Like father like daughter - Lauren Ainsborough

It's hard to know when I began to enjoy jazz. I was born less than a month before my Dad's 40th birthday, 1983 (sorry Ron), so it was very much a different era from what my Dad experienced growing up.

You could say I started enjoying it at a young age, on long car journeys to France, when we would have Ray Charles playing on repeat.

When I was in my 20s my Dad gave me an Oscar Peterson CD and that was what changed my whole perspective.

The track Hymn to Freedam, I think it's derived from I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free by Nina Simone, was so beautiful, the way that he started out quite sparse in musical notation and then added layers so that eventually his fingers were covering the whole keyboard, so skilfully yet still maintaining the melody and harmony.

I had never heard anything like that!

Then I took my Dad to see Sonny Rollins at the Barbican, as a birthday present. The calypso rhythms in St Thomas was something I wouldn't even have considered as jazz.

In my early 30s I settled in the north east. I started to go to live jazz jams, regularly with my Dad. This was when I really fell in love with jazz!

I was so lucky to be exposed to so many talented musicians and the atmosphere, the spontaneity and the camaraderie between the musicians and the listeners was inspirational. No one knew who would walk into the room and what would be created through their unique collaboration.

All of this motivated me to explore my own piano playing in different ways. I met some great local jazz musicians, who are also great teachers (Arthur Higgins & Steve Glendinning).

Then I finally found the courage to jam with other people (mainly at The Globe). Through playing at jams, I felt so much freedom and with the support of other musicians I grew so much. I found myself able to be part of the creation of music I would never have imagined was possible.

For me, jazz is not really bossa nova, bebop or swing. It is a feeling of possibility and freedom. It is the space and the support given and taken between musicians and audience. At its best, jazz removes barriers between musical genres and people.

Over a century ago, before people started recording and selling music, I guess that jams were not an unusual thing. Live music was really the only option when people wanted to listen or dance.

In modern times, this intimate connection, with music (and jazz), has been lost to many.
Now, more than ever before, the world needs to feel connected. I've never come across a better way of doing this than listening, playing or moving to music.

The evolution of jazz is not and never will be finished. Especially in the north east where there is so much talent and so many people that want to have a good time. I'm talking about dancers with so much enthusiasm that dancing with them makes you feel like a professional, brass instrument musicians who can incorporate a riff from the Prodigy into their improvisation over a jazz standard because they have such a broad knowledge of chord progressions and the passionate listener who does nothing but focus their positive attention upon the performer, willing them to create something more beautiful than they ever have done before.

I'm so excited to see what jazz will be like when the world opens up again and I am so grateful for having my Dad in my life and for the exposure that he has given me to music.
Lauren Ainsborough