Can you tell us about your new album?
The initial idea for ‘The Magic Of Sidney’ came during lockdown. I think partly because we were looking forward to the birth of our first son and partly because there was little else to do, I ended up noodling round tunes from those classic animations from our own childhoods and was reminded what great melodies they were.
The Christmas album was just something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m a huge fan of the many amazing and terrible seasonal offerings by various artists and always try to find a new one each year so I liked the idea of adding my voice to the noise.
All the tunes on both albums are there first and foremost because I love them. I’ve tried to find a style and harmonic language for each that sets it in a new light without losing sight the original. The idea was to leave plenty of room for spontaneity within the trio rather than over-arranging.
What other projects are you currently involved with?
Much of this year has been spent working with Stefan Redtenbacher, on a project called ‘Joni Reimagined.’ It’s involved a pool of musicians and guest vocalists who have created cover versions of Joni Mitchell songs, initially in the studio and later live. We were lucky enough to play two shows at Ronnie Scott’s earlier in the year and hope to be back next year. One of the guest vocalists, Rumer, asked us to collaborate with her further so we have also performed and recorded a number of her tracks and hope to perform more next year.
Future projects I’m hoping will come to fruition include collaborations with virtuoso drummer Mark Heaney, vocalist Salena Jones whom I previously recorded with about 15 years ago and hopefully another album with Fleur Stevenson who guests on ‘Sidney.’ I’ve also got a stack of originals piling up that I’d like to record but there are only so many days in a year.
What are you currently listening to and what was the last CD or download you bought?
The last thing I bought was actually a vinyl of Oscar Peterson ‘The Jam’ recorded live in Montreux (thank you Oxfam.) Clark Terry is on it, and I’ve actually listened to a lot of his playing this year. I have a student who is really into him but then I ended up slightly out of the blue playing an Oscar and Clark themed gig with Stuart Henderson. I also play regularly with Simon Spillett who often plays “Pint Of Bitter’ which is from an album Clark Terry recorded with Tubby Hayes, so I feel like his music has been following me around recently which is no bad thing.
What is your all-time favourite album and why?
I would probably struggle to slim it down to ten, let alone one. Desert Island Disks would be my worst nightmare! If I think about trio albums, Bill Evans’ ‘Portrait in Jazz’ had a big effect on me the first time I heard it and I never get tired coming back to it. I love the integration of the trio playing as one fluid unit. I often play that arrangement of ‘Blue In Green’ on gigs.
Who has caught your attention recently that we should be listening out for?
I mentioned the Joni project earlier. Many of the musicians and singers were known to me in some capacity previously but Jana Varga was a new face. It’s been great working with her on other people’s music but she also has her own original material. It’s in the singer/songwriter tradition rather than jazz but with the same instinctive and fluid sense of harmony that made Joni’s music such a fruitful ground for collaboration with jazz musicians.
I also depped on a few gigs with my old boss Clark Tracey this year along with some slightly younger faces, Alex Clarke and Emily Masser in the frontline. I believe there’s an album and gigs on the way next year so be sure to check them out if they head your way.
