Brighton Jazz Festival presents Rachael Cohen + Sean Payne

Rachael Cohen, a London-based alto saxophonist and composer, is one of the brightest emerging stars of her generation. Her skills as a composer and improviser have gained her a great deal of attention in the UK and beyond. The Guardian notes:

“Cohen takes a softly devious approach reminiscent of Lee Konitz – but, as with the canny Cool School veteran, the quietness is deceptive and the subtlety is in the weighting of phrases and the hipness with which she plays off the rhythm section.”

Originally hailing from the Shetland Islands, Rachael began her musical education on the piano at age 4. She picked up the saxophone five years later, and kindled an early passion for improvisation. When she was 12, Miss Cohen’s family moved south from the Shetland Islands to Edinburgh, and she enrolled in the acclaimed City of Edinburgh Music School. There she studied with some of the UK’s most admired musicians, including saxophonist Martin Kershaw and pianist Lynda Cochrane.

As lead Alto for a number of years in both the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland and Tommy Smith’s Youth Jazz Orchestra, she cut her teeth early playing alongside great British and International artists and regularly frequenting venues top Jazz venues across the UK.

In 2006, Rachael won a scholarship to enroll in Jazz Studies at The Birmingham Conservatoire to study with Julian Siegel, Jean Toussaint, Mike Williams, Hans Koller, and the late Tony Levin. Additionally, she sought out opportunities to study with artists Dave Holland, George Garzone, Lee Konitz, Mike Gibbs, Donny McCaslin,Ingrid Laubrock, Larry Grenadiar and Jon Irabagon during their local engagements.

2012 saw Rachael record her critically-acclaimed debut album ‘Halftime’ on Michael Janisch’s Whirlwind Recordings, which catapulted Cohen’s reputation to one of the premier new voices of her generation in the UK’s jazz and improvised music scene. Featuring top UK guitarist Phil Robson, ‘Halftime’ was highly praised nationwide and overseas upon it’s release in 2013 with four star reviews from major publications and earning her a spot in MOJO magazines top ten Jazz albums of 2014. MOJO magazine states

” an alluring, rarefied chamber jazz atmosphere where Cohen dances over her own unpredictable chord structures with articulacy and wit, elegantly blending Desmond’s cool, Konitz’s quirk and Coleman’s lyrical astringency.”

Rachael has since toured and continues to work extensively across the UK with her own projects and has come to be a mainstay at London clubs such as Ronnie Scott’s and the Vortex as well as having her residencies at other clubs throughout London.

Line up:

Sean Payne - Saxophone

Tom Cawley - Piano

Orlando LeFleming - Bass

Darren Beckett - Drums

Sean Payne

“Sean is a fantastic player and has great ears; and he can swing!” - Susan Brecker

"Sean Payne is an extremely gifted and promising young musician with a tremendously strong command of the Saxophone. Check him out!” - Chris Potter

Since performing in the final of the first ever BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year (2014) at the age of 13, Sean has worked regularly as a freelance musician around the UK and Europe, performing in notable venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, Duc Des Lombards, Bimhuis, A Trane, Sounds, Neimënster and The Royal Albert Hall.

Sean was a member of Clark Tracey's Quintet 2017-2020 and alongside that, has had sideman experience working with musicians such as Gwilym Simcock, Laurence Cottle, Pablo Held, Nigel Hitchcock, Kit Downes and Mark Nightingale, to name a few. He has also had the opportunity to sit in with many other notable players such as Joey Calderazzo, Gregory Hutchinson, Aaron Goldberg, Jorge Rossy and Ben Van Gelder.

At 18, Sean was the youngest member of the first ever Michael

Brecker International Saxophone Competition, held at the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Israel.

Sean was a recipient of the Elton John Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music from 2018-2022, and Graduated with First Class Honours.

Tom Cawley

Tom Cawley is one of the UK’s leading jazz pianists. He has performed worldwide - in major clubs, venues and festivals – with some of the country’s leading artists, most notably Peter Gabriel, with whom he has also recorded two albums and a live DVD. As an artist in his own right he has performed, recorded and broadcast extensively over the last ten years.

Orlando LeFleming

Among the most proficient and accomplished bassists in the field of contemporary jazz, Orlando le Fleming's virtuoso technique, boundless creativity and powerful beat are those of a musician who has found himself, humbly, occupying a space in the uppermost stratum of American improvised music.

Darren Beckett

Darren Beckett won a prestigious Bass Ireland Award as a teenager, leaving the emerald isle to study jazz in New York, where he resided for 21 years. Across his career, he has played drums everywhere from Carnegie Hall in New York to the Royal Albert Hall in London. He's performed on over 50 albums with notable names like Billy Bragg, Brandon Flowers, Ronan Keating, Emilie Simone, Daniel Lanois, Lee Konitz, Madeleine Peyroux, and Kenny Wheeler, Larry Goldings, Mark Turner.

Host or Publisher Brighton Jazz Festival