Already nominated for the Mercury Prize as part of SEED Ensemble, and a key part of KOKOROKO, Cassie Kinoshi is a captivating alto-saxophonist, composer and arranger.

Her debut album with seed, formerly known as SEED Ensemble, Driftglass, received a Mercury Prize nomination in 2019 and was nominated for Album of the Year at the Jazz FM Awards in 2020. In 2019, she was awarded the Breakout Artist of the Year honour at the Jazz FM Awards.

Cassie Kinoshi has composed music for ballets and plays, such as The Tempest at The Globe and Top Girls at the National Theatre.

The London Sinfonietta commissioned her to write Solaristic Precepts, which received its world debut at the EFG London Jazz Festival in 2021. The London Symphony Orchestra also asked her to write for an ensemble in 2022 as part of the Barbican's 40th-anniversary concert series.

She was Artist in Residence for the London Unwrapped festival at King’s Place in 2021, which included the world premiere of Three Suns Suite for Aurora Orchestra, featuring members of seed.

Also, she organised Synthesis, a gathering of cutting-edge London artists, and together with visual artist Anne Verehij, she made the immersive installation echo.

With her own record label, BeatPrint Records, Cassie Kinoshi also launched the She is Jazz campaign for the EFG London Jazz Festival and published the soundtrack to Bradley 4:18.

We caught up with Cassie ahead of her Purcell Sessions gig on Sunday, March 5th, at 8 pm at the Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London’s South Bank Centre to find out more about what goes into her making music.

Can you tell us who you are, where you’re from, and something about the music you make?

I’m an artist who enjoys exploring music, composition and visual performance. I grew up in Hertfordshire and moved to London in 2011 for my studies – I’ve lived in London ever since except for a few months abroad and sometimes moving between various spaces for creative work/internships. The music I make is a mixture of all the sounds that I enjoy exploring in order to express my thoughts and connect with other people – at the moment I’m very interested in improvised music, field-recordings, and combining my love for synthesisers and electronic instruments with acoustic sound.

How did it all start?

I was lucky enough to grow up in a household where there was constantly music playing, someone (trying to) sing or watching films. My parents enjoyed listening to a lot of different genres, and I feel this was a huge part in my love of exploring so many different sound worlds. I had the privilege of having classical piano lessons from age six before taking up the clarinet and finally choosing the saxophone in secondary school. I’ve always had a love for the arts and enjoyed singing, writing songs, performing and imitating my favourite composers by ear (in Garageband!) before I was told that music could be a viable career path. I then went to study composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance with the goal of becoming a film and video game composer.

Can you tell us a bit about seed (Fka SEED Ensemble)?

seed was formed from my love of big band writing and improvised music, specifically Black American Music (Jazz). It is also one of my main points of expression when writing music, as a lot of the compositions I write for this ensemble are written to highlight my feelings towards British politics, the Black British experience and my way of reconnecting with and celebrating my African-Caribbean heritage. After seeing Yazz Ahmed perform at the Southbank Centre with a ten-piece band, I realised that it was possible to create a big band sound without having to pull together twenty musicians – ten is already a lot!

What is your earliest musical memory?

I always remember that my primary school would have music playing as we walked into assembly in the morning – usually classical music. There are a ton of melodies I still remember and hum to myself that I wish I could find the name of.

How has your approach to music changed since the pandemic?

I wouldn’t say it has changed since the pandemic, but I think spending much more time than usual alone reiterated how much I appreciate and value the musicians and creatives I’m lucky to know and collaborate with.

What’s your songwriting process like?

Often pieces I write can start from a feeling or experience, a sound, painting, novel or story I’m drawn to. Sometimes I can hear the whole sound of the piece or just a bassline or lead melody. I really enjoy the process of singing melodies or harmonies and recording them into my phone or DAW before then transcribing them or writing them out at the piano. I then flesh out the idea in Sibelius or continue to write it in Logic Pro.

Is there a question you’re never asked but would like to answer?

What kind of artist are you or are you trying to be? I feel it’s very easy to label artists without understanding that most, musicians and otherwise, have a wide breadth of interests and ways of expressing themselves. Often this goes beyond the story they present online or the work they’ve shared.

I prefer not to be labelled as a “jazz composer” or just as a saxophonist. I would say that I’m doing my best to be an artist who honestly expresses their inner dialogue through various artistic mediums – this primarily happens to be composition, improvised music and performance at the moment.

What advice would you give anyone trying to achieve a similar sound to you?

I would say that listening is one of the most important parts of developing a sound. I listen to a lot of Prokofiev, film and musical theatre scores I love, big bands (Duke Ellington, Gil Evans and Maria Schneider are my favourites), saxophonists Jackie McClean and various electronic producers as well as a load of contemporary artists I just enjoy listening to. But I would say that forming a sound that’s a mixture of everything you personally enjoy drawing is important to ensure the sound you create is your own voice.

What album are you still listening to from when you were younger, and why is it still important to you?

Miles Ahead / Gil Evans and Miles Davis – this is an album I listened to all through university. I even have a first pressing of the vinyl I found in New Orleans (Peaches Record Store)! It taught me a lot about how to write and arrange for a large ensemble, how to story-tell through composition and best to create sound worlds for soloists to interact with and respond to. My favourite track is My Ship which is such a beautiful piece of music and also the first ballad I remember learning when I first picked up the saxophone.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever played?

One of the most memorable shows I’ve played was a small show as a part of Tom Sankey’s Good Evening Arts series in SE London. Good Evening Arts is where a lot of bands on the “London Jazz Scene” started out – seed. had their ever first show with Tom, and KOKOROKO played a couple over the years at The Royal Albert. The memorable show was with a band put together just for one evening at Watson’s General Telegraph; it was myself on alto-saxophone, Richie Seivwright on trombone, Sheila Maurice Grey on trumpet, Shirley Tetteh on guitar, Rio Kai on bass and Jake Long on drums. We played a set of modal compositions (for example On The Nile by Charles Tolliver) and it still stands out in my memory as a show that reminded me why I love connecting and communicating with others via improvised music, Black American music and sharing the stage with other improvising musicians so much.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?

I don’t have a favourite show I’ve been to, but one that I remember was magical to me was the first-time seeing Maria Schneider’s Orchestra perform at Cadogan Hall shortly after I graduated (November 2015). All throughout university I was obsessed with her compositions and her as a bandleader. It was the band’s first time in the UK and since I’d met the tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin a few months before, he invited myself and my friends to have dinner with him and the rest of the band afterwards. It was such a memorable experience and I got to take a picture with Maria Schneider onstage after the show!

What artists/bands should we be listening to that we’re probably not?

I can’t assume you’re probably not listening to these artists, but three albums I’ve been listening to a lot over the last couple of years have been:

- Clever Austin / Pareidolia (2019)

- Harumi Hosono / Watering a Flower (1984)

- Joel Ross / KingMaker (2019)

What comes next in the Cassie Kinoshi story?

Currently, I have two main focuses. Firstly, making sure that I’m creating a balance between my work and personal life and putting more energy into keeping healthy and happy. Taking care of my well-being as a

A person has a direct impact on the work I’m making or whether I’m able to remain in the headspace to make new work at all.

Secondly, my lifelong dream has always been to score for film, television and video games and I’m making sure to take steps to move into this industry, as well as keep collaborating in various artistic spaces and preparing to record my next projects I can’t wait to share with everyone.

Start Listening To: Cassie Kinoshi