HARRY JAMES ANGUS
‘Struggle With Glory’
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Struggle With Glory is the brand new album by Australia’s premiere jazz chameleon Harry James Angus. A re-imagining of the classic tales from Greek mythology set to a sublime reduction of gospel, jazz and soul, Struggle With Glory is another impressive step in an extraordinary musical journey for the Melbourne-born, Mullumbimby-based musician.
Harry James Angus has come far from the fresh-faced, but committed teen taking his first tentative steps on the path to jazz. Finding critical and commercial success on stages and charts across the globe with Australia’s beloved The Cat Empire, the jazz disciple, trumpeter and sublime vocalist has succeeded in branching out with a number of acclaimed projects of his own.
Exploring deep within and far outside the realms of the genre with which he is enamoured, Struggle With Glory signifies an important chapter in the artist’s development and a step closer to realising his ideal musical vision. In a different approach to the loud, brash Latin infused sounds of The Cat Empire, Struggle With Glory steps back into more of an old fashioned style of playing, both constrained and confident in its delivery, with a jazz integrity heavily connected to where Harry found his musical beginnings.
Struggle With Glory comes from a love of jazz, gospel, vocal harmonies and trumpet and an inspired thought while reading some Greek mythology to his 5 year old son. The author explains that he was drawn to Greek mythology because, “the myths are such great stories, but more than that they tell us something about ourselves, these deep dark stories that can mean so many things. To juxtapose that with this great, kinda fun beautiful and energetic music, which is the jazz tradition and the gospel tradition, it’s just a good mix!”
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The album is brimming with tragedy, pathos and high drama as these ancient tales coming to life against a glorious blend of traditional jazz and gospel tropes, sublime playing and an enveloping warm production. On Paper faces is the tale of Persephone and Hades comes to life, Persephone was the daughter of the goddess of the harvest, and she was kidnapped to become Hades bride. Harry explains further, “what was different about this project was that I picked a story and then I wrote a song. There’s a song called “Light Of The Moon” which is about the Moon Goddess who fell in love with a simple shepherd and could only visit him when he was asleep. So he just slept all the time so this goddess could come and visit him!”
Another high water mark on the album is the thrilling “Kill The Priest,” the only song on the record that isn’t drawn from a myth, but is drawn from the first chapter of a famous book on mythology called call The Golden Bough, written by the Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer. The author paints the picture of a Roman ritual, where the idea of a priest who guards a sacred place can only be replaced by the person that kills him. Harry continues, “So you’re the priest, but the whole time you know that at any moment the next priest that is going to replace him could be sneaking up behind him with a knife. I just thought that was quite an interesting concept.”
“I Saw Red” is another album moment full of drama and tension. Based on The Rage Of Achilles, which Harry describes as, “a really, really powerful moment in the Iliad.” “Up until this point,” he continues Achilles hasn’t joined the battle, he has sailed all the way over to Troy but hasn’t joined the battle because of some internal politics in his own camp. So all these Greeks are getting killed and he’s like the best fighter ever, he’s the hero, so everyone knows as soon as he joins the battle they’ll win, but he just refuses to join in. Not because he’s a pacifist, but simply because of pride. So essentially his love Patroclus is killed by Hector, so he flies into this rage and massacres everyone, it’s about the terrifying rage of Achilles, so that’s a great starting point for a song too.”
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Struggle With Glory physical pre-orders are available from the 14th till the 23rd of February. For pre-orders visit: www.vitamin.net.au
Struggle With Glory Digital pre-orders made between Feb 21st – 28th
via iTunes and Google Play will instantly receive the track “Paper Faces”
Harry James Angus ‘Struggle With Glory’ is out on March 1st 2018
through OP/Vitamin Records
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Harry James Angus
Struggle With Glory
Tour Dates
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March 1
Perth Festival, WA
Tickets
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March 14 & 15
Adelaide Festival, SA
Tickets
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March 17
The Peninsula Picnic, Vic
Tickets
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