“This is my voice …”

Normally busy musicians like saxophonist Sophie Stockham (she’s in Sefrial, Orfic, Starlings and Cut Capers) were very hard hit when lockdown stopped all the gigs. “I had all this time on my hands” she recalls. But then she got to thinking … “I have a tendency to try to plan my way out of stressful situations, however, so I decided to learn how to arrange music for strings. I had already done this a bit with (composer) Will Goodchild for Dakhla Brass – a previous band – so I talked to Drew Morgan (cellist and composer) who was really supportive and it grew from there.”

Sophie Stockham’s Sefrial (pic: Tony Benjamin)

‘It’ is Ria, an album of Sophie’s compositions for saxophone and strings being released at a concert in St George’s on September 14. The six pieces are a revelation – Sophie’s background as a jazz player is just one flavour in a genre-defying blend of cinematic sweeps, chamber music formality and gentle swing, all carefully assembled around strong melodic lines. Naturally the composer’s saxophone has a strong presence but, crucially, it is only one voice among the six instruments involved.

Sophie Stockham playing with Waldo’s Gift at the Gallimaufry (pic: Tony Benjamin)

The album would be a major milestone in any musician’s career but what’s remarkable is that Sophie has had no formal musical training. She attributes her achievement to two things, the first being her home town. “I didn’t go to music college but I did live in Bristol with amazing people like James Morton, Craig Crofton, Kevin Figes, Jake McMurchie to learn from. And that’s just saxophone players! All the people surrounding me I’ve worked with over the years – everyone’s so encouraging and they’ve been really supportive with this project, too. It is a really great city – I’m so lucky to be in Bristol!”

The second factor was her discovery of Sibelius – not the titan of Finnish classical music but the computer software package that enables composers to assemble, hear and produce written scores for multi-voiced music. “Once I discovered Sibelius I realised I could do it all myself – I did it all on Sibelius. I only heard the pieces played live when we recorded the album and it was amazing. Of course I don’t play those instruments myself so I would write stuff and then ask Drew if there would be any technical problems.I don’t think they were too bad, though, or the players would have told me when we got to play it live.”

Once the music was written Sophie initially found the role of composer a challenge: “When you hand stuff over to jazz players it’s scary in one sense but handing it to string players was scary in a lot of senses! I know they’re used to reading really well-written pieces and they began asking me questions: ‘is this how you want it to sound?’ But it was a great process for me to gain confidence in myself because I had to have answers, I had to decide and be OK with my decisions. ‘That’s how I want it to be’”

That process is partly reflected in Flow, a track from Ria which reflects Sophie’s concern that society discourages girls and women from expressing themselves. In the piece her saxophone engages in a call and response conversation with the strings, initially becoming overwhelmed by them but ultimately emerging to lead them all in a unified finale. While thoroughly respected by her fellow musicians it’s a battle Sophie has fought throughout her career and one she still often faces when people presume she’s the singer with her band (or even someone’s girlfriend) rather than main player or bandleader. She’s encouraged that female musicians are much more visible and influential in the contemporary jazz world now, though.

Most importantly, the experience of making Ria has been a huge development in her own career. “I’m a melodic player – I’ve spent a long time thinking ‘Oh, I’m not a bebop player … so what am I?’. Now I’m releasing music of my own then you can hear it: this is how I sound, this is my voice running through it all. It’s great  and I’m thinking how can I do more, maybe bigger things … we’ll see!”

Sophie Stockham & Strings is at St George’s, Bristol on Wednesday September 14