CD: Chroma

"An extraordinary talent" (Jamie Cullum), "currently the name on everyone's lips" (BBC 3), "a force to be reckoned with" (Jazzwise) No question: at just 21 years of age, saxophonist Emma Rawicz is currently the talk of the town on the British jazz scene, which is currently one of the most interesting in the world.

She has single-handedly booked a UK tour covering almost 20 cities, played at numerous British and international festivals, headlined at London's Ronnie Scott's and founded her own big band. She also won the Parliamentary Jazz Award 2022, was a finalist in the BBC Young Musicians' Competition and was nominated for the Jazz FM Awards. All within the last two years. And even before that, in coronavirus times, Emma Rawicz proved to be creative and productive: she began posting practice routines on her tenor saxophone, flute and bass clarinet on Instagram. With lasting success: almost 50,000 mostly young people now follow her there. Her ACT debut "Chroma" is a distillation of all these experiences and an exclamation mark on the international jazz scene.

Emma Rawicz was born in North Devon, a district on the south-west coast of England. Her Polish surname comes from her Warsaw-born grandfather, who fled to England during the Second World War. Rawicz's interest in music was awakened at an early age: at the age of seven she began composing her first songs for piano and violin, and later, at the age of 15, she discovered the saxophone. She quickly gained a place at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, one of the best music schools in the United Kingdom, and finally at the renowned Royal Academy of Music in London, where she massively expanded her skills in playing, arranging and composing. In addition to her love of great singer/songwriters, Rawicz has been particularly influenced by saxophonists Joe Henderson and Wayne Shorter, whose unmistakable signature in terms of melody, harmony, sound and storytelling are also echoed in the music on the new album.

The choice of the album title "Chroma", Greek for "color", has a very personal reason: Emma Rawicz is a synesthete. In addition to hearing, she always experiences music involuntarily via a second sensory pathway, color vision. The special focus that this entails could be one reason for her rapid artistic development.

She says: "I can't do anything else while I'm listening to music. For me, listening always means sensory overload and I block out everything else." And so many tracks on the album, such as Phlox, Xanadu, Rangwali, Viridian, Falu, also have a reference to colors.

The core quintet on Chroma, together with Emma Rawicz, is made up without exception of musicians from the top British jazz league: Israeli-born drummer and percussionist Asaf Sirkis was part of the "Lighthouse Trio", also released on ACT, together with Tim Garland and Gwilym Simcock. Pianist Ivo Neame is a founding member of the highly acclaimed trio "Phronesis" and, like bassist Connor Chaplin, a member of saxophonist Marius Neset's band. And guitarist Ant Law has been called an "innovator" of his instrument by the British Guardian. Then there is Emma Rawicz's close friend and fellow student - the singer Immy Churchill, for many another rising star of the British scene. These strong musical personalities characterize the way Emma Rawicz leads the band. She says: "I feel lucky to play with such great, experienced musicians and that's why it's extremely important to me to give their musical personalities plenty of space."

So the first notes we hear on the album, "Phlox" (the title refers to what Rawicz calls "a rather unpleasant pink"), come from Asaf Sirkis, a specialist in konnakol chanting. A common thread running through the album are three readings of the same 12-bar melody "Xanadu" (the title refers to a grey-green color) - beginning with a first version of rapt tranquility, through a more energetic version, to a third, almost prog-rock version. The cheerful "Rangwali" (a term for a bright purple color) showcases the sonic versatility of Emma Rawicz on flute and bass clarinet and evolves into a lively melodic conversation between the entire band. "Middle Ground," the only piece not named after a color, begins with the wonderful up and down of the Neame/Chaplin/Sirkis rhythm section and a clear melody from Rawicz and Churchill. "Viridian" (blue-green) is a complex composition with echoes of Norma Winstone and Kenny Wheeler. And the playfully extremely demanding "Falu" (a deep red) concludes with altissimo, multiphonics and wild fingerwork, impressively demonstrating once again that "Chroma" is not only an extremely multi-layered, colorful album in the truest sense of the word, but also a statement from its creator: There's no such thing as impossible!