For Seb Rochford, among the most admired drummers of his generation, it has been a tough road to new album Finding Ways. Since losing his father in 2019, the subject of 2023’s A Short Diary in collaboration with pianist Kit Downes, he can scarcely talk about the past several years, other than to declare them “the most challenging of my life.”
This is no small statement. When he was 18 Rochford lost his mother, who had shaped and encouraged his early passion for music, then had those ambitions coldly stifled by teachers and academics – Guildhall rejected him, declaring he had “no imagination.” Eventually, he would become a rule-breaking star of British jazz with his twice Mercury-nominated group Polar Bear, sought after for collaborations by the likes of Patti Smith, Brian Eno, Grace Jones and Damon Albarn. A collaborative work in itself – pairing Rochford’s drumming with guitarists spanning Tara Cunningham, John Parish and Portishead’s Adrian Utley – Finding Ways is a stirring, energised ode to weathering tough times. “I feel like that’s what everyone’s trying to do in life,” Rochford says. “Just find ways to navigate it, and make it work.”
Family has played a huge role in Rochford’s attitude to resilience. The melodic ‘Who’s Your Person?’ was inspired by his maternal grandfather, who grew up in India and spent three years as a prisoner of war during World War Two. He survived, brought his family – including Rochford’s mother – over to the UK, and lived long enough to teach Rochford how to look after plants. Rochford proudly shares he still has one of his cactuses. “He was such a gentle compassionate man, that managed to come out of that experience with no resentment,” Rochford says. “If he can get through that, I can deal with whatever I’m dealing with.”
After his mother died, Rochford “immediately dived into music even more. It became kind of my safe place.” Teachers diminished his musical ambitions – his drum tutor said “there was no point, because music is dead,” and he only barely secured entry to Newcastle College Of Music – but his mother’s encouragement stayed with him through a letter she’d written before she passed. “She said, ‘things won’t always be easy, but if you keep going, it’ll make it work.’”
That spirit suffuses Finding Ways’ upbeat, sentimental compositions, which draw in friends from across Rochford’s varied career. “I wanted to pull together all these people I really loved on the same album,” he says. “It’s my community I guess, but they’re from different worlds.” The distinctions in style, from Adrian Utley’s minimal, sustained melodies on ‘Don’t Know Where It’s All Leading To’ to the more agitated playing of Leo Abrahams and Tara Cunningham on ‘Ashley’, are laid bare by Rochford’s decision to strip away even basic effects. “I banned pedals, and reverb on the amp. I wanted people to physically deal with that instrument.” This decision was partially inspired by his friend Patrick Walden, who had played with Rochford in Babyshambles and passed away this June at the age of 46. “He never used pedals, and for me he was one of the best guitarists ever.”
Rochford’s early work with Polar Bear presaged, by about a decade, an explosion of popularity in British jazz. While Polar Bear were nominated for their first Mercury Prize in 2005, it would be another 18 years before Ezra Collective became the first jazz act to win – amid a highly publicised wave of rising talent including Nubya Garcia, Sons Of Kemet and Moses Boyd. “I was aware of that scene before it hit the press,” Rochford says, having collaborated with Sons Of Kemet’s Shabaka Hutchings, and he seems pleased with where British jazz is today. “I remember doing a workshop once, and part of Ezra Collective were in that,” he says. “We had a break, and afterwards I went in the room and they were jamming with each other. I played with them a little bit, and remember saying to Shabaka, ‘those guys are going to do something.’”
Rochford’s Baker’s Dozen – like his career – is not tied exclusively to the jazz world he’s most associated with, taking in metal, punk, hip hop and Indian classical music. The one unifying thing between them is that “all these albums I’ve chosen are albums I will be listening to until I die,” and he has taken something important from each of them.
As for what people might take from Finding Ways, Rochford hopes for listeners “to be moved and motivated. Part of writing that music was about survival, so I hope it can boost people. No matter what’s going on, life is about how you navigate things.”
Seb Rochford’s new album Finding Ways is out now via Edition Records.
To begin reading his Baker’s Dozen, click ‘First Selection’ below
