Fresh sounds: corto.alto - Brotherhood

Glasgow jazz sensation corto.alto releases a lead single Brotherhood from their forthcoming mini-album Not for Now. New song features the spoken word talents of Franz Von, MC and frontman for K.O.G & The Zongo Brigade, delivering effortlessly over irregular time signatures and shrieking brass. Band's leader Liam Shortall wrote the song after a Mungo’s Hi-Fi and Eva Lazarus gig, inspired to combine the energy of sound system culture with Latin jazz. Mini album Not for Now is due for release November 26th via Worm Discs.

Shortall is able to call on musicians of the highest caliber, from Glasgow and beyond, to give life to his compositions. Among them were rising saxophonist Harry Weir (Rebecca Vasmant, AKU!) trumpeter James Copus (Jacob Collier, Dizzee Rascal), and pianist Fergus McCreadie & drummer Graham Costello of STRATA fame. Nubiyan Twist & Onipa co-founder, Tom Excell, not only contributes on percussion, but co-produces Not For Now alongside Shortall, adding the Midas touch that has undoubtedly contributed to Nubiyan Twist’s incredible success.

Listen to corto.alto new single Brotherhood featuring Franz Von, taken from the band forthcoming EP Not for Now:

Not For Now follows an acclaimed series of DIY self-releases and videos, released over the course of a year from May 2019. The highlights were collated on a sold-out vinyl EP on Worm Discs and received support across Radio 6 Music, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio Scotland. In this short but productive space of time, corto.alto were awarded for Best Band and Album at the Scottish Jazz Awards 2020, and received a personal invitation by Gilles Peterson to perform at We Out Here 2021.

Originally conceived as a self-imposed challenge for Liam to release new music every three weeks for a year with a string of must-watch videos, corto.alto’s incredible success has postponed any plans to end the project. As Liam puts it, so I called this E.P Not for Now, in reply to Is That It?, the last track from Live at 435, featuring a hero of mine, Soweto Kinch”. Lockdown gave Liam plenty of time “to better gauge a sense of perspective of where I fit as an artist in the world of music” and find the right balance between “over-intellectualized” or “over-commercialized” ‘jazz’.

Watch below corto.alto new single Brotherhood featuring Franz Von, taken from the band forthcoming EP Not for Now: