Marsden Jazz Festival

Last but certainly not least, we’re introducing you to Cath Roberts of Sloth Racket. We caught up with Cath about jazz journeying, approach to collaborations and improvisation, as well as what inspires and gives Cath energy to keep making music. Sloth Racket’s performance on Saturday is a first for us…and for them! For this special one-off performance, members of Sloth Racket will collaborate with improvising cellist Hannah Marshall.

Sloth Racket will perform compositions by baritone saxophonist Cath Roberts, who creates scores using graphics, text and musical notation as frameworks for collective improvisation. Hannah Marshall is one of the leading improvising string players in the UK, active on the free improv scene across Europe for many years.

Marsden Jazz Festival’s New Stream gigs feature cutting edge and experimental jazz music as well as new commissions.

Q: How did you first get into to creating music of your own and what drew you to the art form jazz?

Ha, wow, I don’t know! I have played the saxophone since I was nine years old and made up my own music since I was a kid too. Youth jazz bands at Northamptonshire Music Service got me into improvisation, and that was the beginning of the end…in terms of Sloth Racket, we formed in 2015 for a festival gig for Jazz North East. I wanted to combine my two loves of free improvisation and composing…or more accurately, making up riffs. And then luckily the others wanted to keep doing it, so here we are.

Q: How do you approach improvisation and collaboration in your music? Your performing with experimental cellist Hannah Marshall – could you tell us a little bit about how this particular collaboration came about?

I share a studio space with Hannah and have known her for quite a few years. I love her music, and although we have played totally improvised music together, it’s brilliant to involve her in a project with my composed music. Our Sloth Racket guitarist Anton Hunter is away for this gig, so he suggested we do a special collaboration with another artist. Without electric guitar, I thought it would be interesting to take the band into a more acoustic space by adding cello. So Hannah was the natural choice! I can’t wait to make music together.

Q: What can we expect from your Marsden Jazz Festival performance?
It’s a first meeting – it’s something completely new. Four of us have been playing together for years in Sloth Racket, and I think Hannah has played with all of us in different settings. But this will be the first time we play together as a group. I will also be bringing composed material that we developed during lockdown. So essentially, expect some totally fresh, spontaneous, in-the-moment music!

Q: Have you got any projects in the pipeline or performances (other than ours!) that you’re excited about and can share?

In November I’m actually premiering a new work at hcmf//! So that is incredibly exciting. It’s another project that’s come out of lockdown, and something I’ve never done before. The performance is on Friday 19th November…more details on the hcmf// website soon I think.

Q: And finally, which other musicians are inspiring you right now?

Well, now that I’m playing again after months without any live work, I’m actually feeling very inspired by the musicians I play with! I just got back from a trip to Switzerland, rehearsing and recording new music for a new album with the Swiss/UK band MoonMot. The amount of energy everyone put into that trip, and the music people made, even after what we’ve been through since Spring 2020, was outrageous. Playing with them again has given me a big energy boost, reminded me what I do and why I need to keep doing it.