Polar Bear are a British experimental

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

band led by drummer

Seb Rochford Sebastian Rochford is a Scottish drummer and composer. He has recorded and released music as leader of the British band Polar Bear, as Kutcha Butcha and as part of numerous collaborations. Early life Rochford was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, a ...

with

Pete Wareham Pete Wareham is a British saxophonist, composer and band leader. He led the genre-defying North African/punk/jazz/dance band Melt Yourself Down and was a member of Nadine Shah’s Mercury Prize-nominated band, Seb Rochford’s Pulled By Magnets ...

and

Mark Lockheart Mark Lockheart (born 31 March 1961) is a British jazz tenor saxophonist who was a member of the Loose Tubes big band during the 1980s. Career After the demise of Loose Tubes, Lockheart formed jazz/folk quartet Perfect Houseplants with Huw Warr ...

on tenor saxophone, Tom Herbert on double bass and

Leafcutter John Leafcutter John is the recording name of John Burton, a UK-based musician and artist. He makes frequent use of Max/MSP in his compositions. Much of Burton's style is based in computer music and use of samples of everyday sounds. However, he al ...

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

and occasionally guitar or mandolin. Polar Bear were nominated for the Best Band award at the

BBC Jazz Awards The BBC Jazz Awards were set up in 2001 and had the status of one of the premier jazz awards in the United Kingdom (among those presenting the awards were Denis Lawson, Sue Mingus, Humphrey Lyttelton, Ian Carr, Clive James, Michael Gibbs (compose ...

2004, while Rochford was nominated for the 'Rising Star' award. Their first album '' Dim Lit'' was released in the same year and was a small scale success. Their second record, '' Held on the Tips of Fingers'', merged elements of

cool jazz Cool jazz is a style of modern jazz music inspired by bebop and big band that arose in the United States after World War II. It is characterized by relaxed tempos and a lighter tone than that used in the fast and complex bebop style. Cool jazz of ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

and

drum and bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...

and was, by comparison, a crossover hit, earning Polar Bear a nomination for the

Mercury Music Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...

in 2005. The success was all the more unusual for an almost purely instrumental album. The album was nominated for a BBC Jazz Award 2006. It was selected as one of "The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World" by ''

Jazzwise ''Jazzwise'' is a British monthly magazine focused on jazz, launched in 1997. The magazine covers a range of jazz sub-genres and provides news coverage, a national gig guide, a jazz-on-film page, feature articles, and a review section that evalua ...

'' magazine. and featured in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

's list of "1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die". They have been involved with F-IRE Collective. They released their self-titled third album, ''

Polar Bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a large bear native to the Arctic and nearby areas. It is closely related to the brown bear, and the two species can Hybrid (biology), interbreed. The polar bear is the largest extant species of bear ...

'', in July 2008 with Tin Angel Records.. In 2010, the band released '' Peepers'' and mini-album ''Common Ground'', a collaboration with Portuguese-born, London-based rapper Jyager, on

The Leaf Label The Leaf Label is a British independent record label based in Yorkshire, England. Initially an electronic music label, releasing mainly instrumental music, the company's approach now features artists spanning jazz and post-punk. History The Le ...

. Their 2014 album '' In Each And Every One'' was shortlisted for the

and in the same year they released the single "Cuckoo" in collaboration with singer and songwriter Jin Jin. In March 2015 Polar Bear released their sixth album '' Same as You'', including the single "Don't Let The Feeling Go". This track features frequent collaborator Shabaka Hutchings (

Sons of Kemet Sons of Kemet were a British jazz band formed by Shabaka Hutchings, Oren Marshall, Seb Rochford, and Tom Skinner (drummer), Tom Skinner. Theon Cross replaced Marshall on tuba after the first album, and Eddie Hick replaced Rochford on drums afte ...

and

The Comet Is Coming The Comet Is Coming was a London-based band that incorporated elements of jazz, electronica, funk and psychedelic rock. The band originally recorded for The Leaf Label, on which their debut EP ''Prophecy'' was released, on limited edition 12" ...

) on tenor saxophone and Rochford and Hannah Darling on vocals. In 2015, Polar Bear were nominated for Best Jazz Act in the

MOBO Awards The MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin, also known as the MOBOs) are an annual British music award presentation honouring achievements in " music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, UK Drill, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and Ba ...

and

Urban Music Awards The Urban Music Awards (UMA) are a hip-hop, R&B, dance, and soul music awards ceremony that was launched in the UK by Jordan Kensington in 2003 and is now held in multiple countries. The US version of the award ceremony, the Urban Music Awar ...

Discography

* '' Dim Lit'', (

Babel Babel is a name used in the Hebrew Bible for the city of Babylon and may refer to: Arts and media Written works Books *Babel (book), ''Babel'' (book), by Patti Smith * Babel (2012 manga), ''Babel'' (2012 manga), by Narumi Shigematsu * Babel (20 ...

, 2004) * '' Held on the Tips of Fingers'' (Babel, 2005) * ''

'', (Tin Angel, 2008) * '' Peepers'', (

Leaf A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the plant stem, stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leav ...

, 2010) * '' In Each and Every One'', (Leaf, 2014) * '' Same as You'', (Leaf, 2015) Collaborations * ''Common Ground'' with Jyager (Leaf, 2010) * ''Cuckoo'' with Jin Jin (Leaf, 2014)

References

External links

Polar Bear web sitePolar Bear BandcampPolar Bear on FacebookPolar Bear on Twitter

The Leaf Label web site''Held on the Tips of Fingers'' review
a
www.allaboutjazz.com''Held on the Tips of Fingers'' review
at BBC Jazz Review.
''In Each And Every One'' review
at

''Same As You'' review
at

British jazz ensembles {{UK-band-stub