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 powerful 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 a variety of groups, most notably with Theon Cross and Tom Skinner's 'Voices of Bishara'. She also writes and arranges for her own ensemble. Primo cultural instigator Shabaka Hutchings noted her potential and invited her to record the first release on his new brand new lebel, Native Rebel Records. Together, they worked on a set of songs, which she recorded 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'.
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The album title comes from something her dad said when they visited Jamaica for the first time, when she was younger. The Rio Grande goes through the centre of his home village of Grant Level, in the parish of Portland. “The river has always had a reputation for not being very kind to new people. My dad’s not really superstitious, so it stuck out for me that he said that.”
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She’s part of what’s being called the ‘new London jazz scene’ although recognises that every word in that phrase is inaccurate: it’s not new, it’s not just London, there are multiple sounds and the idea of a ‘scene’ occludes the nuance and complexities of a large group of people who are heading in different directions and who come from different starting points. "When we talk about the UK scene a lot of the time people are equating that with the London Jazz Scene alone - but let's not forget that there is incredible music coming out of Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, etc."
She grew up in Warrington with her parents, and started her journey in the arts training in classical Ballet and contemporary dance. She started her musical journey with piano and later picked up the saxophone, playing in big bands and as part of the Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra (WYJO). “It was essential to my development,” she says of this time. “I was one of a handful of young musicians in my area who were formally training in music - so going to WYJO was an opportunity for me to meet and hang out with other young people who were doing the same. I saw a few of the older players go onto conservatoires in Manchester and London, and so my Dad and I decided to look into what that stuff was all about." She studied with Tenor Saxophonist Dean Masser from the age of 12 right up to when she left for Trinity conservatoire in 2012 - who inspired her interest in jazz and improvisation. She wouldn't be the player she is today without his guidance.
Whilst she’s Conservatoire-trained as a musician, she’s self-taught when it comes to composing for her own projects – one of which sold out London's Jazz Café 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, and that is to be studied and respected. But we have our own history and legacy here which has allowed the UK-based musicians of today to do what we do - 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.”
It’s a sound she loves and it’s a lineage she’s joining as a musician and educator. As an educator, she is a small band coach at Trinity Conservatoire; Visiting Lecturer at Goldsmiths putting her research into Black British jazz to good use; and has done some mentor work for Generations Jazz Festival Band Camp (Swizerland) and the RAUW Academy (Rotterdam); and in 2022 was the Co-Musical Director of the Montreux Jazz Academy (Switzerland) alongside Soweto Kinch.
Nowadays, she is spending time thinking deeply about her contributions to the lineage of jazz and what it means to commit to a lifelong study of an instrument. "I'm so grateful for the career I'm developing and the opportunities and experiences that music is continuing to give me" she says. "I feel like the successes I have had so far as a touring musician has given me a real perspective on what I really want. I want to continue to evolve, study and change - The River Doesn't Like Strangers is the start of my musical journey as a solo artist. My next will be different - maybe a different sound world, a different concept - because I'm a different musician now. And same goes for the release after that - and so on. I'm seeing the music that I create as a time capsule of who I am at that time - and I'm looking forward to seeing where I am headed to next." ​
“I’m trying to serve the music in two senses,” she says. “In real time, on the bandstand, by asking ‘what does the music require, what can I bring?’ But also in terms of how to move music forward. The nature of jazz is that it always moves forward and always changes. I’ll be trying to move the music forward for the rest of my life.”