The last few months have been very strange, to say the least. Here’s what I have been up to.

Towards the start of the lockdown, I was keen to use the situation as a reason to find new approaches to writing and playing, and not just try to find ways to approximate our usual music. Recording separately and layering up each musician’s parts to a click or guide track is very common and works well for other forms of music; however, in jazz and improvised music, I feel that this approach sacrifices the group interaction and combined groove. At the time, layering up each musician’s contribution was the only available option in the circumstances, so I devised these three studies to explore different methods for groups of musicians to create music remotely whilst retaining the chance and spontaneity that is so key to improvised music. The results were released on Efpi Records, and has been broadcast on a number of different radio shows, including BBC Radio 3’s Freeness. You can hear the full EP, with Mark Hanslip (tenor sax), Graham South (trumpet) and Seth Bennett (double bass), here:

I then took part in the Manchester Jazz Festival, being interviewed by Efpi Records’ Ben Cottrell, discussing these studies. You can watch the full interview here:

I then found a way of performing together with people over the internet, albeit with heavy latency. As the studies that I’d written had taken into account the various problems with making improvised music over the internet, for all intents and purposes, the music still worked. I got together a group of musicians to try this; you can watch the full performance with Graham South (trumpet), Dee Byrne (alto sax) and Huw V. Williams (double bass) here:

In other news, I have a new album with my quartet (with Bennett, Hanslip and South), recorded last year, coming out on Efpi Records soon! We’re not sure when yet as everything is up in the air at the moment, but it’s likely to be this year!

I am also on the debut album of the Graham South Quartet which will also be released on Efpi Records later this year. I have heard the final version of it and it sounds really great! I am really happy to have been a part of it.

Anyway, I hope you’re all doing well, given the circumstances, and I hope to see you all at a gig in the not too distant future!
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