Soweto Kinch, Eska, Esperanza Spalding and Tumi Mogorosi discuss responding artistically to lockdown, changing the ways they create and release music, and the latest idea they got excited about.
Soweto Kinch was born in London to a Bajan father and British-Jamaican mother, and began learning saxophone at the age of nine. He discovered jazz in his teenage years and subsequently fell in love with it, with early influences including Wynton Marsalis and Frank Holder. He established the Soweto Kinch Trio in 2001, and has released albums on themes ranging from austerity and modern slavery, to mathematics. His most recent project, White Juju, came out last December, recorded alongside Lee Reynolds and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Eska is a vocalist, composer and producer with Zimbabwean heritage who grew up in London. She makes genre-hopping soul music with folk, jazz, reggae and classical influences. Her eponymous debut album was nominated for the 2015 Mercury Prize.
South African drummer Tumi Mogorosi's music transcends labels and styles. His flexible, powerful drumming brings a distinctive South African inflection to the polyrhythmic tradition of Elvin Jones, Max Roach and Art Blakey. His powerful new album Group Theory: Black Music came out last July.
Esperanza Spalding is a Grammy-award winning bassist, singer and composer from Portland, Oregon, who has consistently pushed boundaries and married genres in her illustrious career. She’s a breathtaking performer who has made her mark not just as a virtuoso jazz bassist or incredible singer, but as a hybrid of the two.