Fiona Ross Marks 100-Tune Milestone With ‘Moments in My Pocket book’ – A 21-Monitor Jazz Journey From London
Fiona Ross has by no means been one to observe conference, and her upcoming album, Moments in My Pocket book, arriving Could 30, 2025, is a testomony to her boundless creativity and storytelling prowess. Forward of the discharge, the singles “Let Your Soul Shine” and “I Don’t Need Cash” are out now.
Moments in My Pocket book is a chronicle of affection, loss, discovery, and relentless creativity, marking her one hundredth unique tune launch. Throughout 21 tracks of jazz-fueled storytelling, the award-winning vocalist, pianist, composer, and producer delivers an expansive, deeply private assortment that spans the intimate hush of a late-night ballad to the rhythmic pulse of Latin jazz, with moments of uncooked, stripped-down vulnerability woven all through.
Ross, finest identified for carving her personal lane in modern jazz, Latin rhythms, and classic membership sounds, crafted this album as each a journey by means of time and an exploration of the current.
“I nonetheless write every little thing in notebooks,” Ross shares. “Some songs began with a bass line, some with a lyric, some from one thing I overheard in a café. This album is 21 moments from these pages—21 moments in my life.”
The document can also be a love letter to the previous, that includes two songs she wrote as a young person which have lastly discovered their voice.
The album’s first single, “Let Your Soul Shine,” is a luminous anthem of resilience and self-worth, impressed by a second of serendipity at a market stall.
“I noticed an indication that stated, ‘Let Your Soul Shine,’ and I couldn’t cease excited about it,” she remembers. “I walked house, sat on the piano, and the tune simply poured out in ten minutes.”
The result’s a soul-stirring piece that encourages listeners to search out energy in their very own gentle. One other standout, “Pirates in Paris,” is a romantic ode to freedom and creative revolt, impressed by Ross’s many visits to the French capital.
“Paris has all the time been my escape,” she says. “A spot the place I can simply be me. This tune is about that—about discovering an area the place you’ll be able to exist with out judgment.”
Then there’s “I Don’t Need Cash,” a observe that captures the wrestle each musician is aware of too nicely.
“Wouldn’t or not it’s good to simply make music with out excited about the price of all of it?” Ross muses. “However the actuality is, we dwell in a world the place cash dominates every little thing. This tune is for each artistic who simply desires to do what they love.”
And if that’s not sufficient, Ross additionally presents us “Voices Unheard,” a haunting, socially charged reflection on forgotten histories and ignored figures—with the closing traces name-checking Melba Liston, James Baldwin, Countee Cullen, Mary Lou Williams, and Ida B. Wells.
“China Instructed Me: The Stay Session,” impressed by acclaimed vocalist, broadcaster, and cultural power China Moses, was rehearsed and recorded in a single day at Premises Studios, London, and includes a exceptional, female-empowered lineup.
“China’s voice, her artistry, her humanity are necessary. She alters lives. She empowers,” Ross shares.
Collaborators embody Mary Sho (championed by Moses herself), who wrote the second verse high line, and the groundbreaking J Steps ensemble — an award-winning group for feminine and non-binary jazz musicians underneath 18, based and directed by Hannah Horton.
“I’m completely thrilled to have J Steps making their recording debut on this tune,” says Ross. “It was such an exquisite day. This tune is supposed to be loved with the video, (releasing in June), the place you’ll be able to see the enjoyment, love, and kindness within the room.”
Recorded with a stellar lineup of musicians, Moments in My Pocket book options Gibbi Bettini (guitar), Derek Daley (bass), Marley Drummond (drums), Loren Hignell (saxophones, clarinet, flutes), Simon Todd (Percussion) and Dave Boa (trumpets), with visitor appearances by Laura Impallomeni (trombone) Charlotte Keeffe (trumpet), Hannah Horton (saxophone), Diana Torti (vocals), and Migdalia van Der Hoven (drums). The album was engineered, combined, and mastered throughout a number of studios, a labor of affection that captures each the exhilaration of dwell jazz and the precision of a fastidiously honed composition.
Together with her one hundredth tune milestone in thoughts, Ross closes the album with the poignant “100 Songs,” an introspective reflection on legacy and loss.
“What would my dad and mom say in the event that they had been right here?” she wonders. “Would they be proud? Would they perceive what I’ve constructed?”
The tune lingers, leaving the listener with a way of unresolved contemplation—precisely what nice artwork is meant to do.
To have fun the album’s launch, Fiona Ross will embark on a UK and European tour, bringing these songs to life on stage. The official album launch will happen on June 4th at London’s latest, record-breaking jazz venue Soul Mama, the place followers can expertise the magic firsthand.
Fiona Ross – 2025 Tour Dates :
With Moments in My Pocket book, Fiona Ross cements her place as one of the vital fearlessly unique voices in modern jazz and singer-songwriter storytelling. 100 songs deep, and he or she’s simply getting began.
Hello Fiona! Good to see you once more! Care to introduce your self to the readers for these not acquainted with your music?
Hello, and thanks a lot for having me! Nicely, the quick reply could be I’m a vocalist, songwriter, pianist, producer, and journalist from London within the UK, and I’m nearly to launch my 8th album. I’ve been working within the artistic business since I used to be a toddler, having initially educated within the theatre and labored in a variety of areas, however ultimately ended up as a up to date jazz artist in my very own proper about 9 years in the past. I’m so very grateful to have the ability to do what I do, and I actually hope that my music connects along with your readers.
Moments in My Pocket book marks your one hundredth unique tune launch—what feelings got here up as you reached that milestone, and the way did it form the closing observe, “100 Songs”?
That’s such query, and since I didn’t actually know the way I felt, I wrote a tune about it! I partly felt like 100 songs is an enormous achievement and one that ought to maybe be celebrated, however I additionally felt like it’s only a quantity. I don’t have – and have by no means had – any form of, goal. I simply do my factor and can hold doing it for so long as I can and for so long as I’ve concepts. When it was time to put in writing the ultimate tune for the album, I mirrored on that milestone. 100 songs. What does that basically imply? My dad and mom all the time wished me to have a profession within the artistic business, and I do miss them terribly, so my one hundredth tune is to my dad and mom, asking them what 100 songs means and questioning what they might say about this milestone, in the event that they had been right here. That tune will probably be exhausting to carry out dwell.
You’ve stated every of those 21 tracks is a second out of your life, jotted in a pocket book. How do you determine which of these non-public moments are able to be became songs?
I went by means of my outdated notebooks, and there have been two songs that I wrote once I was a young person, which I assumed could be good to incorporate. One in all them had no lyrics in any respect, so I made a decision, for a little bit of enjoyable, to show that right into a tune about not figuring out what the tune was about, ‘I Discovered A Tune in My Pocket book’. However other than these 2, I simply saved writing and stopped once I reached the 21st tune, to be trustworthy. My songs are all the time written about that precise second in time, when I’m sitting at my piano, and so there’s a vary of feelings within the album, and identical to all of us, moments range. So, for instance, ‘Working Into Your Arms’ was a second reflecting on a previous relationship, whereas ‘Voices Unheard’ was born out of my ardour for wanting everybody to be heard and the individuals who paved the way in which earlier than us.
“Let Your Soul Shine” was sparked by an indication at a market stall—how typically do real-life fragments like that flip into music for you?
On a regular basis! All the things I write about comes from actual moments. They might be different individuals’s experiences which have affected me, or my very own experiences, however it’s all the time somebody’s fact. That tune was actually fascinating for me, as a result of I simply got here house and sat and the piano and wrote it in about ten minutes. It simply got here out. I didn’t change something. Spending time at that market, seeing individuals simply having fun with themselves, dancing, singing, and speaking, was actually fantastic to see. I feel all of us have to expertise extra of that. I’m impressed on a regular basis by the individuals round me, and I’m so grateful for that. I’ve an exquisite quote from a fellow Canadian, the inspirational Celine Peterson who wrote the liner notes for my ‘Pink Flags and Excessive Heels’ album and he or she stated ‘With the ability to join with a singer/tune author who can discover the energy to share such deeply private phrases with us in such a means that makes us really feel protected, is uncommon’. Writing music is only a type of remedy for me, and I actually love that individuals can connect with my music.
You’ve all the time defied style expectations—how do you keep creatively free whereas working in a style like jazz that’s typically steeped in custom?
I grew up with a superbly various musical upbringing. My Mum liked opera, my Dad liked conventional jazz, whereas my older brother was into extra rock-based music and the nice songwriters. I used to sneak into his bed room and undergo his vinyl, loving Rickie Lee Jones, Patti Smith, Blondie, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, 10CC, and Steely Dan. As a young person, I used to be into Prince, Stevie Marvel, Whitney, and all the nice music from that point. However my very own reference to jazz really got here by means of two artists. I used to be classically educated as a pianist and by no means lined jazz in my early classes, however I discovered Oscar Peterson – and oh my! I spent hours and hours making an attempt to play his music and wishing my palms had been larger. And once I was about 12, I used to be instructed that I wanted to hearken to Billie Vacation if I wished to grasp jazz. I did, and he or she taught me that music is the place you set your ache. Put all of that collectively, together with my musical theatre coaching, and that’s what shapes my sound, I assume! I’ve by no means been one factor. My musical thoughts has all of these issues happening on a regular basis, and I by no means attempt to write in any specific style – I simply flow.