FORMER Warrington schoolgirl Chelsea Carmichael – now a rising star in the jazz world – has released her debut album.
“The River Doesn’t Like Strangers” is the first album to be released by new label Native Rebel Recordings and it features Chelsea on tenor sax, guitarist David Okumu, bassist Tom Herbert and drummer Edward Wakill-Hick.
According to the London Jazz News website, the album “ sounds pretty special – modern, dubby, spiritual and vital. Carmichael’s playing has the strength and personality to make the most of the highly produced soundscape and is at the centre of everything.”
Chelsea first learned to play at Culcheth High School, where she was a member of the school’s swing band.
She originally asked her Dad, Winston, to buy her a violin. But he didn’t fancy the sound of someone practising violin around the house so bought her a piano instead. But as she found herself drifting towards jazz, she switched to tenor saxophone although she still plays piano for composing.
After leaving school, Chelsea studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London and, after graduating, became a professional musician in London. She had toured widely and played with many of the leading jazz groups of the day, including Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.
She has also established herself as an educator and was musical director of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra Jazz Messengers, a group that toured the country helping to develop new jazz talent. Du ring this time, she returned to her old school at Culcheth to help and encourage young music students.
The 10-minute title track of her album was inspired by something her Dad, Winston, said about the river, which flows through the centre of his home village, Grants Level, in Jamaica.
Chelsea said: says, “I feel the way that I play on this record draws inspiration from the lineage of black music making and the Caribbean Diasporas. It only felt right to reference my own lineage, and what has always been inside me even before a saxophone was put in my hands”.
The London Jazz News review of her album ends: “What will be interesting is what comes next, as judging by her work with others there are more aspects of her musicality than are apparent here. But if a record is truly a snapshot in time, this will serve her well and, whatever happens, Chelsea Carmichael is surely on her way.”
