Saxophonist, composer and arranger Chelsea Carmichael is an understated innovator and educator, quietly adding her own contribution to the iteration of jazz that has evolved on these islands. She’s a warm and hypnotic player, who brings subtle and considered improvisation to everything she does. She’s already been part of a Mercury-nominated band – she played on SEED Ensemble’s 2019 Driftglass – and currently plays with Theon Cross, the Neue Grafik Ensemble and the hyper-popular Outlook Orchestra who play for huge audiences at major venues and festivals. She also writes and arranges for her own Chelsea Carmichael Ensemble.

Primo cultural instigator Shabaka Hutchings noted her potential and invited her to record the first release his new brand new Native Rebel label. He wrote a set of songs for her, which she worked up at RAK studios with Eddie Hick (Sons of Kemet), Dave Okumu (The Invisible) and Tom Herbert (The Invisible; Polar Bear) and the resulting recordings comprise her 2021 debut album The River Doesn’t Like Strangers.

Whilst she’s Conservatoire-trained as a musician, she’s self-taught when it comes to composing for her own Chelsea Carmichael Ensemble – which sold out Ronnie Scott’s when they performed their tribute to John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’ on the record’s 60th anniversary.

“Composition has been a solo, self-taught adventure, literally in my room on my keyboard,” she says. “It!s been trial and error. The writing thing is a really long journey and I!m just at the start. There!s a lot more for me to explore.”

These explorations includes a focus on one particularly rich seam. “I’ve been really delving into the lineage of Black British excellence within jazz,” she adds, referencing the more obscure parts of Courtney Pine’s back catalogue and Nu Troop’s 1981 album ‘Migrations’ along with Denys Baptiste, Jason Yarde and Soweto Kinch. “The Conservatoire path is very American-focused. That’s where the music is from, but we have our own history and legacy here and we don’t do too much digging into it. It’s a personal project to dig into the history we have in this country.”