Nikki Iles on big bands, composing and jazz education

‘It was a rollercoaster!’ is how Iles describes 2023 when we meet. I knew she'd celebrated her 60th birthday, but this, it turns out, was only part of the picture. ‘In January I began my year as composer-in-residence with the NDR Bigband in Hamburg’, she explained.

It was a long time coming: ‘For almost 40 years, most of my writing work was squeezed into the time left over from playing and teaching, which wasn't much. Often I worked through the night when inspiration took hold. Having children enabled me to focus when I was writing, but it was always a stretch. So the opportunity to take time out from teaching, to develop my writing, was huge.’

The main highlight came at the end of 2023, when performing her new music at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and then (a week later) at Cadogan Hall, bringing the NDR band to London for the last night of the EFG London Jazz Festival.

European adventure

Iles has been a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall and Middlesex University for 26 years. She's back in Hamburg and Berlin later this year, recording and performing with the NDR, and working at the Vienna Conservatoire as artist-in-residence, and at Frankfurt University teaching big band writing on their master's course. She's also been a guest with the UMO Jazz Orchestra in Helsinki and the hr-Bigband in Frankfurt. Like many British jazz musicians, she's amazed at the support and scope for big bands in continental Europe.

Now, there's a critically acclaimed album, Face to Face, that captures this journey. ‘I played the music I'd amassed up to this point and was lucky, as part of these visits, to record material which eventually became the album for Edition records’, explained Iles. She described the opportunity to write bespoke music for musicians she now knows well as ‘wonderful’, adding: ‘It took me out of my comfort zone – trying new things, writing for Marcio Doctor (the amazing percussionist from Buenos Aires) and for an enormous assortment of woodwinds. I even played some accordion on a couple of pieces.’

Closer to home

I asked Iles how this compares to opportunities in the UK for composers and conductors wanting to work with big bands. Sadly, she explained, the BBC Big Band is no longer a salaried band, so there is no professional national jazz orchestra to work with in the same way; would-be leaders and composers must build their own. In Germany and Finland, by comparison, where there is more public funding for jazz (and the arts generally), NDR and similar organisations have new music produced weekly for their radio stations. ‘All sorts of music is produced’, explained Iles, ‘generating new work and consequently moving composers forward, and opening up opportunities’.

Our conversation turns to the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO), the Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, which encourages the professional development of emerging artists and has a learning programme for under-18s. It strives to makes the arts sector more inclusive and reflective of modern Britain.

Iles has been involved with NYJO for many years. She's currently a trustee on the board, and recalled how ‘eternally grateful’ she was for the faith NYJO placed in her when offering a commission and performing her first big band composition in 2012. ‘It all started for me at that point’, meaning her big band phase. NYJO has continued championing female jazz musicians, most recently Olivia Murphy and Lucy-Anne Daniels.

Recognising this is Women's History Month, we discussed one of Iles's recent compositions, Wild Oak, from the album Face to Face. Commissioned by NYJO, it celebrates female musicians and, in particular, the Detroit-born pianist Geri Allen. An evocative piece, it has ‘one of Iles's typical sinuous melody lines’, according to jazz writer and broadcaster Alyn Shipton, and ‘unfolds through a multiplicity of pastel shades’, according to The Financial Times.

You can see why this piece and others have earned the album several 5-star reviews. ‘This was my first long-form voyage of discovery’, explained Iles, referring to Wild Oak – ‘and for that it holds a special place in me.’

The pianist

Most MT readers, no doubt, associate Nikki Iles more with the piano. I ask if her playing has taken a back seat in recent years.

‘Inevitably, as a player/composer’, she explained, ‘there's a balance to be struck. Last year I continued to play but wasn't writing for my smaller groups. There were times, a few days before an important gig, when I was moving ahead well with the NDR music but was slightly concerned about my ‘chops’. For playing with Norma Winstone (one of our greatest jazz singers), for example, I needed my accompanying skills to be in good shape.’

By ‘good shape’, Iles means being able to move quickly around the keyboard harmonically, and have musical empathy, a good sound and touch, and be able ‘to improvise out of the context of the song’. It doesn't mean playing fast licks at brutally fast tempos. If you've ever seen her play, you'll know she's a highly effective accompanist as well as soloist, with great timing and poise (with or without a bassist). The practice pays off.

I ask if she has any advice for pianists coming to jazz from a classical training. Are there key approaches she'd recommend?

‘Most people wouldn't have the time to learn jazz from scratch’, she explained, ‘but playing a jazz piece with more understanding of the idiom and the all-important “feel” (particularly swing) is a strong start. You have to go to the source and listen to the greats. There are lovely transcription books, featuring the likes of Bill Evans or Oscar Peterson, that are genuinely accessible. It's important to try and play along with a recording and imitate every nuance.’

Publications and adaptability

The same MT readers will know Iles from her popular piano collections such as Nikki Iles & Friends, Piano Tales and OUP's best-selling Christmas collection Jazz on a Winter's Night. Jazz followers and reviewers, meanwhile, appreciate the craft and sophistication of pieces such as Caged Bird, Misfit and others that ‘stretch your ears' (in her words), exploring a more advanced jazz language and structure. She seems adept at writing to order, for different forces, readers, audiences and in various styles. How has she achieved this?

‘I think teaching at all levels and ages has been hugely important in developing this ability. There's no way I could have written the early-grade pieces without time spent with beginners.’ Interestingly, this is as much about noting what young players enjoy playing as about technical challenge. At the same time, Iles is comfortable ‘stretching’ the ears at any level. ‘Those moments in a piece (or arrangement)’, she explained, ‘where the student says: “Is that right? It sounds weird!” – an unusual voicing can end up being their favourite chord. I remember this feeling as a kid and being intrigued.’

As a composer who is ‘totally self-taught’, her advice to student composers is ‘Don't wait to be taught. Just get going, get sketching, and jot ideas down (not full compositions). Be curious about the music you love. Work out what it is you love about it, then try and figure out how it was achieved.’

Jazz exams and courses

Iles was a key advisor and writer for ABRSM when the exam board released its innovative jazz syllabuses during the 2000s. Rumour has it there may be a plan to develop the series beyond Grade 5, which will be warmly welcomed by many (some say that the artificial ceiling of Grade 5 has forced other exam boards to steal a jazz march). Having worked on the earlier ABRSM materials myself, as copy editor, I can testify to the rigour and authenticity that Iles and others brought to Grades 1–5.

Iles confirmed she has been in discussion with fellow jazz educators and colleagues at ABRSM, and Grade 6 onwards is firmly in their sights.

Looking back over her long career in teaching, I ask whether much has changed in jazz education, including at higher levels.

‘In some ways, it's changed hugely’, she explained, ‘with the music evolving constantly – as it should – with different waves of influence. Rhythm in particular has seen huge change in pedagogy and how its taught.

‘Some European colleges now focus less on the American model and on learning jazz standards. I still feel that a degree course covering the building blocks through these tunes is essential. By understanding the way harmony is put together, the form, the motivic melodies... you eventually learn how to do “your thing” with these elements.

‘Similarly, as an artist, you must learn how to draw, study form and create perspective. It gives you a structure to work within – beautifully or to break-open defiantly. After all, this worked well for Picasso and Kenny Wheeler.’

• nikkiiles.co.uk
• Ils/NDR at EFG London Jazz Festival
• Iles/NDR YouTube playlist