I’m playing one of my very favorite records this late morning. Greg Foat put together a killer band for this one and it feels like a project he was particularly passionate about. The label Athens of the North only releases sonic gold and the pressing and packaging is fantastic. Definitely check out their whole catalog.

There’s a host of legendary or under rated British jazz/session musicians present, plus guitarist Warren Hampshire (with whom Foat has made much of his best work,) and stellar drummers including Clark Tracey, Moses Boyd and (my favorite) Malcolm Catto (of The Heliocentrics.) Side A is 3 well chosen covers- first a devotional piece (and the only vocal track) followed by an 1970 Italian cinema score and then a cover of Tim Buckleys Driftin. Side B is perfectly paired originals, ending with the transcendent title track, and almost functions as a little suite. The recording and production is sublime and gently psychedelic. The Mage is a mystical and unmissable record that carries a classic UK jazz sound and feeling in to a modern context without any dust or staleness.