“It was a long one!”, says Femi Temowo. He continues, “I wouldn’t necessarily say it was easy because I released it on my own label, under my own production team. It was a long process, purely because it didn’t have the huge financial issues attached to it, compared to people who are signed to more established labels. I didn’t have to wait on anyone to decide on how the album was going to be set out and I kind of made all those decisions with Adil Oliver, an artistic director who was working with me. So in the long run it was a difficult experience but an enjoyable one for sure.”

“We have a lot of young musicians now who are coming out of the jazz music scene, who are definitely born to be formidable players.”

Femi Temowo speaks about his experience at Middlesex University. “It was an interesting time because I was trying to get my face around the music scene, and people started to know of me, I found out that being in school and trying to gig at the same time was quite a tricky act to juggle but it worked out in the end. My lecturers were really understanding of the fact that I wanted to be out playing but at the same time I wanted to get this degree.”

“I was [Amy Winehouse’s] musical director, I was MD for about a year and a half or just over a year and it was an interesting dynamic because I know that Amy knew of me before I became a part of her team”, Femi Temowo has been musical director for several artists one including Amy. He has also played with George Benson.

Femi Temowo continues, “It made my life a bit easier in dealing with her because she can be a feisty young lady in some respects but obviously a talented one no less and doing the gig for me was an opportunity to show that I could do musical director and I could put together a band. Basically make Amy’s music happen every single night.”

“Yeah, there was a couple”, regarding collaborations on his brilliant debut album, Quiet Storm, which I advise you to purchase. It was released in 2006 independently on his FemiTone Records.

“There was Zena Edwards on the first tune on the album called ‘Wood & Strings’, I asked Zena to write some lyrics based on an idea that I had called Wood & Strings. Basically it’s like a poetic anthology, if you like, of string instruments like guitars, harps, basses and sitars, and she came up with some really interesting lyrics, to put over the music I had written. That was the first collaboration. The second collaboration is with a young singer named Anna Omak, not many people know of her just yet but they will do. Although we did not co-write together on the album, for the songs she sings, just having her vocal present on the album makes it feel like collaboration. I mean, it feels like a collaboration with all the musicians who were playing on it, you have, Troy Miller on drums, Michael Olatuja on bass, Rick James on bass, Sam Best on keyboards & piano. So it was all like one big collaboration but the main one was with Zena Edwards the poet.”

Speaking of his collaborations, Zena Edwards is a highly talented poet from London, who released a non-promoted debut album The Healing Pool. Femi Temowo says, “I think The Healing Pool is probably available through Zena on MySpace. I’d say that’s the best place because I’m not actually sure where she’s been selling it. She’s been selling a lot on her gigs because I’ve done gigs with her in the past.”

“The scene is healthy and a lot more of the younger musicians now are breaking down those barriers and breaking down those separations and playing all together.”

Femi Temowo was born in Nigeria, but moved to London. He says, “Yes, I moved to London when I was ten years old, I could hardly speak English and it sounded strange. I came in the summer of 1986, and it was hard, what would have been a summer holiday here. I came in June, so I had like about two months to adjust before school started and I was going straight into the educational system here. So basically I had to learn as much English as I could in two months. My brothers were all very young at the time and only one really was at the age when we could have a conversation. I had to learn really quickly. I was getting a lot of stick for not speaking English but in about a couple of years it was all okay, you know, but the language itself was not that hard. I had become quite fed up of how things were for me back in Nigeria, even though I was only ten years old, there was a lot more that I could have done here. So there was a lot more to discover when I moved here.”

“In the UK scene?” says Femi Temowo about the UK jazz scene. “Well obviously the people who I collaborate with often. Soweto Kinch from Birmingham. Eska Mtungwazi, she’s a singer that we all know (laughs). Also, a guitarist from Jade Fox called Dave Okumu; he’s one of my favourite guitar players. Also Eric Appapulay (bass), another one is Joe Caleb; he’s a guitarist from West London. These are all cats who are my peers but whose sound I love and that inspires me. Also I love the older musicians, you know, Cleveland Watkiss, Jason Rebello.”

“Real jazz that’s not just online or on satellite but a radio that has its own actual station, which can be dialed onto on any normal FM stereo. Something that’s not going to water down jazz or something that’s not going to change its name to Smooth FM in about eight years time.”

He speaks about his future musical projects, “I’m going to do some work with the vocalist on my album, Anna Omak. We’ve been talking for a while about doing some stuff, maybe we can do some stuff on my label at some point in the near future. I work with vocalists a lot for some reason, I guess being a producer as well, that side of me attracts young vocalists who need an outlet for their music. I would love to produce more on the jazz scene, maybe put out a couple of jazz things on my label, but it’s early days yet we’re still trying to stabilise the label itself and the name etc. It won’t be for another couple of years.”

“We have a lot of young musicians now who are coming out of the jazz music scene,” expresses jazz guitarist Femi Temowo, “who are definitely born to be formidable players. I think in some other ways it’s quite fragmented. I guess it’s the same in most genres all over the world, sometimes you find that people get put into pots, even if the label is jazz. People kind of put them into little pots here and there, and build their own little world around themselves. It’s fine, people tend to migrate to others who have similar tastes in music, and so they tend to play with them a lot more. The scene is healthy and a lot more of the younger musicians now are breaking down those barriers and breaking down those separations and playing all together, trying to create a healthier scene, were everybody collaborates and integrates with everybody else.”

Femi Temowo says his views on changes that could be made to make a better jazz music scene here in London. “I think a good healthy mainstream jazz radio station. Not mainstream in terms of the music it plays but in terms of the audience it reaches. Real jazz that’s not just online or on satellite but a radio that has its own actual station, which can be dialed onto on any normal FM stereo. Something that’s not going to water down jazz or something that’s not going to change its name to Smooth FM in about eight years time. Not something that is going to play jazz that isn’t jazz and give wrong impressions, because it broadcasts, jazz music.

“If someone could be prepared to broadcast it and not be ashamed of it, As much as people want to say jazz is dead, it hasn’t been given a chance by the public at large. In this day and age, most people don’t get to decide what music they like for themselves, the industry tells them what they should like, and what they should be buying, rather than just putting it out and letting people decide for themselves. So, I think jazz needs a public identity, a radio station that plays Coltrane at three o’clock in the afternoon. That plays Miles, whether it’s eleven in the morning or eleven at night. That’s going to play all the young and real jazz, coming out of this country, Soweto Kinch, Jade Fox, Imperical, Troy Miller, Eska Mtungwazi, all these people. Someone who is going to play his or her music, in the same way, I think one of the reasons why it’s so weak is because people just don’t hear it, a good radio station that tells you about jazz and, which jazz events are happening’, that features information about live music. Not just a half an hour radio show on Radio four. Some thing that actually belongs to jazz, classic has its broadcast, pop has its broadcast, and even R&B has its broadcast. They all have there own type of station but jazz doesn’t seem to have a representative in that sense yet.”