Polar Bear is one of the most influential UK jazz bands of recent years, inspiring a new generation of young musicians who have come up in their wake. This month they release their latest album Peepers on a new label, with a subtle more guitar-flavoured shift in direction. Selwyn Harris catches up with Polar Bear’s leader Sebastian Rochford

Sometimes Seb Rochford must wake up staring at his drums. Set up next to a laptop in front of his bed at one end of a spacious ground floor studio flat where he lives in north east London is his practice kit. It’s a black, electronic, rather than acoustic, one. He tells me how he never uses a non-acoustic drum set live but is thinking about taking this one out when he next plays with the human beatboxer extraordinaire Shlomo (with whom Rochford’s Polar Bear has recently collaborated) so he can better match his beats up sonic-wise to Shlomo’s.

Rochford’s world isn’t like that of your typical jazz musician. It involves an intense engagement with and unconscious absorption of the subcultural mélange of music going on around him. This is what he puts into Polar Bear. Hence what comes out is that rare thing: contemporary jazz that isn’t insulated from its surroundings, but one that has its finger firmly on the pulse.

This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #137 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE copy of the latest Portico Quartet CD 'Isla'.