Academy Fellowship

Julian Joseph OBE

Julian Joseph’s hard swinging, fast switching piano playing and genre-defying compositions, embracing influences from Prokofiev to Herbie Hancock, have been at the forefront of jazz in the UK for more than thirty years. In 1994 he became the first British black jazz musician to host a concert series at the Wigmore Hall (captured on the 1995 album In Concert at the Wigmore Hall) and the following year the first to headline a late night BBC Prom, with the Julian Joseph All Star Big Band. His playing is documented across half a dozen albums as leader or co-leader, from 1991’s The Language of Truth to 2012’s Live at the Vortex in London, as well as on numerous appearances on albums by Courtney Pine, Steve Williamson, Billy Cobham, Branford Marsalis and others; he has also worked outside jazz, playing for musicians including the German rock singer Nina Hagen, the Icelandic songwriter Emiliana Torrini and the English drum’n’bass producer Adam F.

As composer, Joseph’s work includes a series of innovative jazz works for performance by children and in schools, dramatising stories from black history such as the nineteenthcentury violin prodigy George Bridgetower (Bridgetower, 2007), the achievements of black athletes in ‘Negro Leagues’ baseball in the 1930s (Shadowball, 2010), and black soldiers’ experiences of World War I (Trench Brothers, 2014).

Joseph’s influence as an educator may exceed even that as a performer: in 1998 he was central to the creation of the ABRSM’s jazz syllabus, and in 2013 he founded the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy, offering talented young people the chance to work with leading international musicians. He is a programme host for BBC Radio 3 and made TV documentaries and series on jazz for Meridian, Sky TV and the BBC. In 2010, The Ivors Academy (then known as BASCA) awarded him a Gold Badge in recognition of his contribution to supporting the work of British songwriters and composers. This year it goes one step further and bestows the Academy Fellowship, its highest honour in recognition of excellence and impact in the art and craft of music creation.

TIM RUTHERFORD-JOHNSON