Sara Colman & Rebecca Nash

“Ribbons Vol. 1”

(Stoney Lane Records)

Sara Colman – vocals, Rebecca Nash – piano

with; Henrik Jensen – double bass, Jonathan Silk – drums

plus guests;
Iain Ballamy, Trish Clowes – tenor saxophones, Percy Pursglove – flugelhorn, Steve Banks – guitar, Ruth Hammond – bass clarinet

A very belated look at this album from the songwriting duo of vocalist Sara Colman and pianist Rebecca Nash.  Although both artists also have close links to Bristol it’s a partnership rooted in Birmingham. Both Colman and Nash are visiting tutors on the Jazz Course at the city’s Conservatoire, where the album was recorded. The finished album appears on the Birmingham based Stoney Lane Records, founded by guitarist Sam Slater.

Colman and Nash have been working together for over a decade since first meeting at a standards session in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter in 2015. The pianist then appeared on Colman’s 2018 album “What We’re Made Of” and shared a writing credit on one of the songs. Colman then returned the compliment by appearing as a guest performer on Nash’s 2019 release “Peaceful King”, recorded with Nash’s quintet Atlas and with Colman adding her voice and lyrics to three of the tracks. Nash was also an integral part of the band that featured on Colman’s 2021 recording “Ink On A Pin, A Celebration of Joni Mitchell”. All three of these albums have been reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann.

Nash has also recorded a second solo album, “Redefining Element 78”, a semi-conceptual all instrumental affair that was released in 2023. She has also worked extensively with alto saxophonist Dee Byrne and recorded two albums with Byrne’s Entropi group. Others with whom Nash has collaborated include vocalist Rosalie Grey (on the ‘Realms’ project), guitarist Steve Banks, saxophonists Iain Ballamy and Alex Merritt, bassist Paula Gardiner, trumpeter Steve Waterman and trombonist Gareth Roberts.

Colman’s album “What We’re Made Of” was the first of her recordings to feature her own material, following two previous releases featuring jazz standards and jazz arrangements of pop and rock tunes by such songwriters as Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Ricky Lee Jones and Carole King. Fascinated by the process of songwriting Colman studied for an MA in the subject, the first fruits of her labours appearing on “What We’re Made Of”.

Her collaboration with Nash was developed over the lockdown period with the pair sending each other musical ideas and developing them remotely. They also retired to a song writing retreat in a forest once Covid restrictions were partially lifted, literally ‘getting it together in the country’.

The music of the “Ribbons” album grew out of this period and the focus is almost exclusively on original material co-written by Colman and Nash, the only exceptions being one composition written by Nash alone and a setting of a Wayne Shorter tune with lyrics by Colman.

The music on “Ribbons” was recorded at Birmingham Conservatoire between 2021 and 2024, so the album has been a long time in the making. The rhythm pairing of Henrik Jensen and Jonathan Silk accompany the co-leaders on the majority of the tracks while the other guests provide cameos on individual songs.

In January 2025 I enjoyed seeing the quartet of Colman, Nash, Jensen and Silk perform some of the “Ribbons” material at the annual Bath Jazz Weekend. Later in the year I also saw Colman and Nash perform as part of the sextet Treyja at Crazy Coqs as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival. This was a group featuring three vocalist songwriters (Colman, Tara Minton and Clare Wheeler) and three instrumentalists (Nash, piano,  Loz Garratt, electric bass, Jonah Evans, drums), with Trish Clowes guesting on tenor sax on a couple of numbers. Nash then returned to Bath in January 2026 in an all instrumental duo with saxophonist Alex Merritt.

The songs on “Ribbons” draw inspiration from a number of sources with the jazz influences including such writing partnerships as Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn and John Taylor and Norma Winstone. Also influential are singer songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Carole King and Laura Nyro. The classical composers Claude Debussy and John Ireland are also cited as influences, as is the jazz / folk trio Quercus, featuring Ballamy, pianist Huw Warren and singer June Tabor.

The album commences with “Noble Heart”, a song based on Nash’s instrumental composition “Palladium – Noble Heart” from the “Redefining Element 78” album.  This is performed by the core quartet of Colman, Nash, Jensen and Silk with Iain Ballamy guesting on tenor saxophone.  Sourced from the Stoney Lane Records Bandcamp page here are Colman’s insights into the lyrics of this piece;
 “I was working on melody and lyrics for Palladium, one of Rebecca’s compositions, whilst at the same time, helping a close friend clear out and say goodbye to her partner’s house in southern Spain for the last time. The prevailing sense of loss reminded me of a feeling of searching for something that you know is already lost or that you’ve not yet found: a deep yearning. I discovered that the precious noble metal Palladium has an ash-like quality, and needs to be deeply mined. This track represents the inner light that exists at the heart of all of us - a light that can sometimes feel hidden or difficult to access.”
There’s a hint of Joni Mitchell in Colman’s vocalising while Ballamy provides a fluent and elegant tenor sax solo. Nash’s piano accompaniment is at the heart of the performance, sophisticated and lyrical. Jensen and Silk provide sensitive, economical rhythmic support.

The lyrics to “Don’t Go Turning Over Stones” are based on Colman’s perceptions of Nash’s natural inquisitiveness and feature the cautionary chorus “Don’t Go Turning Over Stones Looking For Trouble”, Performed by the core quartet only this song is introduced by the combination of piano and double bass, with Silk’s drums eventually added following an extended dialogue between Nash and Jensen.
Colman enters to deliver the lyrics, but her advice is ignored as Nash later unleashes a turbulent and thrillingly adventurous piano solo.

Title track “Ribbons” is the first song that Colman and Nash wrote for this project. On the recording it’s preceded by the two minute instrumental prelude “Ribbons Prologue”,  featuring a passage of limpid piano from Nash, unaccompanied at first but later joined by the breathy,  mellifluous,  flugel horn of Percy Pursglove.
We then segue seamlessly into “Ribbons” itself, with Colman’s unaccompanied voice intoning the opening line, “Lost for words, in pursuit of some new meaning”. The clarity of her voice is stunning in its purity. The only instruments are Nash’s piano and Pursglove’s flugel, the latter featuring as a soloist. It’s an instrumental configuration that will remind some listeners of the Azimuth trio of Norma Winstone, John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler. The lyrics address the search for an elusive beauty, or as Nash puts it;
 “The search for that ‘elusive ‘something’. It’s symbolic of human existence - focused on the strands that bind us together. We were trying to find inspiration to write about something that would represent an artists’ quest to create. Ribbons was our first collaborative song and has become symbolic of our working relationship.”

Colman and Nash are not afraid to tackle serious political subjects and “The Gardener” addresses the situation of women in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. Colman was commissioned by the American Canales Project Hear Her Song to write a piece celebrating the life of Sakena Yacoobi, an Afghan activist who has spent her life fighting for the rights of children and women to education in Afghanistan. The lyrics are written from the point of view of one of the students at the many schools that Yacoobi established.
Silk ushers the song in from the drums,  his role that of a colourist and wholly free from bombast. Colman’s words carry a direct and powerful message, a cry for academic freedom for women using gardening terms as a metaphors – “for roots to go grow deep and wide, throughout this land”. It’s a powerful song with a powerful message, reinforced by a probing tenor solo from Ballamy.
“Gardener Epilogue” is a brief (fifty nine seconds) passage of solo piano from Nash.

Nash’s composition “Little Light” originally appeared as an instrumental piece on the pianist’s “Peaceful King” album. It’s re-imagined here as a song featuring Colman’s vocals and Trish Clowes’ tenor sax. An atmospheric intro features Clowes’ sax and Colman’s multi-tracked wordless vocals. The singer has also added lyrics and these appear in the next section, with Jensen’s melodic double bass also playing an important role in the arrangement. Nevertheless it’s still primarily an instrumental item with the gently melodic probing of Clowes’ tenor sax at the heart of the performance.

Colman has enjoyed a fruitful working relationship with the Scottish vocalist and songwriter Sophie Bancroft. Named for the Scottish singer “Sophie’s Song”   has a lyric about Colman and Bancroft looking for the Northern Lights in Cromarty, Scotland, and is based around the melody of the Wayne Shorter composition “Night Dreamer”. Featuring Steve Banks on guitar the performance also includes an appropriately dazzling piano solo from Nash. 

The brief “Night Traveller” is a lullaby featuring voice, piano and the warm, deep, woody sounds of Ruth Hammond’s clarinet.

It acts the curtain raiser for the closing “Goodbye” an instrumental composition by Nash. It features the sounds of her rhapsodic, free flowing piano and the colourations of Jensen’s bowed bass. 

“Ribbons Vol. 1” represents an impressive debut from Nash and Colman that showcases their close musical rapport and demonstrates their increasing confidence as songwriters. They are well served by the faithful rhythm team of Jensen and Silk and also by the contributions of their illustrious guests.

The album title suggests that a second instalment is in the pipeline. It will be interesting to see how this creative partnership develops and any sequel will be very keenly anticipated.

“Ribbons Vol. 1” is available via the Stoney Lane Bandcamp page;
https://stoneylane.bandcamp.com/

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