Neneh Cherry’s history with jazz runs deep: her stepfather is jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, who collaborated with the late avant-garde saxophonist Ornette Coleman, and she grew up in New York being bounced on Miles Davis’s knee and listening to John Coltrane practising upstairs in Coleman’s apartment block.
The singer and style icon is best known for her breakthrough single Buffalo Stance, which lit up the tail end of the 80s with its mash-up of hip-hop, R&B, pop and dance – typical of her freewheeling approach to genre. But jazz, less the genre and more the state of mind, has threaded itself throughout her career.
Most recently she delved into her roots on 2012’s The Cherry Thing, her first album in 16 years, for which she teamed up with Scandinavian skronky jazz outfit the Thing and covered her stepfather’s track Golden Heart. Her last solo album, 2014’s Blank Project, meanwhile, harnessed beat poetry, avant-electronica and improvisational post-punk energy.
To launch the first show in the new, weekly Guardian Radio Hour series on NTS Radio, Neneh talked to the Guide’s Kate Hutchinson about the wide-ranging nature of jazz as a rebellion that runs through all genres and its presence in the music she loves. Joining the dots between post-punk and dub-reggae to hip-hop and beyond, Neneh played tunes from the likes of Jayne Cortez, Vivien Goldman, Madvillain and, of course, her step-father Don Cherry. For full details of the tracklist head to the show page on NTS.
For the next show Kate was joined by Alexis Petridis to discuss the lesser known aspects of glam rock. Get involved via @ntslive or @guardianmusic during the live broadcasts, every Friday, 2-3pm.
