Imaginative saxophonist Trish Clowes emerged two years ago to great acclaim with her self-possessed debut Tangent, that captured her multi-layered, harmonically rich vision of jazz. Selwyn Harris finds her in feisty mode as she explains the poet inspiration for her new album, and how jazz musicians have always had to fight hard to play the music they believe in

 Ask a jazz musician as to why they’ve chosen a particular title for their new album and you’re likely to be heading up a cul-de-sac. Most of the time you’ll get the kind of half-hearted response or shrug of the shoulders that indicates how little attention has been paid to the subject. But not from Trish Clowes you won’t. From the young tenor saxophonist-composer’s point of view, a title is not something to be taken so lightly. Take And in the Night-Time She is There, her poetically titled new release. It’s a phrase she’s borrowed from the great Irish wordsmith Oscar Wilde’s poem The Sphinx, published in 1894. But there’s also a more substantial reason behind it.

“The poem is about a beautiful mystical creature and I like mystery,” says Clowes. “I like music that gives people ideas and takes you somewhere else. I love the idea of the sphinx anyway. When I was trying to find a title that really described what I have done I wanted to find something that gave people the sense of what it was about and so my brother suggested, is there anything in a poem that says something about it? I’ve always been very influenced by different arts, I love going to The Tate, reading books and that kind of thing so it just seemed like a very natural way of choosing a title. And then I just think it can say something that makes other people think ‘oh what does that mean?’ The title is almost like a question mark. Maybe it encourages the listener to think ‘oh what’s that about?’ It’s just the kind of music I like: mysterious, playful, very intriguing music.”

This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #167 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...