Profile

Paul Edmonds is a composer and jazz musician based in London. His mellow yet virtuosic style coupled with a new approach to jazz composition have earned him great respect on today's jazz scene.

Born in 1968, he grew up in the south of England. By the age of 16 he was playing with respected south coast groups. He progressed to the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, during which time he won First Prize in the International Trumpet Guild's Jazz Improvisation Competition held at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. He then entered the Guildhall School of Music, graduating in 1989.

After two years on the London jazz scene playing clubs with Jean Toussaint, Julian Arguelles, Cleveland Watkiss, Clark Tracey and Loose Tubes, he spent some time in Australia where he worked as a composer and led his own band in Sydney.

On his return to England he led his own Quintet at Ronnie Scott's and as a member of the Mike Westbrook Orchestra was a featured trumpet soloist on the 1996 "Bar Utopia" album.

Since 1997 he has worked principally as a composer and teacher, spending his time in the recording studio and performing his music in front of live studio audiences. www.journeyoftheheart.co.uk appears as a result of this.

Inspiration

Inspiration has come from trumpet players Chet Baker and Miles Davis and pianist Keith Jarrett. The guitarist Pat Metheny, whose use of synthesized sounds to add colour and depth to his music, has been another inspiration.

Chet Baker

Miles Davis

Keith Jarrett

Pat Metheny

My compositions are inspired by a love of 19th-Century Romantic Music and 20th-Century Improvised Music. I have united these traditions in order to create a sound within which I, as an improviser, can express myself on a larger scale.

In a country where music continues to be categorised and concepts separated, I have experienced great difficulty in gaining support from "Jazz and Improvised Music" organisations. As my music is influenced by more than just the Jazz tradition, I can only presume that it no longer fits this category. In order to gain their help, I am under increasing pressure to write music which does fit into this category.

However, I aim to keep my own course, despite its difficulties, in the hope that those barriers which inhibit the progress of serious music in this country will soon be broken down.