seed. (JK / UK)
Cassie Kinoshi - asax, bandleader
Deji Ijishakin - tsax, ssax
Joseph Oti - tr
Jack Banjo Courtney - tr
Joe Bristow - tbn
Hanna Mbuya - tb
Shirley Tetteh - g
Deschanel Gordon - p, keys
Rio Kai - b
Patrick Boyle - dr
Previously known as "SEED Ensemble", "seed."is a Mercury Prize-nominated ten-piece band led by alto saxophonist and composer Cassie Kinoshi.
The group presents a stellar line-up of some of London's most promising young jazz musicians. West African and Caribbean influenced, seed. explores a mixture of genres through original compositions and improvisation. Their debut release Driftglass (Jazz Re:freshed, 2019) features Afronaut (feat. XANA), which won the 2018 Ivors Academy Award (formerly known as BASCA, the British Composers' Award) for Jazz Composition for Large Ensemble.
Cassie Kinoshi is a Berlin- and London-based composer, arranger and alto saxophonist, nominated for the Mercury Prize (2019) and winner of the Ivors Academy Award (2018), with a focus on multidisciplinary and genre-specific performance in a variety of audiovisual contexts. As a bandleader, she writes pieces and performs with her ten-piece ensemble seed., which features many of London's finest improvising musicians. She has a degree in composition from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where she studied with Andrew Poppy and Stephen Montague.
She is an in-demand composer for contemporary dance, film, visual arts and theatre and her work has been performed at New York's Park Avenue Armory (Euphoria), the National Theatre (Top Girls), the Globe Theatre (The Tempest), BalletBoyz (England on Fire and Bradley 4:18) and the Southbank Centre (Drew McConie's The Nutcracker). Her work has been commissioned by orchestras and ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, London Contemporary Orchestra, Manchester Camerata and initiatives such as Renaud Capuçon's New Horizons Festival in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Cassie has a strong interest in the audiovisual field, installations and mixed genre ensembles. In 2021, she was an artist in residence at King's Place as part of the London Unwrapped Festival. Her residency included the world premiere of Three Suns Suite for Aurora Orchestra, featuring members of seed. Synthesis Cassie curated an evening featuring progressive London artists, and echo, an immersive installation created in collaboration with visual artist Anne Verheij, whose score featured electronic soundscapes, field recordings, and a performance by Chineke! Orchestra.
Premiered to a sold-out Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre, her 2023 commission Gratitude was written for members of the London Contemporary Orchestra in collaboration with seed."
Cassie is also a passionate educator and workshop leader, and community outreach is an integral part of her work. In 2020 and 2021, she organised and led the community ensemble EFG in the London Jazz Festival's 'She is Jazz: Women Make Music' performance at the Southbank Centre and King's Place, and in 2023, commissioned by the Southbank Centre, she led a series of workshops and invited students to participate in the premiere of Gratitude.
Cassie is currently writing new works for soprano Julia Bullock and the Philharmonia Orchestra (world premiere in London 2024) and a concerto for hand-held flounders based on "Chineke!" commission. Orchestra (world premiere 2024 at the Dresden Festival) and Nederlands Dance Theatre with choreographer Maxine Doyle (world premiere 2024).
Awards and Nominations: 2019 Hyundai Mercury Prize nominee, Paul Hamyln Foundation Composer Award 2021, 2020 Jazz FM UK Jazz Act of the Year nominee, 2020 Jazz FM Album of the Year nominee (, 2019 Jazz FM Breakthrough Act winner, 2018. "Best Jazz Composition for Large Ensemble (Afronaut, "SEED Ensemble)
Ill Considered (UK)
Idris Rahman - sax
Liran Donin - eb
Emre Ramazanoglu - dr
Many European jazz enthusiasts have been saying unanimously for years now that London is the hottest spot for the genre in the old continent. The UK's capital city, where the River Thames snakes its way through the Thames, is a mad cauldron of jazz, with a host of daring and devilishly talented artists setting the jazz trend for the world. Vinius Mama Jazz knows that these are not boastful statements and presents one of the hottest phenomena out there - Ill Considered, a collective that straddles the divide between improvisation, jazz, electronica and world music.
Formed in 2017, Ill Considered is the latest in a long line of artists and musicians. After spending a lot of time behind the scenes in the music studio working with greats like Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher, pop star Katie Melua and ambient classic Brian Eno, drummer, producer and sound engineer Emre Ramazanoglu thought it was time to take a break and create something close to his heart. Having met a couple of soul mates in the London boiler room - saxophonist, clarinettist and music producer Idris Rahman and bassist Leon Brichard - Emre didn't miss the chance to jam together. The first improvised performance became, in just 24 hours, the band's first album released under their own label set up for the occasion.
The spontaneous, no-strings-attached, DIY-philosophy-driven musical ship, while avoiding the big ports of call of the commercial music industry, soon became a highly sought-after item in the circles of Londoners who had seen and heard a lot, and before long it was sailing beyond the British Isles.
The creative backbone of the band is improvisation and enjoyment of the present moment. "Ill Considered's albums, more than ten of which have been released over the years, and concerts do not sound like meticulously detailed compositions. The musicians are constantly diving into sound, not to fulfil a pre-arranged plan, but rather to discover new creative angles and to surprise not only themselves, but also their listeners. This is fully reflected in the band's name, which in English is used to describe a reckless act.
The members of Ill Considered are based in London, but their sound transcends the British tradition. Born to an Irish and Indian family, I. Rahman and Turkish-born E. Ramazanoglu bring with them a solid trove of non-western music. In addition, Indian-born West African percussionist Satin Singh is a frequent collaborator, and recent recordings have featured tuba player Theon Cross, saxophonist Ahnanse, percussionist Sarathy Korwar and others. This wide range of influences from Ill Considered's regular members and their friends creates a unique gritty improvisational sound that organically blends jazz, electronic music, Afrobeat, funk and the musical heritage of the Middle East and India.
The band is also characterised by its exceptional album art. Each of their album covers is a subdued abstract artwork by Vincent de Boer, the artist who has become an integral part of Ill Considered. The plastic, delicate forms and subtle symmetry of his work are reminiscent of a mixture of the exquisitely playful art nouveau and the functionalistically rigorous art deco. It is the blend of these architectural movements that captures the content of Ill Considered's albums incredibly well, characterised by a masterly balance between feeling and reason, improvisation and structure.
The London phenomenon will be coming to Vilnius Mama Jazz with the release of the band's new album, Precipice. Will we hear the latest compositions at the festival? Hardly. "The trio of E. Ramazanoglu, I. Rahman and Liran Donin, who is currently the main bassist in the band and also plays in the well-known British modern jazz band Led Bib, are coming to show how colourful and incredibly strong the London scene is these days.
The project is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius City Municipality.
