MATTHEW Halsall draws his inspiration from experimental labels like Warp and Ninja Tunes as much as more traditional jazz artists.

Since picking up a trumpet, aged seven, his musical explorations have seen him emerge as one of the brightest lights of the UK jazz scene.

Away from the band, Halsall is a regular DJ on the Manchester circuit while he also finds time to run his fast rising Independent label, Gondwana.

“It’s a very exciting time for jazz in the North,” says Halsall who brings the Gondwana Orchestra to Clitheroe’s Grand Theatre on Saturday.

“There’s a younger generation coming through that have taken the sound into new and interesting places, and many jazz musicians and bands across the North-West have grown up with DJs likes Giles Peterson and Mr Scruff and labels like Warp.

“They are jazz musicians, but they love their music as well.

“So they’re taking elements from these experimental sounds, putting them into a piano trio and making something which sounds both modern and fresh.

“It’s exactly how I feel jazz should be moving.

“It needs to be open to all possibilities and expanding – just like Miles Davis did. He took the sound to loads of new and different places.”

Halsall has been cooking up a sumptuous musical feast during the past decade via acclaimed albums such as When The World Was One and Fletcher Moss Park – an ode to the green space in South Manchester where much of the record was written.

“Jazz has always been part of my life, and I just fell into it I suppose,” he added.

“My parents took me to a jazz club for a Sunday music session and I saw some big band music by Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and an Art Blakey. I was hooked.”

His label Gondwana, snapped up Go Go Penguin, later shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize.

Halsall added: “I loved their brutal intensity, and technically Go Go Penguin are brilliant.

“When I signed them I felt that they had something special.

“They had that latent energy that has just evolved into something very special.

“They are very open-minded guys, drawing from ambient music, hip hop, classical and jazz, and it works.”

Halsall’s latest offering, the beautifully crafted LP Into Forever, finds Halsall’s nine-piece Gondwana Orchestra augmented by a string quartet and, significantly, features Manchester-based singer-songwriter Josephine Oniyama on four tracks.

Its swirling harp sound and mournful oriental strings reverberate with echoes of Alice Coltrane’s albums of the early 1970s.

“It has taken two years to complete (Into Forever), but it is my favourite work and I think it is a record that catches my personality,” he added.

“It is a great fusion, with 13 or 14 people on the album.

“People’s moods and opinions change in music don’t they?

“But people seem to love it and it feels like one of the most honest records I’ve ever made.”

Halsall will be performing material from his latest album Into Forever, alongside highlights from his extensive back catalogue.

Matthew Halsall and the Gondwana Orchestra, Clitheroe Grand Theatre, Saturday, October 17. Details from 01200 421599.