Hannah Horton: ‘Stories on the Wind’

The new album from award-winning composer and sax player Hannah Horton - ‘Stories on the Wind’ - is a delightful insight into the musician’s own world, encouraging us all to tell our own stories.

Hannah emerges Out of the Shadows on the first track. She’s marking her place as a UK musician of note and - despite the fact that I’ve always thought of her as a baritone sax player - she’s clearly equally at home on tenor.

Stories on the Wind feels like a story being told through Hannah’s music and for the second track she spends some time Chasing Daisies as she returns to the bari sax for a gentle, lyrical melody. She’s joined on this album by her very special band: Sam Leak (piano and organ), Rob Statham (electric bass) and Steve Taylor (drums and percussion).

Each piece on this album features Hannah’s distinctive voice (often double-tracked in a duet with herself) and her effortless improvisations take her across the range of whichever instrument she chooses to express the sensations and emotions behind her compositions.

I particularly love Your Rite (and especially the ambiguity of the title) and the solo baritone at the start is compelling, before she allows the rest of her quartet to join her.

‘Stories on the Wind’ will be available on Bandcamp from 22 May, or catch her live to buy a CD or vinyl