Golden age for pianist Kit Downes

By Martin Barber BBC Norfolk

Kit won the BBC Jazz Rising Star awards in 2008

Kit Downes, 23, from Norwich, is known on the British jazz circuit as an accomplished musician and performer.

In November 2009 he hopes the release of Golden, the debut album from the Kit Downes Trio, will mark the start of a new chapter in his musical journey.

"I'd been playing a lot of other people's music and I felt I really wanted to focus on being a composer as well as an improviser," said Kit.

The trio have been together since they met at the Royal Academy of Music.

Featuring Kit on piano, the trio is completed by award-winning bassist Calum Gourlay and rising drum star James Maddren.

Their music displays a level of understanding that only comes from working closely together for a number of years. It was this relationship that played a large part in deciding it was time to record together.

"Calum, James and I had just finished a four-year undergraduate course at the Royal Academy of Music, and we'd been playing and living together, while working on a lot of original music," said Kit.

"It felt like a good time to document the sound of the band and all the playing that we did in those years cemented us together musically."

The Kit Downes Trio have played together since 2005

The trio have always been interested in making their music accessible with a great sense of melody.

They hope Golden provides the listener with something that can be both immediately arresting and stand up to repeated listening, an album to celebrate the classic piano trio tradition, as well as develop it for a new generation.

"I hope people can keep coming back to it, that it isn't an album that you only listen to once - but is a piece of work you can find something new in every time you listen to it," said Kit.

Musical influences

"Its influences come from many, many sources. Songwriters like Nick Drake, Rufus Wainwright, Elliot Smith and a lot of folk music - things with really strong memorable melodies. I guess I have always liked melody.

"People like Keith Jarrett, Oscar Peterson and Bill Frisell had a big influence in the way the band sounds when performing together and there are also classical influences from Ravel, Debussy and Bartok.

"I particularly wanted to create a record that could capture the listener's ear straight away."

It's no surprise that Oscar Peterson's sound impacted on Golden as it was Peterson that first switched Kit on to jazz.

Kit started playing the piano when he was 12, working his way through the music of Bach and Beethoven - but it was while listening to a CD by jazz pianist Oscar Peterson that inspiration struck.

After training at the Purcell School of Music in London and finishing his degree at the Royal College of Music, Kit now lives in London - but Norwich is still the place he calls home and tries to return to as much as he can.

"I try to come as much as possible as it's always really relaxing… but I love playing in Norwich. There are some lovely venues like the King of Hearts, The Playhouse and John Innes," said Kit.

"It's nice to come back to what still feels my base and I also write so much better when I'm at home. Norwich is just very comfortable.

"What's so important about writing music is the situation you're in, how comfortable you are and also what piano you're using.

"I'm really used to the piano at my parents' house as I grew up playing that piano and it feels very natural writing on it."

Golden is released on 2 November, 2009 on Basho Records.