Video of the Day: Secret Sessions perform their track ‘Sinterval’ from the new 'Hoop' album

Hoop – reviewed in the December 21/January 22 issue of Jazzwise – is the latest album release from the Secret Sessions project, a series curated by saxophone stalwart Paul Booth that invites a group of like-minded musicians to record together.

“It dawned on me that it could be fun to keep the musicians in the dark about who they were going to be recording with on the day,“ explains Booth. “The only information they had was instrumentation, to aid them in their arrangements and what time and where they needed to be.” 

The series began with Fragile Eagle, released in 2020, featuring Steve Fishwick, Trevor Mires, Tom Cawley Oli Hayhurst and Dave Ingamells. Hoop was recorded with an entirely different set of musicians – Tom Walsh (trumpet), Nichol Thomson (trombone), Paul Booth (tenor sax & bass clarinet), Chris Allard (guitars), Laurence Cottle (electric bass) and Ian Thomas (drums). They are joined on a handful of tracks by Steve Hamilton (keys), Miles Bould (percussion) and Ross Stanley (Hammond organ).

“The germination of this album came from the core of the band wanting to explore some original music off the back of touring with various pop/rock artists. Having worked together in multiple musical line-ups as sidemen for multiple bandleaders, it made sense to come together and create some music under our own combined leadership,” explains Walsh.  “A lot of the players in this outfit are known for their work as top London session players but wanted to revisit their jazz and improvisational roots.

“Hoop presents an album of synth-tinged fusion coming from a group of contemporary jazz musicians with wide musical influences and experiences. Expect everything from powerful horn-led prog rock elements all the way through to gutsy, soulful ballad and blues playing.”

If your appetite has been whetted by this performance of the Hoop track 'Sinterval', then why not pop down to the Spice of Life in Soho, this coming Sunday (21 November) where the band will be officially launching the album as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival. Hoop is out now on Ubuntu Music.