Mali Sheard

“Hayfever”

(Mali Sheard Music – MSM01, In association with ECN Music)

Mali Sheard – alto & soprano saxophones. Keira Chakraborty – flute, Kyle Osborne – piano, George Balmont – electric bass, Luke McCarthy – drums, percussion

with guests;
Huw Warren – piano
Rob Luft – guitar

Saxophonist and composer Mali Sheard is a young musician that I’ve been keeping an eye on in recent since first discovering her playing at the 2025 EFG London Jazz Festival.

Sheard was featured at two performances in the ‘Heads Up’ series of lunchtime events at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho. Curated by musician and promoter Kasia Konstance the series represents a showcase for talented young musicians based in London.

I first saw Sheard play at the ‘Pizza’ as part of quintet led by pianist and composer Kezia Abouma before she returned the following day leading her own Homestead quintet, which featured the same five musicians that form the core group on this album. Both of these excellent performances are reviewed elsewhere on this site as part of my Festival coverage.

In January 2026 at the annual Bath Jazz Weekend I caught up with Sheard again when she was part of a quintet led by pianist, vocalist and composer Emily Tran. That performance is also covered elsewhere on this site.

February 2026 saw Sheard visiting The Marr’s Bar in Worcester as a member of the all female octet Ankora, a group that also included Chakraborty on flute and Abouma at the keyboard. Once again this performance is also reviewed elsewhere on this site.

All of the ensembles mentioned above feature young musicians who have come through the Tomorrow’s Warriors development programme, and indeed the Ankora octet was once known as the Tomorrow’s Warriors Frontline before establishing its own identity.

Sheard’s grounding with Tomorrow’s Warriors led to more formal studies at the Royal Academy of Music where her tutors included Head of Jazz Pete Churchill plus saxophonists Binker Golding, Rachael Cohen, James Allsopp and Giacomo Smith, pianist Nikki Iles and vibraphonist / multi-instrumentalist Orphy Robinson.

I actually saw Sheard perform as part of a Royal Academy student ensemble directed by Robinson at the 2024 EFG LJF,  but it was the Homestead show in 2025 that really made me sit up and take notice of her talent as both a saxophonist and a composer. Sheard herself cites that gig at the ‘Pizza’ as a particularly memorable one and a highlight of a fledgling career that has also seen her band appear at the Cheltenham, Love Supreme and We Out Here festivals.

The EFG LJF performance included material from the “Hayfever” album plus a number of newer, as yet unrecorded, material, which suggests that a second album is already in the pipeline.

“Hayfever” was recorded in August 2025 at London’s Lightship Studio with Giles Barratt engineering. The album is produced by guitarist Tami Adebanjo, Sheard’s colleague from the Ankora project.

“Hayfever” draws inspiration from nature, family and identity. Of Anglo/Kenyan/Indian heritage Sheard grew up in rural Hertfordshire before moving into London and also has grandparents in the Yorkshire Dales. After having been raised in such bucolic environments moving to the city initially came as something of a culture shock. However Sheard doesn’t seek to sugar coat her experiences of the natural world and instead depicts nature in all her guises, as epitomised by the title track, which we’ll come to shortly.

Sheard herself says of the album;
“Hayfever is about the things that shape us. Nature has always been a place where I find peace, perspective and creativity. The music also reflects the people closest to me and the experiences that have helped me grow”.

The album cover with its floral theme is a reflection of the name Mali, meaning ‘flower’.

Musically Sheard cites artists as diverse as alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, drummer and composer Brian Blade, singer Frank Sinatra and the Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim as being among her primary influences.

Album opener “When The Sun” is dedicated to Sheard’s grandmother “whose warmth and optimism inspired the piece”. The music is ushered in by the sound of birdsong, recorded by Sheard herself at 4.00 am at a location near her childhood home. It’s a delightful musical depiction of a sunrise with Sheard featuring on soprano sax, effectively her ‘second horn’, and an instrument that she was encouraged to explore during a session with visiting tutor Dave Holland. The instrumentation also features Osborne’s piano and the richly textured guitar of Rob Luft, which brings a luminous beauty to the music. Crucially there is no bass or drums, as Osborne and Luft combine both melodic and rhythmic duties alongside the leader’s soprano sax melodies, her playing ranging from the delicate to the incisive.

Sheard is a hayfever sufferer and the album title track, written in January, expresses a longing for the coming of summer, but with the knowledge that the warmth will bring an element of discomfort. The music is intended to capture the energy and intensity of a summer thunderstorm and incorporates elements of wilful dissonance. It introduces a fuller ensemble sound with the core quintet (the ‘Homestead’ name seems to have been dropped) augmented by Luft. The sound is full and richly arranged with Chakraborty’s flute bringing a folk element to the music alongside the more obvious jazz influences. The flautist combines well with Luft’s guitar and the leader’s alto while Balmont and McCarthy prove to be a flexible and intelligent rhythm section. In keeping with the theme Sheard herself emerges as the featured soloist with a suitably feverish excursion on alto. Chakraborty’s flute offers a contrasting sweetness during the course of a fluent solo. Luft follows with a spiralling, restlessly inventive guitar solo. There’s some inspired ensemble playing too as the music develops a genuine power.

Warren takes over at the piano for the suitably playful “It’s Fun To Be A Cat”, a lightly swinging piece featuring breezy, fluent solos from Chakraborty on flute and Sheard on alto, with McCarthy variously deploying brushes or sticks as the music requires. With the music gathering pace and momentum Warren then emerges to deliver a sparkling piano solo, thoroughly in keeping with the character of the piece. The presence of such heavyweight guests as Warren and Luft is a testament to the esteem in which Sheard is held as a musician and composer and she has since expressed her gratitude and delight at being able to work with them.

I recall seeing “Elephants” being performed at the ‘Pizza’. It’s a composition that draws on the Kenyan aspect of Sheard’s heritage and was inspired by her experience of seeing the creatures in the wild. Introduced by Balmont on electric bass this piece represents Luft’s final guest appearance as he adds his distinctive guitar sound to the ensemble, providing colour and texture in addition to acting as a featured soloist with a typically fluent and imaginative contribution.  Attractively melodic and pleasingly quirky this piece also incorporates the soloing of the leader on alto sax.

I remember “Afternoon Tea With A Demon” as being one of the highlights of Sheard’s EFG LJF appearance.. Sheard has said of the piece; “It’s a track about someone not being who they seem,  someone hiding behind a façade of something fancy but who’s actually quite a dark character”. These contradictions are expressed in the music, which features some of the most powerful ensemble playing on the album and includes a solo from Warren at the piano, a typically imaginative and inventive outpouring of ideas that sounds almost Tyner-esque at times. Sheard follows on increasingly incisive soprano sax, while the rhythm team of Balmont and McCarthy feature strongly towards the close.

I also recall “There’s A Place” opening the proceedings at the ‘Pizza’. On this recording the piece is introduced by a short passage of unaccompanied piano from Warren, the lyricism of which sets the tone for the piece. The leader’s alto is added, together with the rustle and shimmer of McCarthy’s percussion. There’s a folk like quality about the melody, which includes a quote from “Auld Lang Syne”. Sheard and Chakraborty combine effectively, the combination of alto sax and flute still representing a rather unusual front line combination. Balmont delivers a concise but melodic electric bass solo before Sheard and Chakraborty stretch out more expansively on flute and sax as the music begins to gather momentum. Warren continues in the piano chair to deliver another dazzling solo. No disrespect to Osborne, a rising star and a bandleader in his own right, but Warren’s contributions to the album really are exceptional.

The album concludes with “Breathe”, a dedication to Sheard’s Yorkshire based grandmother. This is the second piece to feature a field recording, in this case the sound of rainfall, an unfamiliar sound this summer! Quiet and meditative this piece is an intimate dialogue between Sheard on soprano sax and Warren at the piano that combines genuine beauty with considerable musical invention. A delightful way to conclude an exceptional debut album.

Mali Sheard is a musician that The Jazzmann has been proud to champion over the course of the last year and this debut album release fully delivers on the potential that has been exhibited in her live performances as both bandleader and sidewoman.

“Hayfever” features seven distinctive original compositions that embrace a wide range of musical and non-musical influences and which incorporate a similarly broad range of jazz and other musical styles. The writing is intelligent, varied and highly personal and the playing, both from the core group and the two illustrious guests, is superb throughout. The engineering / production team of Barrett and Adebanjo also help to ensure that everybody sounds good.

The ultimate triumph is Sheard’s for an exceptionally mature debut, and with the prospect of more top quality music to come.

“Hayfever” was officially launched at the Pizza Express Jazz Club on September 8th 2026 and Sheard will be playing further shows on a Tomorrow’s Warriors supported tour with dates as below;

17 September – On The Corner, Mildmay Club, London 
10 October – The Bear Club, Luton
15 October – Downstairs at Vortex Jazz Club, London 
23 October – St George’s, Bristol
24 October – Goods Shed Jazz, Stroud 
20 November – Crazy Coqs, EFG London Jazz Festival 

Ticket links at;
https://malisheard.com/live-dates/

“Hayfever” is available via Sheard’s Bandcamp page here;
https://malisheard.bandcamp.com/album/hayfever

 

 

 

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