Elijah Fox at The Stoller Hall
Johnny James, Managing Editor
*This event has been cancelled.
This autumn, join The Stoller Hall for a solo piano performance from world-renowned multi-instrumentalist and producer, Elijah Fox.
If you think you’re new to Elijah Fox’s work, don’t be so sure. He’s been sampled by the likes of Drake, and has recorded and produced for countless major artists, among them SZA, Masego, YG, ScHoolboy Q, Denzel Curry, Tate McCrae, Musiq Soulchild, Childish Gambino, Kali Uchis and J Cole. He’s also toured the world with artists including one of our favourite UK drummers, Yussef Dayes, and penned music for TV shows like Netflix’s Entergalactic. All before the age of 30.
But as prolific as he is on the collaborative side of things, Fox has amassed a wonderful body of solo work, both under his own name and the alias Søren Søstrom. Most of this is based around his main instrument, the piano, which he learned with Charlie Parker collaborator Yusuf Salim, before studying at Oberlin Conservatory. He’s inspired by pianists Art Tatum, Ravel, Ahmad Jamal, Scott Storch, Robert Glasper and Erroll Garner, melding these influences into his own, dreamy sound, spanning jazz, impressionism and psychedelic soul.
Fox’s most recent album, Hydra, dropped in May 2024. It features 11 tracks recorded on the Greek island on a 1924 Steinway upright piano. Most of the tracks are improvisations inspired by the island as well as the Old Carpet Factory studio – a renovated 18th century carpet factory overlooking the islands and Aegean Sea. Exploratory and imagistic, this delicate piano music is as beautiful and serene and the island that inspired it.
Our favourite record of his, though, is 2023’s Wyoming, which features 30 tracks of impressionistic piano inspired by a collection of photos taken by Fox’s grandpa, Russell Peck, in the early 1960s. Sadly, as Fox was creating the album, Peck suffered a stroke and passed away, turning Wyoming into a series of journal entries that became part of Fox’s grieving and healing process. Looking at an image of a particular Western landscape his grandpa captured, Fox would sit at the piano, meditating through the instrument, recalling memories of his childhood.
But there’s another family influence, here, too: his grandma Ruth, a classical pianist and Fox’s first piano teacher. As a child Fox would listen to her playing Ravel and Debussy, mesmerised by the complex textures and worlds of sound being created by just one instrument. All of these influences come together to intoxicating effect on a dreamlike, gently psychedelic album that feels like a musical sanctuary.
And it’s that transporting experience that we’re looking forward to at The Stoller Hall, where Fox performs his solo piano music live this October. Following sold out shows across the US and Europe at the legendary Ronnie Scott’s (London), Biko (Milan), and Monk (Rome), we’re thrilled to see him performing in Manchester for the very first time.
