It makes sense to draw parallels between the artfully quiet and thoughtful music of protean Scottish drummer/composer Sebastian Rochford and the gentle conversation he makes regarding his recorded work. Like his elegant ECM album with pianist Kit Downes, A Short Diary–written to celebrate the drummer’s father, acclaimed poet Gerard Rochford (1932–2019)–Sebastian speaks slowly and somnolently about what brought his compositional pen to his “sonic memory” of family.
Though the elder’s poetry is ruminative and warmly academic, it is not the wordsmith Gerard Rochford that inspired his son to write the spare, languid melodies of and welcome Downes to interpret songs such as “This Tune Your Ears Will Never Hear.” Instead, it is the family man Gerard Rochford, a music lover (“He was fond of Keith Jarrett and Jan Gabarek as well as Tina Turner”) with a piano at home and a tender embrace of his children, that inspired Sebastian.
