Delighted to hand over a guest spot today to my friend and former student-of-sorts (!), Sebastian Scotney, whose runaway blog success story, LondonJazz, celebrates its fifth birthday tomorrow. Here he is, along with his chosen video to mark the occasion! JD
I attended one of Jessica Duchen's writing courses and found it
empowering. A few months later I started a blog about the London jazz scene. Five years on, writing about and trying to encourage more
coverage of the scene has brought me where I want to be: closer to the
music.
The scene in London is lively, there are always new discoveries to
be made. I get nice roles, such as being asked to compere the Whirlwind
Recordings Festival at Kings Place in October.
Jess, you will be
asking where the women are? This video is of the launch the debut
album at that festival by Shetlands-born saxophonist/composer Rachael
Cohen, a real rising star. Having done the introductions, I was sitting
in the front row, alongside her proud parents.
You get an idea of the freshness, inventiveness and fluency of Rachael's improvising after 3:05
Sebastian Scotney
