Renell Shaw is this year’s artist in residence at Kings Place

SOME of the county’s finest musicians – span­ning jazz, classical, and contem­porary music – are set to perform an “award-winning masterpiece” by a platinum-selling song­writer and producer who got his first taste of a recording studio in King’s Cross.

Ivor Novello award-winning Renell Shaw’s The Windrush Suite, and sequel Echo in the Bones, is on at Kings Place on June 25.

Mr Shaw, who has toured with popular band Rudimental and is this year’s artist in residence at Kings Place, spoke to the Tribune about his work that pays tribute to his grandparents who came from the Caribbean to this country in 1948.

The sequel is about his parents’ generation’s experience of living in this country. In October, he will present a third instalment of the series, Remember Us Tomorrow. All in, the series tells stories of love, pain, struggle, and triumph through a fusion of jazz, spoken word and Caribbean traditions.

Mr Shaw, who grew up in Hornsey and went to Highgate Wood School, said the project was originally commissioned in February 2020 – just days before the Covid lockdown was ordered.

He said: “I had recording facilities at home and all my favourite musicians were also able to record. So I said ‘let’s turn it into a recording project’. That’s how it became what it is now.

“The only condition was that I wanted to tell the story how I wanted to tell it. I didn’t want it to be a documentary-style piece. I wanted to show it from the inside out.

“There is spoken word. Actual footage. Audio footage from my grandmother and mother. It bounces between different worlds. But I wanted music to be a catalyst for the stories.”

Mr Shaw said it all started when he found himself attending a performing arts programme after following up on a leaflet that was put out at his school. It took him down to a recording studio based in the former Bagley’s building in old King’s Cross before the regeneration.

“Now there’s a picture of me staring at Bagley’s from Kings Place,” he said. “It feels symbolic. There should be a documentary about that place, it means so much to people.

“Now you have all these major record labels and Google and that in King’s Cross, but there are still people living around it too. It’s something that we spoke about when I came.

“Early this month, we did a masterclass for free where I was just talking about my experience. It was split with the 16 to 18-year-olds. And then you had 19+ years – where getting into music was something they want to do seriously.

“There is nothing more dedicated that a curious mind of a child. But sometimes you have to be in a room with a person and have a conversation to really get through.

“There are organisations trying to find their way to reach out to the community. But sometimes because they are not from the community so they don’t know where to start.”

Asked what generation he felt he was, he said: “I feel like I’m a responsible young person – I don’t feel old, but recognise my actions have consequences.”

Mr Shaw said that he liked to keep his political views separate from his compositions and let their stories do the talking.

Talking abut his own family, he said: “My grandmother came over from Jamaica at the time from the Commonwealth. She was a dressmaker and her friend over here said ‘they need dressmakers, you should come here’. Then she got a letter from my granddad saying ‘I’m coming to find you’. She was surprised, I guess it was him showing his commitment.

“She took a plane. She wasn’t on the Empire Windrush. She used to say ‘I would never get on a boat’. The idea that everyone came on ships, that’s not true.”

While his grandparents made that huge journey, he said he remembered feeling like his parents moving from Hornsey to Walthamstow was a big shift. There was such a difference.

“Outside of my grandparents’ house was London, but inside was Jamaica. The culture was rooted in the house, wallpaper. Then you step out and it’s so different. That balance, between two worlds, is something I wanted to explore.”

He added: “I hope audiences leave feeling moved, expanded and more connected to the human depth within these works. Through this journey I have learnt that my role is not just to compose, but to hold space for memory, truth and transformation through music.”

Musicians taking part include multi-instrumentalist Orphy Robinson MBE, cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson, trumpeter Mark Crown, trombonist Nathaniel Cross, guitarist Charlie Laffer, bassist Jorga Smith, drummer Romarna Campbell, pianist Zoe Alexandria and Grammy-award-winning and legendary tenor saxophonist Jean Toussaint. Also taking part are Vocalists lead singer of Afro-punk band Steam Down Afronaut Zu, OFFIE Award-winner Rochelle Rose and artist Nandi from The Voice show.