Harmonious World

It was a great pleasure to have a conversation with classical pianist Burkard Schliessmann : his album Live & Encores is out now. If you love classical solo piano, this is the album for you. If you haven't explored the music of Bach, Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann, then this is a fabulous starting point. Not only is this great music, performed brilliantly, the recording quality is outst...

I really enjoy these live chats and the background noise adds some atmosphere - this time it's a chat with sax player, composer and band leader Mark Lockheart in London's Barbican Centre. Mark's latest album - Smiling - is out on Edition Records at the end of March and you can hear a couple of tracks from it. Thanks to Mark for joining me in conversation and for sharing tracks from...

Pianist Jim Clayton has unleashed his vocals on the latest album Look Out!   and in this conversation he explains why. This conversation was a joy and - once again - I was reminded why I decided to start this podcast nearly four years ago - there's a sense of people like Jim in this episode simply sharing why they do what they do. And it helps us all understand music a little better. Thanks t...

Pianist and composer Joey Alexander has recently released his seventh album - Continuance - and he joined me to discuss it. We chatted just hours after he finished a five show run at New York's Birdland to officially launch the album. He's an interesting young man and a truly phenomenal pianist and composer. Thanks to Joey for joining me in conversation and for sharing tracks from Contin...

I met arranger, orchestrator and composer Jeff Atmajian at Abbey Road studios in November, while visiting past guests on the show Michael Shapiro and Danae Zanthe Vlasse. He kindly agreed to be interviewed by me in person, so we met in Islington when he was finishing a recording for the TV show 'Call the Midwife'. Jeff is intensely interesting and finding questions to ask him was a breez...

Pianist and composer David Lopato has interesting stories to tell together with his diverse, fascinating collection of tracks on Short Stories . Thanks to David for sparing time to join me in the conversation and discussing the tracks alongside our chat. Get in touch to let me know what you think! Thank you for listening to Harmonious World. Please rate, review and share: click on the link and sub...

This was a delightful conversation and I'm glad to be able to share it with you at the very start of 2024 and season 15 of Harmonious World. Singer Lucy-Anne Daniels is very much one to watch and I can highly recommend you search for a gig where you can hear her sing and watch her own the stage. Although it's a great honour for me to be able to interview some titans of music, I'm re...

Welcome to a brief trailer for season 15 of Harmonious World. It's really just an excuse to wish you - listeners and guests - a very happy and healthy 2024. Thanks to pianist and composer Joe English for my theme tune. Get in touch to let me know what you think! Thank you for listening to Harmonious World. Please rate, review and share: click on the link and subscribe to support the show. Don...

As a fitting end to 2023 and an amazing Season 14 of Harmonious World, I was delighted to be joined by Colorado-based sax player Drew Zaremba . Two of my closest (albeit most distant geographically) friends live just a few miles from Drew and I have happy memories of visits to that part of the world. Drew's latest album is Reunion - a big band celebration that brings the joy so important to D...

I was joined in conversation by Ben Brown and Dominic Conway from Malleus Trio : their new album On/Off is out now and if you like some of the jazz crossover acts like Keith Jarrett and Sons of Kemet, you'll love this album. On/Off is the trio's third album, but they've been around since 2007 and there's a collective maturity about their music - drums, tenor and bass - that bri...

Violinist Benet McLean has released Green Park on Sea Mammal Records and he joins me to chat about his music, the album and life in general. Benet has appeared alongside many great names as a pianist and now he's returning to his first instrument - violin. He has an inspirational group of musicians in his band and these tracks allow them all to shine. You'll get a flavour of the album he...

Having met saxophonist Soweto Kinch at Ladbroke Hall a few weeks ago, I was delighted that he agreed to join me in conversation. Soweto is more than a great musician, as evidenced by his album White Juju (recorded live at the Barbican in November 2021 with the London Symphony Orchestra) and I hope that comes across in our conversation. The music conveys so much about the pandemic and other major i...

It was a delight to interview bassist Christian McBride for the latest episode. A real delight. You can probably tell. Christian has worked with so many great musicians and we discuss his work with just a few of them (and the eight Grammys he has been awarded), including Sting , Dee Dee Bridgewater . We also talk about some of the tracks on Prime , his album that was released earlier in 2023. You...

In the latest episode, I am joined by Canadian singer songwriter David Deacon , to discuss his fifth album - Good Day Good Night . A collection of original tracks, this album also features David's version of the Bob Dylan classic Knockin' on Heaven's Door and we discuss his inspiration and where life has taken him. Thanks to David for allowing me to play tracks from Good Day Good Ni...

This is a long episode, because Bill Harrison and I had so much to discuss - his former career as a bass player, his book and his work as a psychotherapist. If you're a musician, there are some insights into how we work, and if you're not, those insights might help you understand us better. Thanks to Bill for allowing me to play two of the tracks from his life as a bass player alongside...

With a focus on grief, and how we survive it, Paramorph Collective have released All we're made of is borrowed . My discussion with the musicians responsible - An Laurence and Kim Farris-Manning - focuses on this dynamic work that brings together fascinating creative and some complex concepts. Paramorph Collective combines a tonal range and extraordinary combinations of instruments and voices...

Completely by chance, the episode follows nicely from last week's. Instead of American compositions, though, this time it's French music performed by award-winning Vietnamese American pianist Quynh Nguyen . Quynh has gathered together some of the finest compositions of Germaine Tailleferre into a delightful album - The Flower of France . Thanks to Quynh for allowing me to play extracts f...

For this week's episode of Harmonious World, composer, organist and percussionist Joseph Bertolozzi joins me to discuss his album Tower Music (Musique de la Tour) , which samples the sounds of the Eiffel Tower and creates music. Although this is experimental classical music, it is not a difficult listen and the whole time there is something of the resonance of the Tower itself throughout. Tha...

This is a very special episode of Harmonious World. I am joined by pianist Gadi Stern, who is one third of the Shalosh Trio . Gadi was speaking to me from Jerusalem, just hours after the start of a particularly violent and tragic escalation in the war. There are no words to properly thank Gadi for sharing his story and that of tthe trio's album - Tales of Utopia . You can sense something from...

This episode of Harmonious World features pianist Matthew Whitaker , who is set to perform at his alma mater - The Filomen M D'Agostino Greenberg (FMDG) Music Schoo l. This is his way of giving back to a unique organisation which has helped him so much along his journey as a pianist. Matthew's album Connections was conceived during the pandemic and it bears witness to a difficult time in...

This episode of Harmonious World was particularly easy to record. Pianist Joshua Espinoza 's trio album Songs From Yesterday is delightful and insightful, and chatting to him about it was easy. It's a shame this is a podcast, rather than a video, because Joshua's face lit up when I asked him about performing and recording with his band mates Kris Monson (double bass) and Jaron Lamar...

* * Now you can subscribe to Harmonious World for special subscriber-only content You may have never heard of Sherri Chung , but you have almost certainly heard some of her music on the film and TV shows we all watch from time to time. We had a fascinating chat about her background and how she composes within the confines of visual media. If the quality is occasionally a little less than perfect,...

* * Now you can subscribe to Harmonious World for special subscriber-only content 'Celeste' is the new album from acclaimed Danish jazz singer, songwriter and guitarist Mette Juul . This is a collection of classic standard tunes you will recognise and some original tracks which will take your breath away. Mette and I had a conversation about the choice of tracks and her storytelling alon...

* * Now you can subscribe to Harmonious World for special subscriber-only content Melodic Collective is guitarist Chris Allard 's latest project, in which he works with John Turville (piano), Robbie Robson (trumpet), Oli Hayhurst (bass) and Will Glaser (drums). Their self-titled album is out now on Perdido Records and it's a quasi-live album which delivers a classy, cohesive jazz quintet...

* * Now you can subscribe to Harmonious World for special subscriber-only content Freddie Bryant played in the Upper West Side as a small child and grew up on its streets. His song cycle really is a Love Story to these streets and playgrounds. In our discussion, Freddie tells the story of the poetry and the music and how it all came together. This is a poignant album and it tells a different story...