Hilary Seabrook - writer, podcaster, musician

Music in the moonlight (especially in January) would normally be a very cold experience, but in the shadow of Luke Jerram's ' Museum of the Moon ' sculpture, saxophonist Tim Boniface presented a wholly enchanting evening called 'Jazz in the Moonlight' at St Albans Cathedral . The huge nave of this incredible cathedral resonated in a way probably never imagined through the centuries, thanks to St Alban's inventive Adult Learning programme. Using the immense structure suspended above players and audience as inspiration, Tim and his quartet raised a hat to some classic jazz standards such as: East of the Sun (and West of the Moon), Polka Dots and Moonbeams and What a Little Moonlight Can Do . The acoustics of a cathedral that was never intended as a live music venue - let alone a home for jazz - coped brilliantly, largely thanks to the virtuosity of the players, as well as the deft acoustic arrangements of the sound team. Tim's tenor and alto saxes were joined...

Welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World, in which I interview musicians about how their music helps make the world more harmonious. From New Orleans, I'm joined for this episode by Barcelona-born jazz pianist  Marina Albero . Her story is fascinating and her latest album -  A Nomad of Sound  - is gorgeous. Thanks to Marina for allowing me to share tracks from her album alongside our conversation. Thank you for listening to Harmonious World. Please rate, review and share: click on the link and  subscribe  to support the show. Don't forget the Quincy Jones quote that sums up why I do this: "Imagine what a harmonious world it would be if every single person, both young and old, shared a little of what he is good at doing." Support the show

There’s a subtle change afoot with my blog, alongside the podcast Harmonious World - from now on, both will focus on music that makes the world a better place. There are no genre barriers and I will be reviewing albums and live performances. It has always been my aim to bring a positive spin wherever possible and to help spread the word on great music. So, if you are looking for new music to listen to, regardless of the genre, then you’ve come to the right place. Since starting Harmonious World, I have interviewed some incredible musicians and in the first season I was lucky enough to speak to both Laila Biali and Maria Schneider . Take a listen and let me know what you think. When I was a teenager, I loved classical music, but the first piece of music that I was really aware of was George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue  and that famous opening solo is what persuaded me to begin learning the clarinet. If Gershwin had been writing fifty years later, he might have been writing for jaz...

Established in 2019, Toronto's   Women From Space Festival  has become one of the city's ultimate destinations for adventurous listeners, with each subsequent edition boasting yet another ravenously eclectic cast of cutting-edge performers from across various music genres and beyond. The festival has previously featured such celebrated artists as Mali Obomsawin, Matana Roberts, Amirtha Kidambi, Susan Alcorn, Patricia Brennan, Lina Allemano, Lotte Anker, Eve Egoyan, Kris Davis, Nicole Mitchell, and Judith Berkson. As a celebration of music innovation and of gender diversity, the festival traditionally spans the weekend closest to International Women's Day and this year is no exception. From March 7th-9th, 2025, Women From Space will inhabit the 918 Bathurst Centre , the venue which also serves as the home of local experimental music institution the Music Gallery . Revered Toronto composer and improviser Allison Cameron kicks things off with an enigmatic solo performance ...

Welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World, in which I interview musicians about how their music helps make the world more harmonious. In this case, it's a clarinettist who also helps many of us hear more great music -  Chris Newstead  is festival director of the  Watford Jazz Junction Festival . Chris goes through the many musical delights that are on offer from 10 to 18 May 2025 and if you're anywhere near London in that period, there will be something worth catching when you're free, so grab your tickets now. Thanks to Chair of the Festival  Orphy Robinson MBE , for providing one of his tracks - Chunky But Funky - to bookend my conversation with Chris. As part of the fundraising for the festival, Orphy is bringing musicians from the Royal Academy of Music to the Watford Pump House on 28 February, so  get your tickets now ! Thank you for listening to Harmonious World. Please rate, review and share: click on the link and subscribe to support the show. ...

If you have a musical instrument lying around at home and can get to London on Saturday 25 January, pop it into Ronnie Scott's on Frith Street to help aspiring musicians! Since its launch in 2015, the Ronnie Scott’s Musical instrument Amnesty has donated over 3000 instruments with the help of the public. Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club has announced its latest Musical Instrument Amnesty, an initiative designed to repurpose unused or unwanted musical instruments by donating them to children and young people. The amnesty will take place on Saturday 25 January 2025 at the club’s renowned Frith Street location in Soho, London, between 10am and 3pm. The Ronnie Scott’s Charitable Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the support of jazz and music education in the U.K and beyond. Launched in December 2015, the charity’s aim is to ensure that music education is accessible to every child and young person. By raising and distributing funds, gifting musical instruments, and working w...

I often talk about the difficulty - and pointlessness - in trying to categorise music and the latest EP from Stewart Prosser proves the point. Quasi-classical, ambient, jazz, Far From Home brings trumpet and electronics to life and  player, out on Elm Tree Records on 14 February 2025. Lost Dawn , the first of these three tracks, is a gentle musing from collaborator Jody Smith on keyboards before Stewart’s trumpet ambles in and takes centre stage. The track leaves the listener wanting more, swiftly followed by a tempo and mood change in  Punchbag.  Stewart and Jody interweave and it’s never quite clear how much is improvised and how much has been composed. It doesn’t matter, because there is a sense that this is music from the soul. The third track -  Fogbound  - is also the first single from the EP, released today. A brief piano intro and then a breathy trumpet soars above the most gentle of accompaniments before the arrangement develops and Stewart adds a mute ...

My new favourite album is out now. I was stunned by the brilliant sax of Nicole Glover when she appeared at Love Supreme in July 2024 with Christian McBride's Ursa Major. One of my favourite drummers has also been Allison Miller, who I interviewed in December 2021 for Harmonious World alongside musical collaborator Jane Ira Bloom. They're two fifths of Artemis, who are about to release 'Arboresque' on Blue Note. Artemis (c) John Abbott Alongside Miller (drums) and Glover (sax) are Renee Rosnes (piano), Ingrid Jensen (trumpet) and Noriko Ueda (bass). It seems I'm not alone in loving this ensemble - they have twice won Jazz Group of the Year in the DownBeat Readers' Poll. Arboresque  is the third album on Blue Note for Artemis and it is truly extraordinary. When I heard Nicole Glover on stage with Christian McBride last summer, she was truly breathtaking in a terribly understated way. Her sax is confident and powerful - as are the performances of her bandmates in...

British jazz is proving strong as we head into 2025 with a vast array of great releases such as ' Gaudi ' from Glebe - an exciting ensemble with guitarist Kieran Gunter and pianist Chris Bland at its heart. If the horrible winter weather is getting you down, I recommend buying and listening to Gaudí from Glebe.  Musicians and composers Kieran Gunter (guitar) and Chris Band (piano) have brought together some of the stars of the UK jazz scene right now. Tara Minton (voice, harp, lyrics), Clare Wheeler (voice) and Francesca Confortini (voice) and Tom Smith (flute, sax) together add many layers to the pair's compositions. One of the delights of this album is the combination of careful composition and arrangement with improvisation (including gorgeous vocals on Ruby ). A teasing complexity in the piano and drum combo to start Gaudi's Blues with rhythmic and tempo changes just ... groove and keep you on your metaphorical listening toes. Gunter and Bland with their fellow mu...

Welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World, in which I interview musicians about how their music helps make the world more harmonious. It was a pleasure to interview  Ineza , discussing her latest album,  Women's Words, Sisters' Stories  with pianist, composer and arranger Alex Webb and a great band. I first saw Ineza and Alex perform this repertoire back in October 2023 and you can read a review of that gig  here . I've also reviewed the album  here . This album also features Charlie Pyne on bass, whose own album Nature is a Mother is reviewed  here  (Charlie is on my list for a live podcast episode soon!) Thanks to Ineza for giving me permission to play extracts from Women's Words, Sisters' Stories alongside our conversation. Thank you for listening to Harmonious World. Please rate, review and share: click on the link and subscribe to support the show. Don't forget the Quincy Jones quote that sums up why I do this: "Imagine what a harmonious...

Fresh from Paris, the new album from pianist and composer Etienne Manchon gives a great insight into some of the exciting jazz coming out of France right now. ' Weird Life ' is anything but weird and the trio seems to combine folk with drum 'n' bass, while remaining steadfastly jazz. From the opening track - Regard Noir  - through to Iris  by Wayne Shorter, there is a drive and intensity about this somehow persuasive collection of tracks. I sometimes look out for albums to share with people who "don't like jazz" and this is now on that list. An adept use of dynamics allows the tension to rise and fall to bring a real variety: the beautiful bass opening on C'est bientot mon anniversaire (It's my birthday soon)  retains an eerie quality that is enhanced by electronics. Manchon is joined by regular trio members Clement Daldosso (double bass) and Théo Moutou (drums) for their third studio album together. There are hints of Bill Evans, as well as more ...

There's a sublime sense of New York from 'Room for Other People', despite being composed by Dutch pianist Harald Walkate. Out this week, the fifth album from his critically acclaimed ensemble The New York Second is a musical response to ten beautiful and evocative photographs taken by Vivian Maiers.  Discussing Maier's photographs, why he selected the ten images that inspired these compositions and the artistic value of the work that had been put away and never displayed in Maier's lifetime, Walkate says: "I get as much enjoyment out of writing a piece of music and playing it the best I can with no one else present, and then laying it away perhaps never to be played or heard again. That, the me, is why we engage in art: to create something beautiful, and in the process learn something about the world. And about ourselves. And, then, we need to make room for other people." The music inspired by the images is simply stunning, with Walkate's piano running...

It was a pleasure to interview trumpeter Muneer Nasser for Harmonious World back in March 2023, and then to review his book in August the same year. The combination of accomplished musician and fascinating historian and writer on telling his father’s story is engaging and now Muneer has released his latest quintet album: ‘ Blue House Session ’. This album takes Muneer and his trumpet around the musical world and there’s something for everyone, from originals to covers, such as Miles Davis’s All Blues and the standard Polka Dots and Moonbeams . Recorded in the summer of 2023 with a stunning band that allows the trumpeter to shine alongside the others: Elijah Easton (tenor sax), Allyn Johnson (piano), James King Jr (bass) and John Lamkin III (drums). Alongside his trumpet, Muneer grabs the flugehorn from time to time, and he almost seems more at ease on the slightly larger and more mellow horn. Muneer’s musical talent comes from a lot of hard work, but also, genetically, via his bass-p...

I'm glad that I delayed reviewing this album to the start of 2025, despite receiving a copy of it a couple of months ago. 'Ashes to Gold' from trumpeter Avishai Cohen seems to offer new hope in a troubled world. Some surprising and entrancing elements of this album bring a real sense of joy and inspiration. The five-part suite that forms Ashes to Gold begins with the unexpected sound of the trumpeter band leader on flute in a quasi-classical exposition that bursts into what is unashamedly jazz. In these days of shuffle, you can do nothing better than follow the five movements through from this rather wonderful band. For this album Avishai Cohen (trumpet, flugelhorn, flute) and has brought together Yonathan Avishai (piano), Barak Mori (double bass) and Ziv Ravitz (drums). The title and imagery of Ashes to Gold  comes from the ancient Japanese art of kintsugi, where broken ceramics are repaired using gold to make something beautiful. Avishai Cohen says: “In a way I think tha...

Welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World , in which I interview musicians about how their music helps make the world more harmonious. In this episode, I chat with singer-songwriter   Avery Hill   about her latest album:   The One Who Remembers . The art of storytelling is important to Avery and that comes across in her music. Thanks to Avery for giving me permission to play extracts from her   The One Who Remembers   alongside our conversation. Thank you for listening to Harmonious World. Please rate, review and share: click on the link and subscribe to support the show. Don't forget the Quincy Jones quote that sums up why I do this: "Imagine what a harmonious world it would be if every single person, both young and old, shared a little of what he is good at doing."

One of my last albums of 2024 has only just made it to the top of my listening pile and I'm glad it reached me. Bass player Dan Fortin has released 'Cannon' on Elastic Recordings. A collection of short explorations into jazz and electronica, all these tracks feature Fortin's bass alongside the fruit of his wider musical influences. Almost mesmeric in quality, Cannon  focuses on the bass, but includes contributions from a spectrum of guests that add to the eclecticism. This album is not for the faint-hearted, but start with Minty  featuring Toronto's Karen Ng (sax). Ng's sax and Fortin's bass come together until she closes with a harmonic sense of unison with Fortin, leaving him to explore the echoes she has left behind. There is a sparseness about this album in other tracks, too. Sometimes, using electronic sounds can be too much of a draw and they become over-used, but Cannon  is, throughout, built around the bass. Reviewing an album often seems superfluous...

If the New Year is leaving you wanting to find new music, I may have found somewhere for you to start. There is a mesmeric quality to Scottish saxophonist Phil Bancroft's new album: 'Finding Hope (When All Seems Lost)', combining as it does guitarist Graeme Stephen and table master Gyan Singh. This debut album from Bancroft's new trio - The Beautiful Storm - is out now on his own Myriad Streams platform. Taking influences from a multitude of sources, this is a brilliant album, recorded and mixed in a home studio but with a stunning sound and exciting rhythms and combinations of these three exceptional performers. Bancroft says: "This album breaks new ground for me, in multiple ways. It comes at the end of fourteen years of study with a new approach to learning and practising, opening up a whole new concept of rhythmic structure, a new approach to composition and improvisation. This is the first album to present these findings to the world.” During the recording and...

Happy New Year! Welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World, in which I interview musicians about how their music helps make the world more harmonious. This first episode of season 19 features a conversation with saxophonist and composer  Emma Rawicz , who I saw twice at the end of 2024 - once with her own band at  Kings Place  and once at  Ronnie Scott's with Laila Biali  (who you can also hear on  episode 246 ). It was great to chat with Emma about her experiences as a musician and also about her forthcoming projects, particularly a duo with pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock. More of that to come! Thanks to Emma for giving me permission to play extracts from her 2023 album Chroma alongside our conversation. Thank you for listening to Harmonious World. Please rate, review and share: click on the link and subscribe to support the show and receive some great freebies! Don't forget the Quincy Jones quote that sums up why I do this: "Imagine what a ...