Sammy Stein Interview Published on: 11, Oct 2021

I grew up in a large city. I spent quite a bit of time in the New Forest, walking with my Dad or tracking deer, learning about plants and being told to 'shhhhh' as we waited to see deer. He was an amazing gardener and horticulturalist.

I am not sure really. I write on subject which are probably not considered mainstream. My main supporters are the musicians themselves whom I write about and play the music I research.

I think Brer Rabbit - a character with all kinds of animal friends like Brer Fox, Brer Bear. I liked the fact they all got on even though I knew they would eat each other in reality.

I am sure the route is different for everyone. I sent one piece off to London Jazz News and then I got called by another column - I still think the editor thought I was a different writer because he gave me two columns - one to write reviews and so on and the other where I could write about anything related to music I wanted. I called it Scumbles in honour of a good friend of mine - a musician.

Hmmm.....hard question but something like, ' She drifted off with the music, everything else faded away.' ( Probably best I stick to non-fiction).

For that book I went through a lot. It was impossible to include everyone who wanted to be part of the book. I went to the British Library where I am a Reader and spent a few days researching - that was special as I got to see some incredible documents. I also spoke to well over a hundred musicians, researchers and educators about how they saw the scene - I threw out questions on social media and got responses from musicians and researchers too. I also read lots of papers and got sent some to help with detail. A slightly mad thing I did was go back through programmes of the last few years of UK jazz festivals to literally count up the numbers of male, female and mixed gender performers because I wanted the facts to be right. I also checked staff on college registers to see numbers of female and male tutors in music and jazz and these took weeks to do. I also talked to parliamentary commissions and current educators and groups supporting women and their researchers to get some detailed information. It was a lot of work but gradually things became clear.

Funnily enough it was through a band whose music I liked - The Blockheads. I realised there was something behind the sounds which was different - I now know it was jazz influences. I also saw George Melly in the street and at Camden Jazz Festival and joined a jazz club when I lived in Hampstead. The guy leading was from King Crimson and I thought I would just sit in and listen but I ended up singing and then playing clarinet as he was having no by-standers. I found jazz completely different from what I expected and finally, after singing opera and folk music in varios settings, I found music I liked and it was not performing for other people but for me. I liked the collectiveness of it all too.

Kind of Blue ( Davis) , Live at Cafe Oto ( Blurt), Hands ( Gustafsson) Afloat ( NJE) Amalgam ( Ivo Perelmann, Mat Shipp), Black TO The Future ( Sons of Kemet), Instant Opaque Evening ( Underflow) Superluna ( Sothiac feat. Paul Jolly) Dark Star ( Bowie) there are many more.

No way. I like my life.

I have not won any awards really.

I was surprised and pleased. I had to look up to see what it meant and when I realised I was incredibly surprised. I also liked how readers voted for me in the readers poll as I had no idea that was even happening , or that it happened with jazz books. People are incredibly kind.

No, because I am not really - I turned down a nomination recently because I find all this award giving a bit overwhelming and I really did not deserve the nomination. I write for a niche genre and I am passionate about what I do but I am one writer and there are literally hundreds of great writers out there. I love the fact people have thought the books worthy of awards and am grateful but to brag about it would be crass. Other writers have got awards and quite rightly too. I think I actually enjoy seeing other people getting awards because I jump on them for interviews - you know finding out what it was for, how they feel, where it gets them, that kind of thing yet I know I am an awful subject myself for an interview as I tend to say the same things. I guess that is when I might tell them or their agent more about me and awards for my writing etc so I can get the interview!

I try to read a little as often as I can. I have to read for research and I also read as much as I can by different authors to stop me following someone else's style. There are some really good writers whose work is hard to put down but I try and mix things a little.

I am commissioned at the moment until December 2021 and I am enjoying the research.

I came across it because someone mentioned it to me and I searched for it. I am not sure what I expected. I liked some of the cover mock ups and connecting with other writers seemed a good opportunity. This has not really happened because very few of us write about the same subjects in non fiction but I am sure it will.