Josphine Davies and the Enso Ensemble
The Celtic Wheel Of The Year Suite
by Howard Lawes
From the earliest times the seasons have had immense impact on almost every living organism in the world. Changing seasons define a cycle that influences the migration of creatures both on the land and in the sea and as human beings developed, knowledge of these cycles enhanced chances of survival in a hostle world. The ancient monuments of Newgrange in Ireland and Maeshowe on Orkney testify both to the skill of the neolithic or perhaps, Celtic people who built them and to the importance of identifying the winter solstice. It fell to early Christian missionaries to record elements of Celtic culture that included the names of seasonal festivals. Josephine Davies has used them to inspire the composition of, and name the tracks on, her new album.
Composer and saxophonist, Josephine Davis has long felt a deep attachment to both the physical and spiritual worlds and over a Zoom call, she explained how her Celtic Wheel of the Year Suite was born. Having been born on Shetland and raised in Sussex she has spent most of her life in locations adjacent to both the countryside and the sea. Attending school in the picturesque and historic town of Rye, she, like many children at the time, learned to sightread music, and was provided with an instrument, in her case a flute. On the advice of her brother, she swapped the flute for a saxophone and joined the county wind band, enjoying the camaraderie of young musicians and performing in Belgium and Germany. Attending 6th form college in Lewes, the county town of East Sussex and within what is now the South Downs National Park, Josephine aspired to be an actor and went on to gain a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, not to act but to study classical music. However, she rapidly came to regret this choice and switched to the Jazz course, embracing a new musical language as spoken by the likes of John Coltrane, who she much admires. Josephine thrived as a jazz saxophonist and with co-leader, trumpeter Tom Allan, was awarded the Perrier Young Jazz Ensemble Award in 1999.
In an interview with Luke Annesley (Music Therapy Conversations – 16) Josephine explains that during her 20s she fully committed to being a professional jazz musician but as so many other musicians have found, gigs were hard to come by and disillusionment set in. In another interview, with Selwyn Harris (Jazzwise, 2020), at the time of the release of her band’s album Satori – How Can We Wake? she mentions a track called Duhkha: Pervasive Dissatisfaction, and admits being someone who experiences it. To counter such feelings, she revisited an earlier interest in existentialism and its use in psychotherapy, and then one morning woke up determined to study the subject in greater depth. Existentialism, popularised by Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir emphasises human freedom and the responsibility for creating meaning in your own life. De Beauvoir in particular, in her book Le Deuxième Sexe (1949) refers to women as 'the second sex' but submits that women are just as capable as men of exercising choice and thus improving their situation in life. Josephine gained a Doctorate in Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling in 2014, quoting Camus on the front page of her thesis –“Life is a sum of all your choices”.
Despite studying for her doctorate and then working as a practicing psychotherapist Josephine never gave up music. Deeply influenced by the American composer and band-leader Maria Schneider, Josephine was resident composer and tenor player for the London Jazz Orchestra from 2011-2016 and then in 2016, first with the Pete Hurt Jazz Orchestra and then with her own band, Satori, came the first of a series of albums with In The Corners of Clouds (2019) garnering a 4.5* rating in Downbeat magazine. In 2020 she was awarded Best Instrumentalist at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. However, in 2020, everyone’s choices became much more limited as the COVID-19 lockdowns were imposed.
Here is a video of Josephine introducing In The Corner Of Clouds at the time:
Josephine moved back to Sussex, which provided her with the opportunity to re-connect with the land and sea. Given her background, she is acutely aware that many people, without similar options, suffered significant mental distress unable to escape the lockdown that had been imposed on them. She won a Jazz South Radar commission, writing a new piece for an all-female trio - Josephine Davies (saxophone); Alcyona Mick (piano) and Tamar Osborne (bass clarinet), called The Language of Water. The piece reflects on her tumultuous experiences of 2020, strongly inspired by living by the sea and incorporating both the peacefulness and intense drama of the elements. It was performed at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill after the lockdown was temporarily lifted.
In the previous year Josephine had formed her own jazz orchestra which she named The Ensō Ensemble. Ensō is a Zen Buddhist symbol, traditionally drawn in a single brushstroke as a meditative practice celebrating the beauty of incompletion and imperfection, and the polarity of movement and stillness. She set about composing a suite of music for the orchestra inspired by times of the year and what they mean for her, both emotionally and spiritually. Co-incidentally she discovered a piece called Ostara, which is the Celtic name for the spring equinox, and although she has no memory of writing the piece it was the first step in the process. In an interview with Bruce Lindsay for UK Jazz News she explains that “The Celtic Wheel is really a celebration of who we are in relation to the Earth, Gaia. Its idea is to be in harmony with nature, to live in closeness with Her with a capital ‘H’. That’s what inspired the suite, it’s a celebratory piece.” The suite has eight sections:
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Eos (summer solstice)
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Lammas
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Mabon
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Samhain
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Gaia’s Breath (winter solstice)
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Imbolc
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Ostara
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Beltane
Lammas, Samhain, Imbolc and Beltain correspond to seasonal festivals while Eos, Gaia’s Breath are soltices and Mabon and Ostara the equinoxes. The Ensō Ensemble debuted at London’s Vortex Club and then the Kino Teatrin St Leonards-on-Sea in October 2022. The Celtic Wheel of the Year Suite was performed at Milton Court during the 2023 EFG London Jazz Festival and following a crowd-funding exercise, the album was launched at the Vortex in December 2024 and released on the Ubuntu label on 28th February 2025. Each track features solo improvisations by just one, sometimes two musicians meaning that a substantial part of the work is composed. Apart from Maria Schneider and John Coltrane, mentioned earlier, Josephine counts both classical (Stravinsky, Shostakovitch) and jazz musicians (Jan Garbarek, Keith Jarrett, Vince Mendoza) as influences. The orchestra personnel on the album are:
Josephine Davies (composer, conductor, tenor saxophone); Michael Chillingworth (alto & soprano saxophone); Rachael Cohen (alto saxophone); Harben Kay (tenor saxophone); Adam Bishop (tenor saxophone, clarinet, alto flute); Tamar Osborn (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet); Noel Langley, Reuben Fowler, Nick Smart, Robbie Robson (trumpet, flugelhorn); Anna Drysdale (French horn); Olli Martin, Maddie Dowdeswell (trombone); Eddie Curtis (bass trombone); Alcyona Mick (piano); Dave Whitford (double bass) and Shaney Forbes (drums)
The make up of the orchestra is like a traditional big band with plenty of saxophones, trumpets and trombones and no strings. Each musician has been carefully chosen and the music composed to make the best use of each one individually or as a group. The celebratory nature of the composition is immediately apparent with the first track, Eos, (the Greek goddess of the dawn); the rising of the sun and the warmth of its rays are beautifully portrayed as progressively each instrument joins in with an anthemic opening salvo followed by cheerful melodies and solos from Alcyona Mick on piano and Rachel Cohen on alto saxophone. In contrast the next track, Lammas, seems much more thoughtful with Nick Smart’s trumpet rising far above the bassier instruments. Mabon has rather a jazzy groove with Josephine Davies on tenor saxophone sparring with the trombone of Olli Martin. Imbolc conveys the feeling of waking up after winter - it is a dramatic ensemble piece with no solos and one of Josephine’s favourite tracks. Given the title of the album, there is a great temptation to spend a lot of time looking for all sorts of symbolism, but as with all great music, it can be enjoyed on many levels and will repay repeated listening. The last track, Beltane, seems quite restrained given the vibrant fire festivals that occur in Scotland and elswhere around 1st May celebrating new growth and optimism (see here). However, these are Josephine Davies’s compositions, and the music is personal to her.
So far there are no live performances planned for The Celtic Wheel of the Year Suite, the logistics of bringing a big band together in one place at one time continues to be a daunting task for any bandleader. However, Josephine Davies and Satori are launching another album, Weatherwards, at the Pizza Express in Soho on 11th March 2025 (details here), and there is a video of Holes of Scraada here. Josephine has also been involved in two other recent albums, The Act of Noticing by a new band, Espial and Passing By by the Harper Trio.
The Celtic Wheel Of The Year Suite on the Ubuntu Music label is available here.
Josephine Davies' website is here.
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