J.A.M. String Collective: She Looks up at the Trees

The Strad Issue: January 2026

Description: An intriguing debut album, with mixed results

Musicians: J.A.M. String Collective

Works: Music by Bassani, Cabezón, Ganassi, Lassus, Luzzaschi, Ortiz, Papasergio, Rogniono, Rognoni, Virgiliano and Willaert

Website: https://jamstringcollective.bandcamp.com/album/she-looks-up-at-the-trees

London-based jazz string trio J.A.M. String Collective’s debut release is quite a mixed affair, one whose far-reaching musical ambitions aren’t always matched by its achievements in content or performance.

When it’s good, though, it’s very good indeed. Violist Julia Dos Reis’s it looks better in the rain, for example, is a Reichian construction of intertwining figurations built on top of a relentless seven-beat bass-line that builds and builds, generating considerable cumulative power and a strong musical identity in secure, confident performances.

Milo’s Flight Home by cellist Miranda Lewis-Brown – inspired by her pet parrot – might be high on whimsy, but it’s a likeable, homespun creation that’s full of character, especially Lewis-Brown’s own cello bass-line.

Elsewhere, though, performances are sometimes too uncertain to be convincing, and issues with intonation, articulation and ensemble detract from what are often interesting musical ideas. The four-movement Elemental Suite by Oleta Haffner that closes the disc offers greater rewards – in the lyrical atmospherics of ‘Aer’ or the dark urgency and brooding harmonies of ‘Ignis’, for example – though the intense, intricate rap from grime MC Kayes Mensah threatens to distract attention almost entirely from the strings in the closing ‘Aqua’. J.A.M. String Collective is clearly a group with big ideas and plenty of promise, but this album only partially demonstrates its capabilities.

DAVID KETTLE