Abram Wilson is the latest experimental jazz star on the rise to visit York. He swaps musical tales with Charles Hutchinson.

THIS is a golden new age for jazz. No, not the cappuccino froth of Jamie Cullum, Michael Bubl, Norah Jones and Katie Melua, but the experimental verve of Soweto Kinch, Denys Baptiste and, now, Abram Wilson.

The New Orleans trumpeter and singer leads his cutting-edge sextet at the National Centre for Early Music in York next Friday, trailing a blaze of rave reviews for Jazz Warrior, his debut album for the jazz label du jour, Dune.

That Jazz Warrior title encapsulates Abram's attitude to his music making since re-locating to London two years ago.

"I came out here in the summer of 2002, late summer. I'd been in the States and had recorded out there and we were touring and doing quite well on the East Coast, working on educational programmes doing really good stuff, but I wanted to move up to the next level," he says.

"I'd read how Josephine Baker had come out here; Bob Marley had recorded here; and Quincy Jones was working out here. I was on my way to Paris, hoping to meet him there..."

Had you booked an appointment? "Well, I've been playing all my life, since high school, and he's from a jazz background, and I reckoned he'd have a lot to teach me, but I never got there! I thought to myself, 'What's the easiest way to get to Paris?'. Via London, I decided, and so I got here and I met Soweto Kinch at Uncle Sam's in Shoreditch, and boy we played hard that night."

Abram was introduced to the Tomorrow's Warriors educational programme.

"It's a spin-off from the Jazz Warriors band, creating chances for new jazz musicians, and I was stunned by how much knowledge they had of playing jazz in the correct manner," he recalls.

Abram knew he had found his new jazz home in London. "Soon after I played with the Warriors, Soweto asked me to play on his record, Conversations With The Unseen, and I did all the singing on the record and the trumpet playing."

If Kinch, the Birmingham prince of bop, was last year's new flavour, then Abram Wilson is 2004's new deal. He has the confidence to match the hype.

"I feel like I'm a good player; I've been studying for a long time and I'm confident I can succeed anywhere. That combination of the Dune label, Tomorrow's Warriors and working on Soweto and Denys Baptiste's albums has given me the chance to prove it."

The reaction to Jazz Warrior affirms his self-belief. Since its release last month, Abram's album has been jazz record of the month in the Guardian and Jazz CD of the Week in last Sunday's Observer. "They love it, man," he says, laughing at the thrill of it all.

Most of the compositions are the work of Wilson, who brings lightness to his union of rhythmic originality and abundant melodies, topped with detours into rap. "I didn't want to make a straight-ahead record, and though you can't play jazz unless you're grounded in the standards, I'm really keen to get people into innovation, so my music has a hard edge but still swings," Abram says.

"The thing I want to emphasise is that it's important to understand the jazz heritage, and that heritage helps to keep it strong when you're being innovative. I want to take what we have and use the influences of today to make really strong records."

In York he will play with Patrick Clahar, tenor sax, Nathaniel Facey, alto sax, Neil Charles, upright bass, Shaney Forbes, drums, and Andrew McCormick, piano. Abram will let his sextet's music do his talking. "I really trust the music. I try to do as little talking as possible as I love the music so much and let it speak for itself," he says.

"The name Jazz Warrior means believing in yourself and promoting what you believe in, and a jazz warrior is someone who relentlessly continues to play jazz music and promote that music.

"I've been doing that since high school when I would go to regular school till 12 o'clock and then take a bus across the river to the New Orleans Centre for Creative Americans for regular six-hour sessions with lots of practising."

Can practice make perfect?

"Each day I wouldn't go home with my brother until 7pm and in the summertime I would just practise, practise, practise. You just have to go over it again and again and even now that's a process that never stops. That's still the case for me: the need to grow. I taped something a couple of nights ago, and I've been listening to it to decide how to improve on it and perfect it. That takes a lifetime to learn," Abram says.

"It could drive you mad but it could drive you to happiness too, and that's what differentiates a jazz musician from a pop musician."

Abram Wilson Sextet, National Centre for Early Music, York, next Friday (3rd), 7.30pm. Tickets: £12.50, concessions £10.50; ring 01904 658338.

Updated: 15:53 Thursday, November 25, 2004