Pianist John Donaldson releases new album dedicated to his late wife

British jazz pianist John Donaldson has released We Were Together, I Forget the Rest, a new album dedicated to his late wife, folk singer Agatha Coffey, who died in 2021. Recorded live at Real World Studios near Bath, the record features an octet that includes vocalist Norma Winstone, drummer Jeff Ballard, guitarist Rob Luft and saxophonist Iain Ballamy, alongside trumpeter Graeme Flowers, vocalist Rebecka Edlund and bassist Tom Mason. The album lands on the release calendar August 28 via the Hexagonal label.

Donaldson has worked across the British jazz scene for more than four decades, including a long stretch on the West Coast of the United States in the 1980s, where he played alongside musicians such as Eddie Henderson, Joe Henderson and Bobby Hutcherson. He first connected with Winstone in the 1990s, when saxophonist Stan Sulzmann passed along his phone number and she called out of the blue to ask if he wanted to run through some tunes. Their collaboration has continued on and off ever since.

Donaldson wrote most of the new material over roughly six months, working without a fixed plan until ideas began to take shape at the piano. One track, "Into the Night," was co-written with Winstone about 30 years earlier; when he asked her to sing it as a guest feature, she offered to sing across the whole record instead, sharing vocal duties with Edlund. The musicians tracked the album mostly live with minimal rehearsal, a choice Donaldson said kept the sessions from losing their spontaneity.

The record draws on relationships built over a long career that has also included years as musical director for the late Pete Brown, the lyricist behind Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love," and international tours with a reunited lineup of prog-rock band Gentle Giant. In 1980, Donaldson won the best soloist prize at an international jazz competition in San Sebastian, Spain, receiving the award from Mercer Ellington and opening for both Duke Ellington's Orchestra and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.

Donaldson said he would like to bring the octet out for live shows, though he acknowledged it would not be simple given how busy its members are. "The reaction to the music's been really positive," he said. We Were Together, I Forget the Rest is out now via Bandcamp.