Â鶹Éç

Claire Martin has pianist Alan Benzie and his trio in session plus an artist profile with bassist Shez Raja, whose new album Gurutopia features trumpeter Randy Brecker & guitarist Mike Stern.

In 2007 Alan Benzie became the first winner of Â鶹Éç Radio Scotland's Young Jazz Music competition and later that year began his studies at Boston's Berklee College of Music. His Jazz Line-Up session draws on material featured on his 'Traveller's Tales' album with long-time collaborators Andrew Robb (bass) and Marton Juhasz (drums) finding it's inspiration from the landscape of Scotland, Japanese animation and film music.

British Asian bassist Shez Raja has collaborated with the cream of UK jazz players including guitarist John Etheridge, saxophonists Gilad Atzmon & Denys Baptiste as well as American jazz stars including Randy Brecker and Mike Stern. His music is heavily groove based featuring a fusion of styles including Indo-Jazz, funk and hip-hop. As well as hearing tracks from his new album Shez provides insights into his approach to music making and talks about his inspirations as part of our regular feature 'Inside The Mind'.