Her new album Quiet City may evoke the soaring skyline and dark, smoky jazz bars of New York City, but for Alison Balsom, it is firmly rooted in the isolation of the pandemic, during which it was recorded.
“I think the introverted, solitary feel you get from the whole album conveys the experience we’d all been going through,” says the star trumpeter of its plaintive, haunting tracks.
Exploring the explosion of jazz in 20th-century America, the album – which shot straight to No. 1 in the UK’s Classical Artist Album Chart and Specialist Classical Chart – features works from the great composers of the golden era, including George Gershwin, Miles by Leonard Bernstein, was suggested by Alison’s husband, the Oscarwinning film director Sam Mendes.
