Ledley - Album Lunch

Ledley, the duo of saxophonist Chris Williams & trombonist Raph Clarkson, celebrate the release of their self-titled debut record, an absorbing psycho-geographical North London jazz suite on the chronology of the duo’s long friendship, season tickets & shared passionate love for a football club.

The band’s namesake, Tottenham Hotspur and hero player Ledley King is at the centre of this narrative thematic arc. An album that sits in the rich, though particular, company of Mogwai’s 2006 film score for the portrait of French footballer Zinedine Zidane and Will Gregory’s Moog Ensemble orchestration for a film study of Tim Henman. This, however, is less character study of a totemic sporting figure than explorations of where it takes us - ritual, friendship, commitment, glory & struggle, pride in place & one’s roots; a dense meditation on what forms & shapes community. 

We hear the swinging street music of a London township jazz,…