Tom Barford Bloomer CD

Bloomer is the debut album from Tom Barford, saxophonist, composer and winner of the 2017 Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize. An instrumentalist of supreme talent and creativity, Tom won the attention of judges, lifelong Wheeler collaborator and friend Evan Parker, Edition boss Dave Stapleton and Nick Smart, Head of Jazz at Royal Academy of Music, for his originality and vision. The resulting album, Bloomer, is richly vibrant, energetic and melodic; a recording that will launch the career of this future jazz star. In Evan Parker‘s words: “We are witnessing the birth of a new star in the Jazz firmament.”

From the first notes Bloomer is impactful, youthful and energetic, but it’s Barford’s contribution that hits you immediately: this is an artist with something to say! His sound is immediate, bold and fluent and he’s an improviser adept at resourcing a vast bank of harmonic language. The influences of US saxophonists Seamus Blake or Chris Potter are there, but an original and distinctive new voice is clear and present.