Jo Harrop: In The Path Of A Tear and Strictly Come Dancing

If you saw the fabulous Lady Blackbird perform Reborn on this week's BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, you'll have heard backing vocals for our very own Jo Harrop. Jo's latest album is The Path Of A Tear, which came out earlier in 2024.

I was lucky enough to interview Jo for Harmonious World in 2021 when her album Weathering the Storm came out.

The Path Of A Tear was recorded at The Village Studios in Los Angeles in September 2023 and produced by Larry Klein, who is best-known for his groundbreaking work with a host of legendary artists including Joni Mitchell, Madeleine Peyroux and Herbie Hancock. It's a stunning album, including a number of tracks which are destined to become ear-worms.

Jo's performance with Lady Blackbird demonstrates her versatility - her voice suits jazz and soul equally but her solo work, and that with some of the greats of the current London jazz scene like Jamie McCredie and Paul Edis, is simply stunning.

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Big Wade - 'Piano Man' out now

Big Wade and Black Swan Theory collectively blends funk, soul, jazz and everything that fills the cracks between those genres: his new album - Piano Man - on all major streaming platforms ahead of the Piano Man Tour 2024 , which has dates across the US. Piano Man brings a selection of original and covers, including a stunning version of Autumn Leaves , which reinvents the song as the funky, electronic Autumn . Big Wade's voice takes the song's melody and improvises around and around, with backing vocals and a deliberately sparse arrangement underpinning the song. Similarly, on Children of the Ghetto , the lead and backing vocals blend in with the soulful musicians of Black Swan Theory. Electronics are used with dexterity, often expanding the vocal lines, as in the ethereal and ghostly opening of Don't Let Me Go . However, the tools never dominate - simply adding depth and layers to the funk. Never more than when Big Wade enters a new world in Interludes , including vocals...

Playtime: 'Morse Code Through The Lights'

Every once in a while, an album drops into your inbox and isn't going anywhere. Morse Code Through The Lights is just such an album. Incontrovertibly controversial, this won't be everyone's cup of tea, but this one has absolutely, instantly, made it onto my list of top albums of 2024. Drummer Tom Bancroft and his band Playtime, which began in Edinburgh as Adventures in New Music ten years ago as a weekly session, have produced something delightfully experimental and brilliantly creative. Four of Scotland's most-established jazz musicians - Martin Kershaw (sax), Graeme Stephen (guitar), Mario Caribe (bass) and Tom Bancroft (drums) - tried out new music and new ideas together. Once lockdown struck in 2020, they decided to explore the possibilities of improvising music together online, partly for something to do, and partly because it was something they could do for their audience. Most of us discovered - or thought we had - that improvising online was difficult or impossi...

36 years ago today, my alto sax was stolen

Actually, it wasn't so much stolen as taken in error. But at the time, we thought it had been removed from backstage at Amsterdam's De Meervaart venue, where I was on stage with The Style Council. Luckily, the gig was being broadcast on radio and the support act were listening as they drove away. They soon realised the mistake and returned my sax and all was well. It was the last gig of a great tour - Paul Weller's first European shows since breaking up The Jam. Another benefit of the radio broadcast is the recording that exists of that show. A good friend of mine - Iain Munn, author of the definitive history of The Style Council, Mr Cool's Dream - gave me a copy several years ago. Still a good story, after all these years.

Hilary Seabrook - writer, podcaster, musician

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