David Forman - Like a Rainbow (2022)

David Forman is well known on the UK's thriving jazz scene not only as a regular audience member but also for his live music photography, his enthusiasm for jazz photography began with a commission to capture "The Impossible Gentlemen" in live performance some ten years ago, and he has since photographed hundreds of jazz musicians in the capital, his home town of Brighton and Europe.

What is perhaps less widely appreciated is David's own enjoyment and creation of music throughout his life. Basho Records now presents a new album featuring his original compositions, recorded with an impressive array of outstanding jazz musicians, including Joe Locke, Mike Walker, Paul Booth, Mark Nightingale, Andy Panayi, Yuri Goloubev, Ben Castle, Ryan Quigley, Mark Lockheart, Imogen Ryall and Georgia Mancio. The music is accompanied by a book featuring David's jazz and travel photography, and also includes photographs celebrating a number of Basho-associated artists.

The album also includes two unfinished pieces from around the mid-1960s ("I Can Be Me" and "Une Lettre de Paris") which were finally completed 55 years later - only a few days before the recording! Another piece, "I Miss You", was playlisted on Radio 2 for six weeks in the 1980's. David remains enthused by the jazz of the 1950s and '60s, deriving his greatest inspiration from Dave Brubeck and John Lewis of M.J.Q.

In his late eighties David felt he wanted to take the opportunity to have his musical work compiled and recorded. He recruited master pianist/arranger Mark Edwards to work on some of his favourite compositions, and as this work progressed, they contacted the musicians they wanted to play on each number. Three pieces that he describes as 'pop songs' were recorded in 2018 and they are included as bonus tracks, but much of the jazz versions of his work was recorded in multiple locations around the world, musicians working remotely during the pandemic. One of the more popular numbers, "Could It Be Love", has recently been included on the 'Songs Of Isolation' charity series for the NHS.