Eryl Roberts

Alex Clarke Quartet: Mirage

by Chris May
December 15, 2020

The bi-annual Young Jazz Musician competition was launched by Britain's public service broadcaster, the BBC, in 2014. As with all arts awards, the final selection tends to be a lottery, with the judges tasked with picking a winner from among five close-matched contestants. 2020 was no exception. The final was televised on November 22 and the judges—tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia, vibraphonist and multi-instrumentalist Orphy Robinson and trumpeter Guy Barker—plumped for the London pianist Deschanel Gordon. But they could just as ...