Music

Andrew McCormick
We say Born in Kingston 26 years ago, pianist McCormack was a relative latecomer to his instrument. He was 14 when he started teaching himself jazz piano, later getting a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music. He spent several years in Gary Crosby’s seedbed of young talent, Tomorrow’s Warriors, and went on to work with many of the biggest names on the London jazz scene, including Courtney Pine, Abram Wilson and Denys Baptiste. He now leads his own trio, featuring two members of the adventurous F-IRE Collective: bassist Tom Herbert (from Polar Bear and Acoustic Ladyland) and drummer Tom Skinner. His forthcoming debut album, ‘Telescope’, recalls a host of sources, including Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Mark Anthony Turnage and ‘Charlie Brown’ soundtrack writer Vince Guaraldi. Most impressive are McCormack’s compositions, which show a simple, direct and accessible way with themes.

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He says ‘This is an exciting time to be a jazz musician in London. There’s a real sense of adventure, of possibility, of creativity, a belief that you really can do anything. You have people from different genres and disciplines making groundbreaking music of a very high calibre. Last year I went to New York – the Mecca of jazz – and I really wanted to be impressed. But, in terms of musicians in New York’s bread-and-butter jazz clubs, the standard was no higher than anything here. There’s something very creative and integrated about London jazz, especially scenes like the F-IRE Collective.

Now that people like Brad Mehldau, Esbjorn Svensson and The Bad Plus have reinvigorated the piano trio and shown us new possibilities, it’s time for us here to do something with that format. Hopefully that’s what my album does.’

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