Marlbank readers perhaps know pianist Jamie Safir best for his recording work in the trio alongside saxophonist Iain Ballamy and singer Ian Shaw that was released as What’s New in 2020. Safir is now reunited with Ballamy for Momentism. The quietly compelling title track is currently available on digital streaming platforms ahead of the full release.
Safir, 34, who hails from Manchester, composed ten of the 11 tracks on the album, including ‘Boulevardier’, ‘Zacharius’, ‘Hirsute Pursuit’, ‘Duke Balington’, ‘Black Star Sapphire’, ‘Clocker’, ‘The World In The Evening’, ‘Mad Sad Bad’, and ‘Espirit D’Escalier.’ The title track itself is a trio setting.
The remaining track, ‘Amethyst’, was co-written with vocalist Emma Smith. Read a review of Smith and Safir above back in 2021 when the pair played Soho club Crazy Coqs
Momentism shaped around a quartet has Conor Chaplin on double bass and Luke Tomlinson on drums. Conor in recent years has worked extensively with Norwegian new generation sax eminence the pride of Bergen, Marius Neset.
Loose Tubes icon Ballamy, 62, continues a musical partnership with Safir that dates back to 2018. The influential Somerset based tenorist’s first volume of Riversphere issued last year by Babel was one of 2025’s very best albums – a second volume of Riversphere material is also to be issued according to that label marlbank understands.
Momentism was recorded in just a single day at Master Chord Studio in Finchley in February. It is a studio that has also been used productively in recent years by pianists Zoe Rahman and Paul Edis.
The upcoming album is being released by Chill Tone Records, an independent, artist run label founded in New York in 2019. The label focuses on contemporary modern jazz, with a catalogue that includes releases from Noah Preminger, Luke Marantz and Julian Shore. Chill Tone also produces the Jazz Language podcast, hosted by Preminger, which features interviews with musicians from the contemporary scene.
- An album launch performance is set for Ronnie Scott’s on Monday 14 September. Tenor saxophonist Graeme Blevins – essential on Richard Spaven’s new Light of Day – joins Safir, Chaplin and Tomlinson that night.
