The Modern Jazz and Folk Ensemble’s bandleader and arranger Sean Khan spoke to UK Jazz News about the ensemble’s unique mix of folk music and jazz, the involvement of folk legends Dave Pegg and Jacqui McShee, and the programme he’s planning for the upcoming performance.
The Modern Jazz and Folk Ensemble, or MJAFE, performs classic songs from artists including Nick Drake and Pentangle, along with traditional songs such as “She Moves Through the Fair”: an approach described as “paying tribute to the 1970s folk revival through a vibrant jazz lens.” The band, which Sean Khan formed in 2023, released Sean Khan presents The Modern Jazz and Folk Ensemble on the Acid Jazz label in the following year, showcasing songs including Drake’s “Things Behind the Sun,” John Martyn’s “Solid Air” (he describes Martyn as a “phenomenal” guitarist) and Sandy Denny’s “Who Knows Where the Time Goes.” The MJAFE’s upcoming concert at the Afro Futures Festival is only the third time it has appeared live, following a concert at the London Jazz Festival and another at Ronnie Scott’s.
Certain Blacks, the organisers of the Afro-Futures Festival, approached Sean via the band’s manager, Colm Carty. “It’s my first contact with Certain Blacks,” Sean explains, “I’ve got South American and Caribbean roots through my father, my mum’s Irish. I’ve got relatives in Paris, from Surinam, and in Amsterdam from the Dutch Antilles, but I’ve never met them. I was always going to Ireland as a kid, but I also have those South American and Caribbean roots, so that background may have interested the organisation, but I don’t know.”
As a saxophonist and arranger, Sean has had a varied career. He began his career in dance music and still works in that genre. He’s also a lover of classical music, particularly Debussy and Ravel, as well as having a love of folk, which he’s rekindled since he began the MJAFE: “I’ve got very eclectic tastes and I play with a lot of the younger generation of jazz musicians who also seem to have wide musical interests. That kind of open-mindedness was very important when I picked the musicians for the MJAFE. I picked people I’d worked with in the past, I know their mindsets. I wrote very specific arrangements and asked them to stick closely to those arrangements, not to veer off, because it’s not a jazz record. There are a couple of jazz tracks, where I did say ‘OK, let’s give it some welly,’ but the rest of the tracks are centred on the vocalists. This music, by Drake, Martyn, Pentangle, is very historically significant. So when I picked the musicians, I knew there’d be no egos, that they’d play these arrangements beautifully.”
The ensemble lineup for the Rich Mix concert is slightly different from that on the album. “Filippo Galli is now on drums, he’s ‘all ears’. Al McSween is on keys, he already knew the Pentangle numbers. They both played the London Jazz Festival gig, a great night. Mirko Scarcia is still on double bass: he played on the album. They’re three really open musicians. I play a lot with Filippo in different projects.” Sean also has a core group of players he can call on for each instrument: “players I know are capable of handling what I want.” Rosie Frater-Taylor and Kindelan sang on the album. Rosie will be appearing at Rich Mix but Kindelan won’t be able to join the concert. “If we had unlimited funds, we’d do so much more with this project,” Sean explains, “But the economics of the situation don’t allow it.”
The MJAFE album features guest appearances by bassist Dave Pegg, mainstay of Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull, and Pentangle vocalist Jacqui McShee, who sings on “Light Flight,” the theme to 1960s TV show Take Three Girls and Pentangle’s best-known song. “Jacqui’s amazing,” says Sean, “she’s really open as a person, really up for trying stuff. Colm got her involved and also brought in Dave Pegg. Dave’s got great ears: I just wrote down some chords for him but he didn’t want a chart, he just wanted to play. He did his own twist on what I’d written down — very cool.”
The setlist for the concert will focus on the album’s eight tracks, but there will also be some additional music. “There’ll be a set of some of my older material at the beginning of the evening. I worked with Hermeto Pascoal a few years ago, on Palmares Fantasy and also with Peter King, who was a friend of mine and joined me on Supreme Love: a Journey Through Coltrane. I’ll be playing two tracks from the Hermeto album and one from the Peter King record to open up the evening. I’ve also written a new number for the opening set. As well as the tracks from the MJAFE album, I’ve added an arrangement of “The Trees They Do Grow High,” from Pentangle, with Jacqui on vocals, and a version of “Primrose Hill” from John and Beverley Martyn’s Road to Ruin album. So there’ll be World Premieres of those two arrangements at Rich Mix! I think these new arrangements are very recordable. I’d also love to delve further into John Martyn and Nick Drake’s back catalogues. There’s a lot of brilliant music in there.” As for the upcoming Afro-Futures Festival show: “The audience will get their money’s worth — I always try and give value for money.”
The MJAFE plays Rich Mix on Thursday 6 March at 7.30pm as part of the Afro-Futures Festival
