Jane Ira Bloom and Brian Shankar Adler: ‘once like a spark’

Several of my favourite albums in the last few years have featured sax player and composer Jane Ira Bloom and now she has released ‘once like a spark’ with percussionist and composer Brian Shankar Adler in a wonderful album of duets.

I have been lucky enough to interview Jane for Harmonious World, first in 2021 alone, then again in 2021 with Allison Miller. Our most recent conversation followed the release of the absolutely intoxicating Songs in Space in July 2025. If you want to find out more about this most extraordinary sax player, please do listen to those conversations - she's a fascinating musician.

The collection of tunes that comprise once like a spark is a concoction of influences from around the world, with specific inspiration from e.e. cummings on the deliberately lower-case title track. The latter allows the duo to interact - Jane’s soprano sax interweaving rhythmic melodies around Adler’s drum kit improvisations. When they come together it feels like two musicians who are familiar with each other’s style and thought-processes.

More literary inspiration comes from Jorge Luis Borges’ mythical A Boa a Quq Aoaba, with the soprano sax repeatedly soaring above the percussion and coming down to land before swooping in and around the listener’s ears (you will need headphones or a really sensitive sound system) until the creature seems to fall asleep after its exertions. The joy of music like this is that your imagination can run riot!

Rhythmic inspiration abounds across the collection and the addition of Ken Filiano’s upright bass on Psalm both contrasts and blends with North Indian rhythms and percussion while Jane’s soprano dances.

Jane’s award-winning and delightful soprano sax is distinctive and sits perfectly in this collaboration with Adler’s huge variety of rhythmic percussion.