John Donaldson - We Were Together I Forget the Rest (2026)
BAND/ARTIST: John Donaldson
- Title: We Were Together I Forget the Rest
- Year Of Release: 2026
- Label: John Donaldson
- Genre: Jazz
- Quality: mp3 320 kbps / flac lossless (tracks)
- Total Time: 00:43:13
- Total Size: 100 / 242 mb
- WebSite: Album Preview
Tracklist
01. Prayer for Tomorrow
02. Agatha's Song
03. Chanterelle
04. They Danced
05. Evening Song
06. Into the Night
07. New Dawn
We Were Together, I Forget the Rest achieves the rare feat of combining stunning virtuosity with heartfelt honesty, resulting in a deeply affecting collection that reflects on love, loss, and enduring friendship without ever becoming overtly sentimental.
British pianist and composer John Donaldson has long been one of the UK’s finest yet most understated jazz musicians. After classical studies and formative tuition with Stan Tracey, he forged an impressively varied career, performing alongside artists including Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Wheeler, Art Farmer and Norma Winstone, while also building an extensive résumé as a composer for film and television. His years in California during the 1980s, working with musicians such as Jeff Ballard and Larry Grenadier, further broadened an already expansive musical vocabulary, one that comfortably embraces lyrical European influences alongside the freedom of modern American jazz. Back in London from 1993, he took the piano chair in Bheki Mseleku’s touring band and held it through to the South African’s death in 2008, and he has stayed close to that repertoire ever since: his Unity group recorded Nearer Awakening the following year, and he later arranged Mseleku’s compositions alongside McCoy Tyner’s for the sextet Hexagonal. Mseleku’s way of letting a melody carry the spiritual weight has stayed in Donaldson’s writing, and it is audible here.
Written following the death of his wife, Agatha Coffey, these seven compositions feel like a true celebration of a life shared. Donaldson’s writing favours memorable melodies over technical display, allowing the emotional weight of each piece to emerge naturally. The opening ‘Prayer for Tomorrow’ sets the tone beautifully, while the touching ‘Agatha’s Song’ and the gently uplifting ‘New Dawn’ provide some of the album’s emotional high points.
Donaldson has assembled an exceptional ensemble, and the recording benefits enormously from the trust between musicians who have shared stages across different decades. Jeff Ballard‘s subtle drumming constantly nudges the music forward, Rob Luft colours the harmony with his unmistakably sensitive guitar work, while Iain Ballamy‘s saxophone and Graeme Flowers‘ trumpet provide warmth and quiet eloquence rather than unnecessary fireworks — Flowers is a Hexagonal colleague, and that shared grounding in the Mseleku songbook tells. Tom Mason‘s bass anchors everything with understated authority.
A particular strength lies in the vocal writing. Norma Winstone remains one of jazz’s great storytellers, her distinctive voice bringing wisdom and tenderness to Donaldson’s music, while Rebecka Edlund provides a luminous counterbalance. Whether singing individually or together, both vocalists are woven seamlessly into the arrangements, becoming integral voices within the ensemble rather than featured guests. The balance between instrumental and vocal passages feels beautifully judged throughout.
Recorded over just two days at Real World Studios with remarkably little rehearsal, the album possesses an immediacy that polished productions often miss. The performances breathe naturally, each musician responding instinctively to the compositions and to one another.
There is sadness here, certainly, but also gratitude, beauty and quiet hope. Donaldson has transformed personal loss into music of remarkable generosity, crafting an album that feels intimate while speaking to universal experiences. Eloquently composed, superbly performed and emotionally sincere, We Were Together, I Forget the Rest is an album that I’ll enjoy living with for a while, returning often to give its sublime beauty the time it deserves to reveal its ongoing magic.
01. Prayer for Tomorrow
02. Agatha's Song
03. Chanterelle
04. They Danced
05. Evening Song
06. Into the Night
07. New Dawn
We Were Together, I Forget the Rest achieves the rare feat of combining stunning virtuosity with heartfelt honesty, resulting in a deeply affecting collection that reflects on love, loss, and enduring friendship without ever becoming overtly sentimental.
British pianist and composer John Donaldson has long been one of the UK’s finest yet most understated jazz musicians. After classical studies and formative tuition with Stan Tracey, he forged an impressively varied career, performing alongside artists including Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Wheeler, Art Farmer and Norma Winstone, while also building an extensive résumé as a composer for film and television. His years in California during the 1980s, working with musicians such as Jeff Ballard and Larry Grenadier, further broadened an already expansive musical vocabulary, one that comfortably embraces lyrical European influences alongside the freedom of modern American jazz. Back in London from 1993, he took the piano chair in Bheki Mseleku’s touring band and held it through to the South African’s death in 2008, and he has stayed close to that repertoire ever since: his Unity group recorded Nearer Awakening the following year, and he later arranged Mseleku’s compositions alongside McCoy Tyner’s for the sextet Hexagonal. Mseleku’s way of letting a melody carry the spiritual weight has stayed in Donaldson’s writing, and it is audible here.
Written following the death of his wife, Agatha Coffey, these seven compositions feel like a true celebration of a life shared. Donaldson’s writing favours memorable melodies over technical display, allowing the emotional weight of each piece to emerge naturally. The opening ‘Prayer for Tomorrow’ sets the tone beautifully, while the touching ‘Agatha’s Song’ and the gently uplifting ‘New Dawn’ provide some of the album’s emotional high points.
Donaldson has assembled an exceptional ensemble, and the recording benefits enormously from the trust between musicians who have shared stages across different decades. Jeff Ballard‘s subtle drumming constantly nudges the music forward, Rob Luft colours the harmony with his unmistakably sensitive guitar work, while Iain Ballamy‘s saxophone and Graeme Flowers‘ trumpet provide warmth and quiet eloquence rather than unnecessary fireworks — Flowers is a Hexagonal colleague, and that shared grounding in the Mseleku songbook tells. Tom Mason‘s bass anchors everything with understated authority.
A particular strength lies in the vocal writing. Norma Winstone remains one of jazz’s great storytellers, her distinctive voice bringing wisdom and tenderness to Donaldson’s music, while Rebecka Edlund provides a luminous counterbalance. Whether singing individually or together, both vocalists are woven seamlessly into the arrangements, becoming integral voices within the ensemble rather than featured guests. The balance between instrumental and vocal passages feels beautifully judged throughout.
Recorded over just two days at Real World Studios with remarkably little rehearsal, the album possesses an immediacy that polished productions often miss. The performances breathe naturally, each musician responding instinctively to the compositions and to one another.
There is sadness here, certainly, but also gratitude, beauty and quiet hope. Donaldson has transformed personal loss into music of remarkable generosity, crafting an album that feels intimate while speaking to universal experiences. Eloquently composed, superbly performed and emotionally sincere, We Were Together, I Forget the Rest is an album that I’ll enjoy living with for a while, returning often to give its sublime beauty the time it deserves to reveal its ongoing magic.
| Jazz | FLAC / APE | Mp3
As a ISRA.CLOUD's PREMIUM member you will have the following benefits:
- Unlimited high speed downloads
- Download directly without waiting time
- Unlimited parallel downloads
- Support for download accelerators
- No advertising
- Resume broken downloads