Academy Jazz Festival - Academy Jazz Ensemble with Rachael Cohen

Rachael Cohen saxophone

Academy Jazz Ensemble:

Laurence Wilkins trumpet
Lewis Sallows alto saxophone
Matthew Berrill alto saxophone/clarinet
Harry Maund trombone
Alex Wilson piano
Miles Mindlin guitar
John Jones bass
Tom Dickson drums

London-based alto saxophonist and composer Rachael Cohen is one of the brightest emerging stars of her generation. Her skills as a composer and improviser have attracted a great deal of attention in the UK and beyond.

Originally from the Shetland Islands, Rachael began her musical education on the piano at the age of four. She picked up the saxophone five years later, and kindled an early passion for improvisation. When she was 12, her family moved to Edinburgh, and she enrolled in the acclaimed City of Edinburgh Music School. There she studied with some of the UK’s most admired musicians, including saxophonist Martin Kershaw and pianist Lynda Cochrane.

As Lead Alto for a number of years in both the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland and Tommy Smith’s Youth Jazz Orchestra, she cut her teeth playing alongside great British and international artists and regularly frequenting venues top jazz venues across the UK.

In 2006, she won a scholarship to enroll in Jazz Studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire, where she studied with Julian Siegel, Jean Toussaint, Mike Williams, Hans Koller and the late Tony Levin. Additionally, she sought out opportunities to study with artists Dave Holland, George Garzone, Lee Konitz, Mike Gibbs, Donny McCaslin, Ingrid Laubrock, Larry Grenadier and Jon Irabagon during their local engagements.

Her critically acclaimed debut album Halftime catapulted her reputation to one of the premier new voices of her generation in the UK’s jazz and improvised music scene. Featuring top UK guitarist Phil Robson, Halftime was highly praised upon its release in 2013, with four-star reviews from major publications and a spot in MOJO magazine's top ten jazz albums of 2014.

Rachael continues to work extensively across the UK with her own projects and has come to be a mainstay at London clubs including Ronnie Scott’s and the Vortex, as well as having residencies at other clubs throughout London.