Flavour Country

The organ combo was a jazz movement that peaked in America in the mid-60s, combining the emotional intensity of gospel, sophistication of bebop and grooves of Afro funk and Latin boogaloo. In Wellington in the late ’90s a trio of music school graduates stumbled upon this near-forgotten format and found it fit them like a custom-made, three-fingered glove. With Christopher Yeabsley on Hammond organ, twin brother Daniel weaving lyrical lines on flute, clarinet and all manner of saxes and Paul Hoskin steering the groove from his drum seat, Twinset have created their unique variation on the organ combo delivering the finest, un-pretentious soul-jazz to be found in the Southern hemisphere.

Loved by jazz-heads and ‘ordinary’ folks alike, ‘Flavour Country’ is their sixth album and second on Loop – and without doubt their best to date. As on previous Twinset recordings, friends and fellow musicians have added their secret recipe to ‘Flavour Country’. Phoenix Foundation’s Will Ricketts, whose percussion can be heard throughout the album, meshing with Hoskins’ drums to make this the rhythmically richest Twinset album yet. Toby Laing, from Fat Freddy’s Drop, brings his baritone horn, adding ballast to ‘Birds Of Beltion’ and ‘Storms Boogaloo’. And there’s the Black Seeds’ Barnaby Weir, who blends his white chocolate vocals with the creamy tones of Lisa Tomlins on the album’s one non-instrumental: a reading of the Billy Joel standard “Just the Way You Are”. Like everything else on ‘Flavour Country’, it is soulful, surprising, and couldn’t be anyone but Twinset, who have taken a near-forgotten sub-genre, given it a fresh breath of Wellington air, a natty 50s-style suit and made it their own.