[Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item and all related links to our attention.] The full title of this article is “Windrush is a love story too’: Renell Shaw on paying homage to Black British life in his new jazz trilogy.” Kevin Le Gendre (The Guardian) reviews the work and trajectory of composer, songwriter, music producer, and performer Renell Shaw. He writes, “The Ivor Novello-winning musician has written works inspired by his family history. He talks about building music from testimony – and why the Windrush generation deserves new narratives.” Read the full article at The Guardian (see excerpts below).
A briefcase-sized console with a large, sleek keypad, the MPC One drum machine is an eye-catching piece of kit. It can’t be easily overlooked among the various synthesisers, guitars, amps, samplers and vinyl albums in Renell Shaw’s studio in Wood Green, north London. This month, when the 38-year-old musician plays a double-bill show at Kings Place, five miles down the road, the treasured black box will travel with him – and it has special sounds.
“On stage, I’ll have my score and the MPC, with my grandparents’ voices stored in there. They’ll be there with the band in front of me,” says Shaw, artist-in-residence for Kings Place’sMemory Unwrapped season, a series of musical performances that explore nostalgia, transformation and future.
The testimonies of his elders are an integral part of The Windrush Suite, the first of two extended compositions Shaw will perform that are entirely personal. “I needed to tell real stories, not just the facts, about West Indians coming over on a boat called the Windrush in 1948. Our story is of growth, and it’s a love story, too. I mean, my grandmother came over here from Jamaica looking for work, and my grandfather came over to chase my grandmother!” he chuckles. “When you approach migration on a human level, you connect with it, whether it’s your culture or not, because it can be about triumph over adversity irrespective of gender, race, age.” [. . .]
The group, meanwhile, has a wide span of ages, from 65-year-old marimba player Orphy Robinson to 30-year-old drummer Romarna Campbell via 41-year-old cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson. “Having different generations in the same room means the music carries lived experience, inherited memory and future perspective all at once,” says Shaw. [. . .]
As upbeat as Shaw is about the forthcoming show, he is also keen to stress that the suites broach inconvenient truths that need to be told. Echo in the Bones chronicles the experiences of his parents, who were born in Britain rather than being Caribbean migrants. The oppression they had to endure, particularly police brutality at the height of the infamous stop and search SUS laws in the 1980s, is shocking.
“When I heard my uncle and dad talk about police, and being beaten in the back of a van, I felt that they understood that this didn’t have to be tolerated in a way that my grandparents hadn’t,” he says. “I think my parents felt like they had a level of ownershipbeing born here, so there’s a bit less compliance, there’s more resistance in Echo in the Bones. I spent a lot of time talking to my parents, first-generation Black Britons of Jamaican and Dominican origin. I wanted to tell their story. They’re basically saying: ‘No, this is my country, we’ll fight back.’” [. . .]
For full article, see https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jun/12/renell-shaw-jazz-musician-interview-windrush-suite-kings-place
Also see Renell Shaw – ‘Windrush Suite’ and ‘Echo in the Bones’ at Kings Place
Tara Minton, UK Jazz News, June 9, 2026
https://ukjazznews.com/renell-shaw-windrush-suite-and-echo-in-the-bones-at-kings-place
Follow Shaw at https://www.renellshaw.com, and https://www.instagram.com/renellshaw
[Photo of Renell Shaw by Olivia Ahmadi.]
[Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item and all related links to our attention.] The full title of this article is “Windrush is a love story too’: Renell Shaw on paying homage to Black British life in his new jazz trilogy.” Kevin Le Gendre (The Guardian) reviews the work and trajectory of composer,
