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Sean Khan

Sean Khan is a London based saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Having studied classical music at Goldsmiths College during the 90s, with a lack of jazz modules available on the course, Sean would study jazz theory and technique in his spare time. It was in the early 2000s that Sean first started to infiltrate London’s jazz scene and make a name for himself, gaining enough momentum to almost clinch a record deal with Sony. Perhaps too progressive for a major label, it was that very same recording that caught the ears of Mike Slocombe of Goya Music, the keystone label and distributor at the epicentre of the the broken beat movement. This became what can arguably be considered to be the world’s first broken beat album, When Will We Belong by SK Radicals. A lone-wolf jazzer in and amongst a plethora of producers and djs, that hugely significant record placed Sean as one of the scene’s key pioneers and led to working with the likes of Bugz in the Attic, Kaidi Tatham, Daz-I-Kue, Recloose, and Mark De Clive Lowe. And in more recent years Sean’s had his tracks remixed by Henry Wu, 4Hero, Ben Hauke and Nicola Conte.

Signing to Far Out in 2011 saw in a new era for Sean, as he was provided a platform to fully explore the wide jazz spectrum that guides his versatile sound. His debut solo album Slow Burner received critical acclaim from the likes of John Armstrong (BBC), Jack Massarik (Evening Standard), Mike Chadwick (Jazz FM) and Jon Lusk (BBC), and his 2015 follow up Muriel, a tribute to his late mother Muriel McGinley, featured collaborations with the world renowned vocal talents of Omar, Heidi Vogel and Sabrina Malheiros. Described simply by Jazzwise Magazine as “Stunning”, the acclaim and success of this album led to Sean and his band play to sell out crowds at Ronnie Scott’s and The Jazz Cafe. Sean has also shared a stage with Nicola Conte, Nina Miranda, Marcos Valle, Sun-Ra and Pharoah Sanders collaborator Clifford Jarvis, Bheki Mseleku, Joe Armon-Jones, Binker Golding, Lisa Stansfield, and even the Beastie Boys.

In the summer of 2016, Sean ventured to Rio de Janeiro with Far Out founder and executive producer Joe Davis to record Palmares Fantasy, a collaboration with the iconic Brazilian polymath Hermeto Pascoal and his most ambitious project to date.

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12
Album Review

Sean Khan: Supreme Love – A Journey Through Coltrane

Read "Supreme Love – A Journey Through Coltrane" reviewed by Chris May


One thing you can count on with alto and soprano saxophonist Sean Khan is that he will never approach a project from a predictable angle. In this he resembles tenor saxophonist Steve Williamson. Both are among the most idiosyncratic of British jazz musicians as well as being uncompromising exponents of jazz as rebel music. Both first made their mark as bandleaders twenty or so years ago experimenting with edgy collisions of hardcore acoustic jazz and dance music. Each player's cross-genre ...

7
Album Review

Sean Khan: Distant Voice

Read "Distant Voice" reviewed by Chris May


Sean Khan is among the most interesting of British jazz musicians, a prime exponent of jazz as rebel music with a unique voice. And yet, twenty years after he debuted with his band SK Radicals, Khan remains one of the scene's least celebrated players. Khan accurately describes himself as a “career outsider." Like another outsider, fellow saxophonist Steve Williamson, his post-modern, cross-genre aesthetic resists categorisation and means that he remains a niche figure. Though you would never know it from ...

9
Album Review

Sean Khan: Palmares Fantasy

Read "Palmares Fantasy" reviewed by Chris May


Palmares Fantasy is the fifth album to be released by British saxophonist Sean Khan under his own name or as the leader of SK Radicals. Like its predecessors, it is a blinder, in touch with the jazz tradition while absorbing influences from beyond it and wearing its political heart on its sleeve. The music is characteristic of Khan's wide-angled aesthetic. To make it, he travelled to Rio de Janeiro to collaborate with fellow outsider, multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, and other luminaries ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Distant Voice

BBE Records
2019

buy

Palmares Fantasy

Far Out Recordings
2018

buy

Slow Burner

Self Produced
2011

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