Every Journey by Ensemble C

An oft-repeated Chinese proverb states, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Looking back from a vantage point several steps along her own proverbial journey, British composer and pianist Claire Cope came to discover that no matter how daunting a venture may become, it’s always taking that first step that requires the most courage. That realization provided the inspiration behind Every Journey, the gorgeous second album by Cope’s Ensemble C.

Every Journey will be released on March 7, 2025, to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8. The occasion is significant given the fount of inspiration that Cope found in the stories of intrepid women pioneers who undertook their own daring journeys. The books of writer and explorer Jacki Hill-Murphy were key resources – specifically Adventuresses, a compendium of stories of 18th and 19th-century female explorers, and The Extraordinary Tale of Kate Marsden, about a Victorian nurse who trekked across pre-Revolutionary Russia to find a possible cure for leprosy. Musically, the groundbreaking compositions of Maria Schneider provided a luminous north star for Cope’s own writing.

Arriving five years after Ensemble C’s acclaimed debut, Small World, Cope’s follow-up represents significant evolutions in both the composer’s life and her musical vision. Where Small World offered Cope’s introductory statement as a composer, a path she arrived at only gradually, Every Journey is a remarkably assured expansion of that mindset. Significantly, Ensemble C has bloomed from a septet to an 11-piece group, allowing for a wealth of new colors and possibilities, of which Cope takes bold and vibrant advantage. The intricate music she’s devised for the ensemble reflects her existence in both the jazz and contemporary classical music realms. Closer to home, Cope became a mother in the interval between albums, a development that can’t help but deepen one’s insight and empathy.

“Discovering that I am a composer and becoming a mum were both turning points in my life,” Cope says. “Then I found myself reading these stories about these inspiring, real-life characters and the music took on a sense of adventure. All of this fused together in my mind and led to my wanting to write something that was about not having limits.”

Cope seized on the idea of expanding her ensemble immediately after recording Small World. “As a composer I really wanted to push myself,” she explains. “Then when I started writing this music about adventures and journeys, the pieces naturally felt like they required a more substantial force. Also, an eleven-piece ensemble is a bit unusual – this idea of something that is not quite a big band but something towards it was really appealing to me.”

With the Maria Schneider Orchestra as one pillar of inspiration, Cope also looked to the mercurial sound of the early Pat Metheny Group and, closer in scale to the newly imagined Ensemble C, Michael Brecker’s Grammy-winning 2004 Quindectet album Wide Angles. While Cope’s music was inspired by these composers, it is not confined to them: her musical voice is distinct and singular. The human voice is a vital element of her writing, courtesy the typically wordless vocals of Brigitte Beraha, who also contributes lyrics to the moving song “The Birch and the Larch,” which recounts a fable called “Leprosy in Love” that Hill-Murphy incorporates into her biography of Kate Marsden.

The album opens with the atmospheric “Every Journey (Has a Beginning),” which sets the tone for the sonic expedition to come, culminating in a quicksilver solo by guitarist Ant Law. The set is bookended by the tender “Home,” highlighted by a captivating duo between Beraha’s and Mike Soper on flugelhorn. The soaring groove of “Flight” pays homage to Bessie Coleman, the first woman of African American and Native American descent to earn her pilot’s license in the US. “Isabel” is named for one of the subjects of Adventuresses, Isabel Godin des Odonais, the first known woman to traverse the length of the Amazon River, and features percussionist Jack McCarthy along with baritone saxophonist Rob Cope, trombonist Anoushka Nanguy, and trumpeter Freddie Gavita.

The four-piece horn section could threaten to overwhelm the balance of the ensemble, but Cope employs it nimbly, often using flugelhorn in one of the trumpet chairs and tending toward the lush rather than the powerful – as in the stirring, Kenny Wheeler-inspired chorale “The Light of the Dark.” The horns can swell and ascend when needed, however, as they do to provoke the dramatic tenor extemporizations of Matt Carmichael on “Amboseli.” The through-composed piece is named for a national park in Kenya set against the backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro, the contrast of immense heights and vast plains is breathtakingly captured in Cope’s piece. The simmering rhythm laid down by Cope’s left hand, bassist Gavin Barras and drummer Jon Ormston on “That Nabongo Feeling” paint a vigorous portrait of modern-day explorer Jessica Nabongo, who recently became the first documented Black woman to visit all of the planet’s 195 countries.

Cope describes the album as being about “courage, overcoming anxiety and finding inner peace. Everyone can relate in some way to that moment of taking a step forward in life. For me, it was about feeling comfortable in my choices as a musician and deciding to identify as a composer. Once you get past that first step, you’re on your way to where you want to go.”

Ensemble C is a contemporary jazz large ensemble led by award winning British composer and pianist Claire Cope.

clairecopemusic.com