Josephine Davies: 'My older brother told me that saxophone was much cooler than flute, so that was pretty much that'

“One of my favourite things is hearing musicians searching, stretching, unafraid of what others think because they are following a higher plane,” says Davies, “like that moment in the 1960 Miles Davis Paris concert where ‘Trane is experimenting with a split note for a long, long time and the audience is both whooping and booing, but he’s in a realm of his own.”

Davies grew up surrounded by music: “We always had a piano in the house which I am deeply grateful for. Sadly that seems less and less common these days, but is something that children hugely benefit from just being around. That also enabled me to learn to read music at a young enough age for it not to be a chore.

"My father’s family were very classically oriented, but his own dreams of being a blues musician were thwarted by his piano teacher who only ever introduced him to Mozart! My mother’s side is very interested in folk music. I still have some of her old vinyl including Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell etc.”

Having explored the piano from an early age, it wasn’t until Davies went to secondary school that her interest in music really took off: “We were invited to raid the musical instrument cupboard, and as a very small, very shy 11 year old I stood at the back until there were fewer children to contend with, and found myself a nicely shaped box that turned out to be a flute, so that’s what I played (simple, sometimes, how these things turn out). However, when I was about 14, my older brother (whose word was gospel at the time!) told me that saxophone was much cooler than flute, so that was pretty much that.”

Davies had both peripatetic and private lessons on the flute and then later the saxophone; “And I seem to remember a private piano teacher.”

Davies sees herself as being fortunate that she attended secondary school when she did: “The East Sussex music department was one of the best in the country at the time. I was in the choir and the wind band, and we had some amazing concerts around the county as well as in Europe. I also performed my one and only ‘solo’ at the Albert Hall, which came about because I skived too many choir rehearsals and then sang in the bar of silence. I still have flashbacks about that moment of profound embarrassment.”

So getting back to instruments other than the voice, which saxophones has Davies owned over the years, and which does she currently play?

“I remember my dad bought me my first alto when I was fourteen. He found it in a charity shop and it had a battered old case and no lacquer. To my eternal regret, I made him take it back and purchase a new student model Yamaha, because the girls in my year teased me about it. I still wonder if it was an amazing old horn that in my teenage girlhood stupidity I lost out on. Ah well, we live and learn,” Davies continues. “I later bought a Buescher Aristocrat which I have kept, even though I haven’t played alto for many years. Then when I was near the end of my undergraduate course at London Guildhall I felt the call to switch to tenor and bought a Selmer Mark VI from Willie Garnett, which is the horn I still play. I also bought my Yanigasawa soprano from another student at Guildhall who was selling hers, as I’d been inspired by hearing Stan Sulzmann’s beautiful tone on it.”

Although Davies seems very happy with the horns that she currently plays, I ask whether she is still looking for that ‘perfect’ instrument.

“I really don’t know, and am somewhat reluctant to start researching what’s available these days as it might mean great expense! I love my tenor, but it’s a little clunkier than ideal. In a nutshell I want something that feels like an extension of myself, so that I can be completely free with it.

"Of course, most of that comes from practice rather than the horn itself, which is another reason to stick with my Mark VI and 'just get in the shed.’ The idea of finding and getting to know another horn is less interesting than remaining with the challenges of the horns I have, while having more time to read a book about the nature of sound itself. I’m not sure if this makes me lazy or odd, or both, or something else entirely? Maybe it doesn’t matter. I can imagine playing the same instruments into my nineties!”

And so to mouthpieces and ligatures: "Both my tenor and soprano mouthpieces are made by Ed Pillinger. I find them really versatile, with a warm, rich and dark tone that can also be edgy. I have to have mouthpieces that are sensitive and with a big dynamic range. The ligatures are both Rovner, though I’m currently experimenting with other makes.”

And what reeds does she use?

“Rigotti Gold 2.5 L on tenor, and a very basic Vandoren 2 on soprano. They’re both fairly light reeds, but I prefer a wider bore mouthpiece with lighter reeds, as it gives me a greater dynamic range.”

Josephine Davies' new album The Celtic Wheel of the Year Suite is out now