About Mike
I’m Mike Chillingworth, a jazz saxophonist, composer, educator and the creator of The Sound Kitchen.
For more than twenty years I’ve balanced a career as both a performer and teacher. I perform regularly throughout the UK and internationally, have released two albums as a bandleader, and have worked alongside many of the leading musicians in British and European jazz.
Alongside performing, I’ve spent much of my career helping musicians develop as improvisers. Over the years, one question kept coming up again and again:
How do you turn information into music?
It’s a challenge I’ve encountered in my own development as a musician, and one I’ve seen countless students wrestle with too.
Many improvisers understand scales, chords and theory perfectly well. They know what they’re supposed to play. The challenge is learning how to hear those ideas clearly enough, internalise them deeply enough, and trust them enough that they become part of your musical instincts.
That question is at the heart of everything I do.
The Origins of The Sound Kitchen
Much of my performing career has taken place at the more complex end of contemporary improvised music.
I’ve often worked with composers whose music involves dense harmony, unusual forms and sophisticated rhythmic structures. As a performer, I’ve frequently found myself faced with music that can seem intimidatingly intellectual on the page.
But I’ve learned that understanding a concept is only the beginning.
My most recent album, Friday The Thirteenth, grew directly out of this challenge. Much of the music explores layered rhythmic structures and polymetric ideas. Developing the material required finding practical ways to hear those sounds, internalise them and improvise with them instinctively.
That challenge is the same one every improviser faces.
Whether you’re learning to improvise on a blues for the first time or exploring much more advanced musical concepts, information only becomes useful when it becomes part of your musical instincts.
My goal is to help musicians develop practical, structured ways to turn musical ideas into instincts they can actually rely on when they play.
Performing & Recording
I perform regularly throughout the UK and internationally as both a bandleader and sideman.
My most recent album as a leader, Friday The Thirteenth (Ubuntu Music, 2024), features Ivo Neame, Tom Farmer and Jon Scott and received widespread critical acclaim for its exploration of counterpoint, rhythmic layering and contemporary improvisation.
My first album, Scratch And Sift (Two Rivers Records, 2016), featured a septet including Tom Challenger, Josh Arcoleo, George Crowley, Lewis Wright, Sam Lasserson and Jon Scott.
For more than a decade I was a member of guitarist Ant Law’s quintet, recording four albums, touring extensively throughout the UK and Europe, and appearing on BBC Radio 3 and numerous other broadcasts.
Over the years I have collaborated with musicians including Julian Siegel, Ivo Neame, Emma Rawicz, Andrea Di Biase, Josephine Davies, Gareth Lockrane, Jim Rattigan, Miguel Gorodi, Rick Simpson and Stan Sulzmann. I have also performed with ensembles including the BBC Big Band and appeared on numerous recordings as a sideman.
My work has received airplay on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 2, Jazz FM and a variety of international radio stations.
Selected Press
“Mike Chillingworth’s Friday The Thirteenth has been worth waiting for.”
BBC Music Magazine
“A beautifully measured quartet album that displays a wit and intelligence in its mission to experiment with polyphony while still making for a hugely listenable set … Mike’s blowing is a masterclass of graceful precision.”
Richard Lee, UK Jazz News
“Chillingworth’s sax lines are outstanding … Enigmatic, distinctive, fascinating and well worth a listen.”
Neil Duggan, All About Jazz
“Chillingworth’s compositions deliver long twisty lines and thumping counterpoints, resonant voicings and a slightly bucolic Englishness that reminds me of Mike Westbrook’s writing.”
Mike Hobart, Jazzwise
“Law’s regular partnership with shrewdly melodic alto saxist Mike Chillingworth is central to the band’s power, building smouldering intensity without bravura.”
John Fordham, The Guardian