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Sandy Evans was inspired by these images of reality and reflection, so she started composing what turned out to be musical responses to them. "I like to think of harmony in relation to colours", she says, describing her approach. "Other times it was the structure of the photos that I reacted to. There are certain mirror images, so what I did was take some melodic ideas and reverse them". Read More »

Playing with the Vampires on this album has pulled some startling performances out of Loueke and, in kind, the band rise to his fire one catches oneself thinking they sound the best they ever have; then you realise the Vampires always sound this good. Read More »

I love guitar, it has the ability to convey an incredibly rich range of textures and sounds, and has a history of amazing players. However, when I choose collaborators, it is often based on the individual: Lionel Loueke and Kurt Rosenwinkel are both unique voices on their instruments, and aesthetically, I felt they were a great match for the respective projects I was working with. Read More »

When he takes out his flute to play 'It ain't necessarily so', he turns it into a hard-grooving soul-jazz anthem and when he plays an actual 60s soul-jazz anthem, like 'Mercy, Mercy, Mercy', he does it with a free spirit and a post-bop sensitivity. Read More »

My creative process ideally begins with an idea that is exciting to me, and often that seed of inspiration is enough to drive the project through to completion, and overcome all the challenges along the way. Georgie and Josh have been my inspiration for the last month or two while writing this music. Read More »

The Cookers is a learning experience for me. I will always learn and get my ass kicked by these guys. It might not always be a pleasant experience to get one's ass kicked but it is an important part of one's growth as a musician and I'm very lucky to be in this unique situation performing with and learning from some of the best and ones directly tied to when this music was at its apex. Read More »

I have always loved horns and a big band sound so I wanted to inject that into the project. I also had to have piano because of the colour it provides. I was looking for a slightly theatric bent as well. Read More »

"The Singh & Blanes duet is more about romanticism and flashbacks to a more romantic time, while my own solo work is about my intricate thoughts and emotions; it's all about me being by myself, in solitude. It's a bit more personal and reflects my individual take on the world. Then my jazz project is about my compositional ability and my fluency on the piano". Read More »

I told my Dad about it and he was so happy to hear that [Bill Frisell and I] would be working together. I said something like, "Hey Dad, I'm a jazz cat!" Read More »

I get tired of seeing films about loud, arrogant figures who feel the need to be up front, in front, or affronting; even the way Bill arranges the band on stage says so much about his attitude, how its about the music, how he tries to affect the music from the inside out. Read More »