Page 86 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

music and jazz often met and mingled, producing some of the most beloved
creations in today’s canon.

Balsom’s career, however, has invariably involved mixing things up, reaching for
repertoire wherever she finds it. ‘I listen to classical music all the time, and I see

myself firmly steeped in that tradition,’ she tells me, as we sit down to explore her
new album, named after that Copland work. ‘And yet the trumpet is such a left-field

instrument. But instead of that making me feel marginalised, it allows me – if you
want to put a positive spin on it – the opportunity to see how the instrument can

break down genre barriers, and to see what it can say in a cohesive way, but not
necessarily within a niche style label.’ This seems an excellent way to kick off

conversation about an album drawing on such an eclectic selection of musicians as
Copland, Gershwin, Ives, Bernstein, Miles Davis and Gil Evans. ‘With a Purcell and
Handel disc’, Balsom continues, ‘I’m always wondering how I can reach people who

are perhaps nervous about picking it up, and I try to talk about it in terms that are
universal. This album is much easier to do that with. With Davis and Evans being

such a part of the general culture, it’s much easier to talk about it in universal terms –
how it makes you feel and how powerful the music is; rather than in terms of the

labels of where it comes from and when it was written.’