arto Lindsay, who bring their own magic to the haunting, dreamlike properties of the album.

Every sound on the album originated as a unique recording made by Herbert and as he proudly states: “they have never existed before and will never be used again. In a western consumer-based democracy where our choices are constantly compromised by corporate principles, local distribution or aggressive marketing, it is of some importance to me that I have been able to take complete responsibility for the content and its authenticity". Herbert goes on, and as he eloquently puts it: “At a time of war, it is a difficult task to know where to place music. Contemporary music, like much of Western culture, is again at a crossroads. Does it describe, critique, and contribute to the urgent political questions of the day, or provide an alternative, prescribing different rules and espousing its own values?” ‘Goodbye Swingtime’ manages to successfully fulfill both, and in Mathhew Herbert, Britain has found both a fine artist and one of the nation’s most important dissenting voices."