Chelsea Arts Festival: What To Expect At NYJO’s ‘Timeless Icons’ Performance

The National Youth Jazz Orchestra is treating Chelsea Arts Festival to a toe-tapping Saturday night of big band jazz next weekend, celebrating two all-time greats. Conceived and musically directed by trumpeter Olivia Cuttill, Fodder on my Wings will celebrate Nina Simone’s 1982 album and will feature vocalist and master improviser Cleveland Watkiss MBE, renowned saxophonist Tony Kofi, jazz pianist and composer Nikki Yeoh, and acclaimed singer Thanda Gumede. 

Honouring the 100th anniversary of Miles Davis’s birth, a special nine-piece NYJO band will also take to the stage to breathe fresh life into Birth of the Cool (1957), mirroring Davis’s original nonet configuration, led by trumpeter Tom Stringer. Below, C&TH meets Tom ahead of the performance.

Q&A: NYJO Trumpeter Tom Stringer

Tell us about your time with NYJO to date. 

My time with NYJO started around three years ago. I was invited to a taster session in which you play through lots of big band repertoire and get a sense of how the programme works. After this session, I started being invited to perform with NYJO in a few of the different projects running at the time. I got to play the last two performances of their Ray Charles project and then I was invited into the Blue Note Big Band project. The Blue Note project ran for the last few years playing any music released by the Blue Note Recording Label. 

I was also involved in the NYJO Latin Collective which played various smaller venues in London and around the country. As well as leading this Miles Davis Project, I now work with NYJO as part of the Education Programme teaching Saturday Trumpet Classes alongside one of my NYJO Educator peers Poppy Hughes. 

What draws you to Miles Davis? When did your interest in him begin? 

The minute I started playing jazz trumpet, Miles Davis was always a key figure whom I was drawn to. With a career lasting roughly 50 years, Miles released an abundance of music that to this day is still extremely relevant and feels modern to me. 

In every stage of my learning so far, the music of Miles Davis continues to speak to me and teach me so much. I’ve always been drawn to the more melodic trumpet players and Miles is just that. Every note he played was a statement full of intent and purpose which speaks to the listener. A sound which is undeniably recognisable after hearing just one note played. These characteristics are ones that really resonate with me and I strive to deliver the same intent when playing trumpet.

Tom Stringer and his band will take to the Cadogan Hall stage as part of Chelsea Arts Festival next week.

You’ll be performing Birth of the Cool using Miles’s original 1957 nonet configuration. What drew you to that particular album, and what does it feel like to recreate that setup in 2026? 

When I decided I wanted to put together a project with NYJO celebrating Miles, straight away I knew that it needed to be something linked to Miles’s collaborations with Gil Evans. Out of all the music Miles put out, I’ve always favoured his collaborations with Gil. Choosing the Nonet made so much sense: the group size is a really fun inbetween of large and small ensemble which allows me to access a wide range of sounds and timbres. The use of a tuba and french horn alongside the more typical jazz instrumental lineup brings a much more orchestral sound to the group. 

Whilst the lineup is much smaller than that of the other Miles/Gil repertoire, it still really challenges my arranging skills. I’ve learnt so much writing for this lineup and still have much more to learn and experiment with.

You’re also creating new arrangements of Miles’s iconic repertoire. How do you balance paying tribute to his work with bringing your own compositional voice to these arrangements? 

To bring my own compositional voice to these arrangements while still keeping the focus on paying tribute to Miles can be a hard task! In these arrangements, I’ve put a lot of emphasis on trying to write for and feature specific members of the band. I find a lot of compositional voice through trying to celebrate their playing. I really enjoy writing arrangements to feature specific musicians in my bands and take a lot of inspiration from Duke Ellington who regularly wrote in this manner. This is the best way I can see to honour Miles while keeping the music I’m writing very much in the present.

Tom previously performed his Miles Davis arrangement with his band at music festival Love Supreme. (© Georgina Vincent)

You previously performed this arrangement at Love Supreme. Tell us about that – the vibe on stage and the atmosphere in the crowd? 

Love Supreme was an amazing experience. The festival has such a wonderful community around it and the crowd created such a good atmosphere! It was the largest and most receptive crowd I’ve ever played for and spoken to. Playing to crowds like that is always exciting – once the band can feel the crowd on their side it allows everyone to relax and really play their hearts out. It was my first time at Love Supreme and definitely won’t be the last. 

What can the Chelsea Arts Festival audience expect next weekend? 

The Chelsea Arts Festival Audience can expect a set of carefully curated, exciting and enriching music which features an incredibly talented band full of young musicians who are all on the way to leading the jazz scene in their own respective fields.

How does Nina Simone’s Fodder on My Wings complement Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool? 

I think having the music of Nina Simone and Miles Davis on the same night is an exciting opportunity to highlight two key figures in music whom aren’t often mentioned in the same conversations. Two of the most distinct voices in music, they were both genre defining as well as defying. They produced some of the most emotionally expressive music and had an influence on generations of musicians to come as well as the global music scene.

Are there other composers, eras or sounds in jazz history that you’re keen to explore through NYJO or your own projects? 

In the future, I’d love to continue working with NYJO, putting on some large ensemble projects. I’m really interested in rearranging entire albums of people such as Jackie McLean, Cannonball Adderley or even Woody Shaw. This would be amazing to keep refining my arranging skills and would be a really enriching project for me. Outside of NYJO, I really want to start writing for studio orchestras. I really enjoy writing for strings and love the addition of them to a big band.

NYJO presents Timeless Icons at Cadogan Hall on Saturday 19 September. Tickets from £22.50pp. Book at chelseaartsfestival.com