It’s going to be a concert for everyone. We’re going to be playing some music that we perform well at the moment – it’s really hard hitting but also very, very acceptable music that everyone seems to love. It’s family friendly and cutting edge without being egotistical and too intellectual; just music that you can really have fun and listen to.”
“I’m interested in all sorts of music and looking for brothers and sisters outside the jazz area to work with, using the suite as a connecting force,” says Steve Sedergreen. “We are not going to reproduce the Far East Suite but we’re certainly going to play in the spirit of the Far East Suite.”
‘…a true collection that is at once a retrospective of his remarkable 25-year career and at the same time twelve new recordings.’
“We both share similar music philosophies when playing live music, in that as Jazz musicians, we have to listen to each other and dynamically create some music in the moment of performing and go off the chart. Its about taking risks – and that’s where the joy is.”
Noria Letts: “I’ve got three hats; one that is jazz – you can cook something with jazz; the other is French gypsy jazz, which is extremely vibrant and happy; and the third one is when I go on stage and script the life of Edith Piaf in France.”
“I love the power of the piano to convey emotion and narrative using all those elements, so when I perform solo piano my energy is much more inwardly focused on narrating and telling the story of the music.”
“I’m a big fan of electronic music and electronic pop, and I feel the Kennedy Snow music is headed in a very textural direction, with improvisation being probably the strongest jazz element present, rather than traditional jazz harmony or the swing aspect. But then again, jazz these days can be so many things that I struggle to label it as ‘jazz’, just that all the members have a jazz background.”
We all composed three tunes each for the album, having the other members in mind. There are a lot of different moods because we have different compositional styles. Maddie writes a lot of quirky, frantic compositions, still heavily rhythmically driven, with lots of space for free improvisation and Isaac would write more traditional jazz tunes with beautiful melodies. I care so much about rhythm and keeping time and groove, that in my compositions theres usually a lot of business in rhythmic patterns and ideas with very simple melodies.
“Performance aspects aside, this album will definitely seek to explore some different compositional structures. ade and I have toyed with – and talked about – the idea of through-composed work and song forms that aren’t of the typical “head-solo-head” structure. Those elements are now coming out in our co-writing, certainly.”
