Do crumhorns belong in jazz? The Felonious Monks are a 12 piece band combining jazz and early music, juxtaposing sackbut, recorder, crumhorn and raushfyffe against sax, trumpet, bass and drums. They succeed in fusing early music and bebop in a way which has been described as "uplifting", "fresh" and "captivating".
The compositions are by Mike Hall and Debbie Rogers; Mike is perhaps best known as a jazz educator and for his work leading the RNCM big band for 20 years. He is also an in-demand tenor sax soloist and composer, influenced by his mentor John Dankworth. Debbie was a long term member of early music group The Kincorth Waits and also runs her own big band. The depth of their experience shows in these stunning arrangements for a 12 piece band, creating sonorities you've probably never heard before and allowing every instrument to shine.

Originally commissioned for the 2013 Manchester Jazz Festival, this is the first general release for these recordings, on the Jazz'Halo label and Bandcamp. Mike and Debbie explain; "With Criminal Intent is often how we felt when writing the music for this project. We fully expected the purists who inhabit either the jazz or Early Music worlds to be outraged by the idea that we should fuse the two together. We had the opportunity to build a hand-picked band; musicians versatile enough to work with both period and modern instruments and help capture the spirit and ethos of our music."