Listen to Held On The Tips Of Fingers to hear why Polar Bear is the English jazz sensation of 2005. Averse to all hip and trendy influences, revivals and looking back on lost times, they completely follow their own path. Band leader Sebastian Roachford likes to listen to Björk, Devendra Banhart, Beethoven and Pig Destroyer as much as to Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane and this is all reflected
… in his music. Sometimes as an inimitable chaos, but usually as raw, energetic and primitive jazz from the heart. In that respect Polar Bear can best be compared to John Luries Lounge Lizards. Assisted by tenor saxophonists Pete Wareham and Mark Lockheart and double bassist Tom Herbert, Roachford's compositions range from hypnotic, melancholic, ghostly songs to punk-like experimentalism. The powerful interplay of both saxophonists is of an unprecedented high quality. It is not without reason that Roachford won the Rising Star Award at the 2004 BBC Jazz Awards. (AD)more
