Held on the Tips of Fingers

So long as you don't happen to be sitting behind him in a cinema, drummer, bandleader and big hair owner Seb Rochford is a heartening sight. His familiar silhouette at a gig promises the best of London's new scene. Like his legendary hair, his music runs wild and free, and as his second album with Polar Bear shows, increasingly deserves attention.

Along with bands like Spaceways Inc. and The Thing, Polar Bear combine the fervour of free jazz with the intensity of punk. It seems its an approach whose time has come, with other groups like Hypnotoad and even The Bad Plus also ploughing the same furrow. Unburdened both by punk primitivism and by improv's disdain for its audience, new skronk bands like Polar Bear are the most exciting development for years in post-jazz music.

Rochford has been honing his skills for a while now as a part of DIY music collective F-IRE but finally made a splash last year with the finely crafted debut Dim Lit. Despite rumoured offers to join the new band of ex-Libertine Pete Doherty, he's stayed true to his music, picking up the BBC's rising star award along the way.

The new record Held On The Tips Of Fingers continues his momentum, with the band's lean line up of bass, drums and two tenor saxophones used to the full. Though a twin tenor frontline may sound risky, it's interesting to hear how the boisterous Pete Wareham alternately blends and contrasts with the more measured Mark Lockheart on tracks like "Argumentative".

Electronica artist Leafcutter John has also been newly recruited and fills out the sound throughout, fizzing like R2D2 on dexedrine during "To Touch The Red Brick". But it's the gutbucket grooves supplied by Rochfords drums and bassist Tom Herbert that really get you in the chest, going like the clappers on "Your Eyes The Sea" while the horns give it both barrels.

Held On The Tips Of Fingers makes serious advances on their debut. Seb Rochford clearly has a bright future ahead. Maybe you should avoid his local cinema though... --Russell Finch

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"This is not nu jazz, acid jazz, Parky jazz, Brit jazz, beardo jazz, post-jazz or twee jazz. It's dream jazz."

"The big-hitters of the current new wave"

" snort, shriek and wrestle somewhere ominous and charming between the tumultuous Keith Tippett's 50-piece orchestra Centipede, and eclecticism of Tortoise"

"…a highly creative successor to the equally distinctive Dim Lit" - ABC

"Here's something worth your time. Polar Bear are a significant ripple in the new wave of youthful, ahem, post-jazz".

Held On The Tips Of Fingers is the second album from jazz ensemble Polar Bear, led by Sebastian Rochford. Their sound could be described as an eclectic mix of the most traditional aspects of pure jazz with a healthy amount of genre-hopping experimentalism.

Polar Bear make a sound unlike any jazz act around in the UK right now. The lineup of two saxes, bass, drums plus laptop trickery and sampling immediately lets you know you're in for something different, possibly fairly "out there" but this music is a long way from the cerebral noodling of certain contemporary bands - it's got grooves, it's got soul and it still manages to swing, albeit in a way that’s more 2005 than 1955. The band has evolved through extensive gigging nationwide from last year's album "Dim Lit", adding an extra member to the live lineup in the form of electronics whizkid Leafcutter John, but the new material maintains the spirit that made their previous album such a success, organically incorporating the new elements into the sound. Press coverage for this album is expected in publications from the broadsheets to the specialist press and the band will be touring in support of the album later this year.

Originally from Aberdeen, Seb Rochford is the extraordinary in-demand drummer/composer/leader of Mercury-nominated Polar Bear and winner of BBC Jazz award for Rising Star 2004. His healthy range of influences include Napalm Death, Venetian Snares, Bjork, Prince and contemporary electronica as well as a large dose of jazz. Rochford leads the acclaimed Polar Bear (winner of the Rising Star Award in the 2004 BBC Jazz Awards and nominated for both 2004 and 2005 best band in BBC Jazz Awards) and their recent album Held on the Tips of Fingers has been nominated for the highly prestigious 2005 Mercury Music Prize. The band features Acoustic Ladyland saxophonist Pete Wareham, ex-Loose Tubes saxophonist Mark Lockheart and bassist Tom Herbert. Seb has also been working with Pete Wareham's acclaimed Acoustic Ladyland, Ingrid Laubrock,Tim Richards among others. He also appears in various alt rock bands such as Menlo Park and Paul the Girl and leads an electronic-acoustic trio! Fulborn Teversham, and recently appeared at the Patti Smith Meltdown concert at the Barbican drumming for Yoko Ono alongside her son, guitarist Sean Lennon.