Callum Au
Sing Seven Seas
by Howard Lawes
The trombonist, composer, orchestrator and arranger Calum Au has embarked on his biggest project yet with the imminent release of his double album – Sing Seven Seas. Here is a taster with a video of Swipe Right, a reference to modern day social media, but the music is very much from the Swing Era of the 1930s and 1940s, the point being that this was the music that teenagers loved at the time. It is a foot tapper par excellence with an arrangement that very much typifies the era. It features Sam Watts on piano and Duncan Hemstock on clarinet.
Via Zoom, Callum talked to me about his twenty year, frankly breathtaking musical journey.
Although it is hard to believe, Callum claims that learning to play the trombone was entirely serendipitous, he just happened to be the tallest child in his class when the music teacher was handing out musical instruments. Making a sound with a trombone is not difficult but to be able to play a tune accurately requires precise movement of the slide and an understanding of how to vary your embouchure. However, 9-year-old Callum just took to it. Callum’s family were living in Blackpool at the time, home of the Tower and other ballrooms, all of which needed big bands playing music to dance to. Callum was very fortunate to receive music lessons from trumpeter Terry Reaney, a member of the Syd Lawrence Orchestra for 15 years and someone who is reputed to have played in every ballroom in Blackpool. Here is Terry Reaney in the trumpet section playing Trumpet Blues & Cantabile .
Callum progressed rapidly and having passed his grade V ABRSM exam, Terry started introducing the teenage Callum to professional, big band rehearsals where he heard the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Glenn Miller etc. Playing this music alongside and learning from experienced members of well-known dance bands was an invaluable experience for a young musician. Terry also recommended listening to the great trombonists of the day such as Don Lusher, Urbie Green, George Chisolm and Mark Nightingale and in fact it was Mark Nightingale’s 1997 album, Destiny with its mix of standards and original material which has been a lasting inspiration. Co-incidentally Callum followed Mark’s example and joined the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) at age 15, part time initially but full time from age 17.
Bill Ashton, the founder of NYJO, provided Callum with further inspiration, this time with composition. Callum describes how Bill Ashton would encourage young musicians to write pieces of music with amusing titles and then have them played by the orchestra. Callum clearly enjoyed this process as the NYJO library holds 120 of Callum’s compositions. Despite immersing himself in music to the extent that he was playing with local bands around Blackpool almost every night of the week, Callum decided not to enter a conservatoire but went to Balliol College in Oxford to study Classics, this time following in the footsteps of Boris Johnson. Although not studying music at university, Callum continued to play with NYJO, joined the Oxford University Jazz Orchestra and the Oxford University Big Band and further honed his technique with lessons from Mark Nightingale.
After graduation in 2011 Callum moved to London and began work on material for his Callum Au Big Band that resulted in a debut album called Something’s Coming (2013) inspired in part by the sublime music of Leonard Bernstein. In 2012 Callum had become a member of the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra which in turn introduced him to the amazing body of musical talent that resides in London. Callum admits that at this stage in his career he was still looking to improve as a composer but felt the need to release an album that would provide material for his big band to perform on tour. He also learned a great deal about the process of producing and recording music and he pays tribute to the Grammy award winning sound engineer, Steve Price, for his work on the album. Apart from arrangements for NYJO’s 50th anniversary album, and continuing to perform in other bands, another project that premiered at Ronnie Scott’s in 2015 featured both classic and modern arrangements of some of Gershwin’s best-loved songs. The show’s centrepiece was Callum’s new arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue with the virtuoso pianist James Pearson. The event was live-streamed at the time and the video is still available on YouTube (1hr 53 min - as it was live-streamed the video takes a little while to begin):
In 2016 Callum arranged a selection of legendary songs from the great American songbook for a project called Hollywood Romance featuring Claire Martin on vocals, the James Pearson Quintet and the Tippett String Quartet. The Hollywod Romance project laid the groundwork for the next project, which was the album Songs and Stories (2020) featuring Claire Martin on vocals plus 81 musicians combining big band and orchestra. This album was widely acclaimed and won the 2021 Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Album. With so many musicians involved playing Callum’s arrangements, Songs and Stories had really raised the bar and proved the concept that a project on this scale could be successful. Here is an introduction to Songs and Stories:
Typically, Callum never stops learning and he describes how, in 2022, he was priviledged to experience the legendary composer, conductor, arranger, and orchestrator Dave Metzger working on the music for a Disney film. Callum feels strongly that learning your craft on the job alongside experts in the field is just as productive as following an academic route, and who would disagree given that Callum has worked so successfully with international stars, symphony orchestras, big bands, radio and BBC Promenade Concerts. Callum’s association with Claire Martin continues with a project called The Art of Swing, described as "world-class orchestras and breathtaking new arrangements that create an unforgettable event celebrating the Great American Songbook and beyond."
Sing Seven Seas marks another milestone in Callum’s remarkable career with a double album of original music written not just for an ensemble of over 80 musicians, but for the individual members of both big band and orchestral sections of the ensemble. Volume 1 is original music inspired by a wide variety of ideas from the classical Greek to contemporary internet platforms while Volume 2 includes tracks that pay homage to four of the big band leaders that inspired Callum in Blackpool and continue to inspire him today.
Following Swipe Right, which we played at the start of this article, Si vis pacem para Carnyx (if you seek peace, prepare the Carnyx) is a paraphrase of the quote “if you seek peace, prepare for war”. This track has a definite military theme and Callum pits two parts of the ensemble against each other. The carnyx is an ancient, large wind instrument used by the Celts to strike fear in their opponents. The track features Andy Wood and Callum Au on carnyses, Gareth Lockrane on piccolo and Kay Au on violin and viola. Murmurations is described as a sort of musical pas de deux between the saxophone of Chad Lefkowitz-Brown and Callum’s trombone. It is inspired by the aerial ballets performed by starlings at dusk which Callum remembers from his time living in Blackpool.
Jazz.ai is a hilarious track featuring a narrator and is inspired by The Sorcerer’s Apprentice section of Disney’s Fantasia. The script was writen by Katie Emmerton and is read by Matt Forbes. A jazz student (James Davison on trumpet) programmes some artificial intelligence called 'sweep' (Emma Rawicz on tenor saxophone), that ends up taking over the world with bebop and harmony. The moral being - don’t build a machine you can’t control as it may end up calling the tune!
Volume 2 includes a four-part Influencers suite paying homage to the band leaders whose music exemplifies the very best of the big band / jazz orchestra genre. Through the Deep Dark Woods is dedicated to Duke Ellington, without forgetting Billy Strayhorn, Ellington’s arranger much admired by Callum. The track features clarinettist and Echoes of Ellington bandleader Pete Long, while the title is from a song invented by Callum’s 3-year-old son. Other featured musicians are James Davison on trumpet and Callum himself on trombone. This is just the most wonderful tribute to Ellington, a strong rhythm with all the embellishments one would expect creating a truly memorable piece. The next piece, Bill Pill, celebrates William “Count” Basie and William “Bill” Ashton, the former of whom practically invented the big band rhythm section and created the sound of swing while the latter did so much for young musicians through his founding of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Featured musicians are Tom Dennis on trumpet, Jay Craig on baritone saxophone, Jon Shenoy on alto saxophone and Callum on trombone.
Caledonian Sun God is dedicated to Dizzy Gillespie, one the greatest trumpeters of all time who not only introduced the Afro-Cuban influence of Chano Pozo to big band music but was also one of the standard bearers for bebop. Ryan Quigley plays the trumpet on this track with Rob Barron on piano, Mark Nightingale on trombone and Luke Tomlinson, James Turner and Dave Elliot on percussion. The quality of the latin tinged big band sound on this track is just outstanding. The last track in this section is dedicated to Kenny Wheeler, the Canadian who had such a big influence on jazz in the UK, while the title, Fork Hen, owes something to classic British comedy. The track opens with a lively repartee between Martin Williams on tenor saxophone and Luke Tomlinson on drums before being overtaken by an unrestrained big band and Freddie Gavita’s flugelhorn floating above it all.
Here is Callum with an introduction to Sing Seven Seas:
It is hard to believe that there is so much great music on one, almost unique album and it is also hard to believe that almost everything has been composed, arranged and conducted by one person. The shear scale of managing so many musicians probably means that complete live performances are going to be very few and far between. However, Callum has scored the music for a conventional big band to facilitate touring. He also plans to have the music performed by other big bands or jazz orchestras around the world.
Two of the principles that dictate Callum’s approach to his work are firstly, that a musical arrangement should make the artist feel good about their performance and secondly, that music is for everyone, without the barriers of understanding that exclude less erudite audiences. Sing Seven Seas will surely succeed on both counts, the quality of composition and arrangement could not fail to inspire the musicians performing it and their performance will leave the audience begging for more.
Sing Seven Seas will be launched at Kings Place in London on 30th May - information here.
The album will be released on the Chairman Music label in association with ECN Music on the 5th June 2026.
Callum Au's website is here.
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2026.5