Pianist Rebeca Omordia recently released her second album of African piano music, African Pianism Volume 2, bringing the classical music of native composers the attention it deserves. I had the pleasure of chatting with her to find out more about the music, its background, the qualities that make it uniquely African, and common ground with Western,…

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Send us your thoughts! Tom is based in Manchester, UK. He studied Saxophone and composition at the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Manchester. His classical training from Rob Buckland (saxophone), Camden Reeves and Gary Carpenter (composition) continues to inform all of his original work, which blends his distinctive voice as …

Send us your thoughts! Joan Hutton is a performer, composer and educator residing in Minneapolis. Joan’s diverse interests have taken her from jazz, free improv and funk to classical, chamber music and pit orchestras. She has released two jazz albums featuring her original music, with co-leader Sue Orfield, on Shifting Paradigm Records: “Take That …

To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the London Symphony Orchestra's own label, Head of LSO Live Becky Lees, first violinist Maxine Kwok, and principal percussionist Neil Percy talk to James about how the label came to exist, the process of capturing live concerts for release, and their memories of some favourite recordings through the year…

Send us your thoughts! Darius and Cathy join the show to share their lifetime of work and achievements. With a new book and film Playing The Changes as well as a rerelease of The Jazzanians iconic album We Have Waited Too Long theres so much to catch up on! Support the showDi Rob Cope

Send us your thoughts! In a world which celebrates the virtuosity of the individual, HLK’s vision has been to develop their ensemble virtuosity, compelled by a unified vision. The music comprises precise notated sections, moments of conversational interaction and room for individual improvisation. It is a delicate but powerful balance. This unique,…

Another second-album episode! A follow-up not to a trailblazingly exploratory recording (as when we spoke to Heloïse Werner last episode) but to a quietly uplifting one, filled with spirituality and peace. The Poor Clares of Arundel appeared on many people's musical radar back in 2020, when their album Light For The World was released into the mids…

Send us your thoughts! Sam joins Rob Cope to tell us all about his brand-new album. We chat about the music, the influences and the key decisions behind the project. Support the showDi Rob Cope

Hot on the heels of 2022's Phases comes a second album from acclaimed young singer-composer Heloïse Werner, Close-Ups. Drawing together works by Bingen, Strozzi, the French Baroque composer Julie Pinel, and Errollyn Wallen, it also features compositions by Werner herself - including Les Leçons du Mardi, an acerbic, witty piece biting back against c…

Send us your thoughts! Loren’s began her career as something of a prodigy at age 13, when she won a songwriting contest, gaining national attention. Before she was 19, she did a stint in Nashville, soaking up that city’s ancestry of great American songwriting. She recorded her first album at 20, and from there she was off and running, recording suc…

If you've been paying attention to the UK jazz scene over the past decade, the name 'Rob Luft' is bound to have cropped up on your radar at least once or twice. Having first emerged out of NYJO as a teenage guitarist from Sidcup, he went on to study at London's Royal Academy of Music where, upon graduating in 2016, he became the recipient of the Ke…

This year the Berliner Philharmoniker celebrates two anniversaries, with the online Digital Concert Hall turning 15, and the Berliner Philharmoniker label marking its first decade. Rob Cowan spoke to Olaf Maninger, who alongside a busy schedule as principal cellist with the orchestra, is General Manager of Berlin Phil Media GmbH, and has been one o…

Send us your thoughts! Swedish artist, Vidya talks to Tara Minton about her new album, Adi Shakti. Support the showDi Rob Cope

Send us your thoughts! Professor of the Practice in the Department of Music at Duke University, Anthony Kelley joined the Duke faculty in 2000 after serving as Composer-in-Residence with the Richmond Symphony for three years under a grant from Meet the Composer, Inc. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Duke University, and he earne…

For our first episode, Barney visits Oslo and speaks to the musical supercouple of John Surman and Karin Krog, as the British saxophonist prepares to go out on tour in support of his latest album Words Unspoken released on ECM. This agreeable pair discuss the early days of their respective careers, from their first meeting at the Montreux Jazz Fest…

Send us your thoughts! Our guest host Martin Hummel interviews Rob Cope about his new album, Gemini which is out now. Rob chats about his influences and inspirations and Martin does a stunning job in the captains chair. Support the showDi Rob Cope

Send us your thoughts! Music has been an integral part of Martin’s entire life. Since his early days as a musician, Martin staged concerts as a teenager (featuring Elton John), worked in various music clubs and was a DJ/Music Director in professional radio. For 17 years, he was responsible for Pepsi-Cola’s international communications, where he wor…

Send us your thoughts! As a band leader and co-leader he is responsible for much of the output of the groups; Lammas, The Underground Orchestra, Storms / Nocturnes (feat. Joe Locke and Geoffrey Keezer), Acoustic Triangle, the last few years of Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, and The Lighthouse Trio, (feat; Gwilym Simcock and Asaf Sirkis). This final gro…

Send us your thoughts! Kirk is a musician and writer based in Portland, as well as being a multi-instrumentalist he makes a music podcast, Strong Songs and produces and co-hosts the Triple Click video game podcast. Today he joins the show to chat to Rob Cope about all things podcasts, jazz as well as a look into music in video games. Support the sh…

Send us your thoughts! Simon’s latest project features his recently formed U.S. Jazz Octet with three front line horns and vocals. There are special guest appearances by leading U.K. jazz artists, including Tim Garland and Paul Booth and, for the first time, Simon’s arrangements appear alongside his original compositions. Simon explains his thinkin…

Send us your thoughts! Mark joins the show to chat about his new album, Smiling. Joining the show is Olivia Cuttill as a guest host. Saxophonist and composer Mark Lockheart first came to prominence in the mid 1980s with the influential big band Loose Tubes. In 1992 Mark formed the eclectic co-led quartet Perfect Houseplants, a group that released s…

Violinist Francesca Dego kicks off the Busoni centenary celebrations with her new album, pairing his concerto with that of Brahms - a juxtaposition that might seem strange, until you realise (as Francesca describes) the deep connections between the two works, so much so that Busoni's concerto could even be seen as a direct homage to Brahms's. As we…

Send us your thoughts! Rob Cope chats to Olivia about her brand new album, The Whole Damn Plan, featuring guest host and long time friend of the show, Mark Lockheart. Our 7th birthday celebrated in style with one of the finest musicians of the next generation. Support the showDi Rob Cope

Send us your thoughts! Swedish jazz vocalist and composer Clara Green talks to Tara Minton about her new record, "Being Green." Support the showDi Rob Cope

Send us your thoughts! Jamil joins the show today to chat about his new album, Red Kite. He has recorded and collaborated with many artists and recorded four albums of his own music, each of which have received national and international accolades. Jazz UK writes about Jamil: His music is both swinging and sophisticated, Sheriff showing himself to …

Pianist Martin James Bartlett first came to many people’s attention in 2014, when he won the BBC Young Musician Award. A Proms debut followed the next year, and a recording contract with Warner Classics not long after. To date, both of Martin’s albums on Warner have been centred around a unifying core concept - recital-recordings with a clear and t…

Send us your thoughts! Born in Detroit, raised in London and now based in Kraków, Alex Roth is a composer, guitarist, producer and interdisciplinary collaborator who over the last decade has earned a reputation as “one of contemporary music’s most innovative and impressive talents” (musicOMH). His diverse body of work encompasses improvised perform…

Send us your thoughts! Today a living legend joins the show! Even for a successful composer and arranger in Hollywood, Gordon Goodwin’s numbers are impressive: A 2006 GRAMMY Award for his Instrumental Arrangement of “Incredits” from the Pixar film The Incredibles, three Emmy Awards, and thirteen GRAMMY nominations. Support the show…

As every opera-fan must surely be aware by now, December saw the centenary of Maria Callas’s birth, and Warner Classics marked the occasion by issuing the most comprehensive collection of her recordings ever released – clocking in at a whopping 131 CDs, La Divina offers the chance to experience Callas’s unique qualities in all 74 roles for which au…

Send us your thoughts! Multi-award winner as best jazz vocalist - BBC Jazz Awards 2007 and 2004 and Parliamentary Jazz Awards 2018,alongside nominations from the Jazz FM Awards 2013 and Downbeat Magazine 2017 - Ian Shaw has amassed a number of highly acclaimed internationally released albums and is a popular performer both in the UK and the US. He …

Send us your thoughts! Jamie Cullum (born 20 August 1979)[1] is an English jazz-pop singer, songwriter and radio presenter. Although primarily a vocalist and pianist, he also accompanies himself on other instruments, including guitar and drums. He has recorded nine studio albums, three compilation albums, one live album and twenty-four singles. Sin…

Although plenty of attention has been lavished on the four hundredth anniversary of the death of William Byrd, his contemporary Thomas Weelkes also died in 1623 - on the 30th of November - and has seen rather less in the way of commemoration. In addition to Weelkes being a composer of great gifts, his reputation also rests in part on his track reco…

Send us your thoughts! Face to Face, Nikki’s new album is out today! As a founder member of the hugely innovative Creative Jazz Orchestra in the early 90s, Nikki Iles came to prominence working with musicians such as Anthony Braxton, Vince Mendoza, Mark Anthony Turnage, Kenny Wheeler and Mike Gibbs. Mike subsequently booked her for one of her first…

The 'Schubert in English' series on Signum Classics sees its fourth instalment this year - following up Winter Journey, Swansong and The Fair Maid of the Mill with a wider-ranging collection of songs, sung by Roderick Williams and Rowan Pierce with Christopher Glynn at the piano. Front and centre, too, are the translations of Jeremy Sams, which at …

Send us your thoughts! Nicky Schrire is a multitalented and inventive British-South African vocalist and composer based in Toronto, Canada. Her work has seen her likened to vocalists Joni Mitchell, Norma Winstone, and Esperanza Spalding with The BostonGlobe’s Jon Garelick noting that “though her approach has earned her comparisons to Gretchen Parla…

Send us your thoughts! Mária talks about her creative process and new album, Topol'ana. Support the showDi Rob Cope

Send us your thoughts! Nils Petter Molvær, Norwegian trumpet player, composer and producer, who takes multiple music styles – jazz, ambient, house, electronic and break beats, as well as elements from hip hop, rock and pop music – and effortlessly reshapes them into unique and dramatic soundscapes of deep intensity. Support the show…

As "the classiest brass ensemble in Britain" turns 30, Onyx Brass's trombonist Amos Miller looks back over three decades of brass quintet music-making, with an eye on exploring contemporary repertoire. We discuss the group's latest album, 'The sun is free to flow with the sea', and some of the works featured on it, as well as touching on questions …

Send us your thoughts! Neset made an astonishingly powerful impression when he first emerged onto the European jazz scene as a young saxophonist of protean gifts more than a decade ago. Django Bates, who was a teacher and a significant mentor at the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen, had Neset in several of his band, and also appeared on Neset’s …

Send us your thoughts! Greek born with Egyptian roots, electric jazz harpist and composer Maria-Christina Harper is reinventing the sound of the harp in the jazz world. With her anarchic spirit and an interest in exploring what the harp can do, rather than exploring its traditional sounds, she presents her instrument in new and exciting ways. Combi…

Send us your thoughts! Aline Homzy is an award-winning violinist and composer. Originally from Montreal, born to a Québécois mom and an American dad with Eastern-European roots, Aline’s original music reflects her culturally-diverse background. Beyond composing music, Aline is a regular violinist in the studios of Toronto, recording other artists’ …

Send us your thoughts! Henry Spencer is a multi-award-winning trumpeter, composer and bandleader. Since releasing his album and an EP with a multi-GRAMMY Award Winner in New York (credits include Miles Davis, Prince, Herbie Hancock, Michael Jackson), touring with his band internationally with a growing following, audiences and radio/TV broadcasts, …

A discussion of the OUP's recently-published collection of sacred and secular choral works by Black composers, with its editor Dr Marques Garrett - taking in Vicente Lusitano, Undine Smith Moore, R Nathaniel Dett (Dr Garrett's own particular labour of love) and more. Presto Music All things musical... on your doorstep! Visit our website: www.presto…

Send us your thoughts! Mark joins the show to chat to Rob Cope about his new album, Live at the Village Vanguard. His first live album, and one not to be missed! Support the showDi Rob Cope & Tara Minton

Send us your thoughts! Kyle joins the show to chat to Rob Cope about his new album, Eastwood Symphonic. Eastwood Symphonic, Kyle Eastwood forthcoming album, is a tribute from a son to his father, legendary actor and director. This family collaboration now becomes an unique album, that will come along a film produced by Arte, a European symphony tou…

Send us your thoughts! Matthew Halsall is a trumpeter, producer and composer who is redefining spiritual jazz for the next generation. Over the course of nine albums, numerous accolades and his taste-making label, Gondwana Records, he’s become a vital voice in UK music with his lithe, limitless blend of jazz and deeply meditative influences that’s …

Send us your thoughts! Zoe Rahman: https://www.zoerahman.com/ Zoe Rahman’s style is deeply rooted in jazz yet it reflects her classical background, British/Bengali heritage and very broad musical taste. Known for her powerful technique, wide-ranging imagination and exuberant performance, she has become a highly sought-after musician on the internat…

Send us your thoughts! https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gemini--6#/ An artist interested in multiple musical directions and one who strives for quality and sincerity in his work. His exciting energy has compelled him towards many different musical directions and projects. Considered by his contemporaries as cutting edge, Gray shows promise as an …

Send us your thoughts! If you enjoy this show, you can preorder Rob's new album Gemini at this link below. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gemini--6 Today John joins the show to chat about his incredible career so far. Support the showDi Rob Cope & Tara Minton