VERMILLION SKIES
Nathan Haines
(Warner)
Classic beat bar-room jazz for the smokefree generation.
The Kiwi hipster plays his outsider-in-London role to a tee with one of his vocal tracks focusing on a street in Hackney and his liner-notes extolling the virtues of saxophone reverb-via-city carpark.
This may work in New Zealand wineries – and probably will, regardless; but this is Haines cementing the success of The Poet’s Embrace and his move to the UK by immersing himself in what’s worked well before for much greater names (it’s no surprise the final track is a reworking of Miles Davis’ version of Lament.
A slightly vapid attempt at a second love-in-London vocal track First Light slightly spoils the album, but when he sticks to the classics, there’s no mistaking Haines’ skill.
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